Marco Silva has emphasised his belief that Everton can register their first Premier League away victory over Chelsea since 1994 on Sunday.
The Merseysiders go into the contest against Maurizio Sarri’s unbeaten men having won four of their last five league games.
Everton have failed to win in 23 league visits to Stamford Bridge since triumphing 1-0 there in November 1994.
When asked why he felt that winless streak could come to an end on Sunday, Toffees boss Silva said: “Confidence in our work, confidence in the way we are playing, seeing that our team is growing and playing better and getting better results the last month and a half, two months.
“Of course it will be tough. I accept they will be favourites for the match.
“But it is a big challenge for us and what really I hope and what I expect is that we will be ourselves on the pitch.
“Of course they will create problems for us, I don’t have doubts about that. But I want to see our team being ourselves, to play in our way.
“Some moments they will create and they will obligate us to do different things to what we want because they have this capacity as well. But when we have the ball we have to be ourselves.”
So far in their five away games this season, Everton have drawn 2-2 at Wolves and Bournemouth, having a man sent off just before half-time in each of those matches, then lost 2-0 at Arsenal, won 2-1 at Leicester and lost 2-1 at Manchester United.
Silva said with regard to Everton’s fortunes on the road: “I don’t have doubts that until the end of the season we will improve. For me it’s clear.
“I can analyse for you the five games we played. The first two we played for almost 90 minutes with 10 players, we didn’t lose and almost we won both.
“Arsenal was a good match, they were more effective than us, we lost the game against Man United, and we had a very good win against Leicester.
“I think we were competitive in all of them, we competed to win in all of them, even against these type of teams, and to be clear, I am sure we will improve this form until the end of the season. I don’t have doubts about that.”
Everton forward Richarlison is a doubt for Sunday’s game.
The Brazil international, who rolled his ankle early in last weekend’s 3-1 win over Brighton but played the full duration and scored twice, will be assessed ahead of the match.
With on-loan defender Kurt Zouma ineligible against his parent club, there could be a first Everton start for fellow summer signing Yerry Mina. Phil Jagielka and James McCarthy are available, while Jonjoe Kenny is another doubt.
