James Tarkowski has no regrets over his decision to join Everton last summer despite the threat of suffering a second successive relegation.
Tarkowski was Frank Lampard’s first summer signing last June, joining on a free transfer from Burnley where his final campaign ended with the Clarets dropping into the Championship.
Things have not gone to plan at Goodison Park – Lampard was sacked in January and Everton remain in deep trouble going into Monday’s trip to high-flying Brighton – while Burnley have bounced straight back to the Premier League, but Tarkowski insisted he would not change his decision.
“My focus is completely on Everton and I don’t regret joining this club, for sure,” he said in the Liverpool Echo.
Asked what lessons he could bring from his time battling the drop with Burnley, he added: “Not panicking too much and becoming too obsessed with other teams and what their results are and just trying to focus on us.
“I have said it for the last few weeks really – if we do our job, we haven’t got to concern ourselves with what other teams are doing. I don’t think we should be looking at other teams hoping they will do us a favour, if it happens that way, fair enough. But we have to focus on ourselves more than anything.”
After Lampard’s exit, Tarkowski found himself reunited with former Burnley boss Sean Dyche, sacked by the Clarets last April but brought in as Lampard’s replacement in January.
The centre-back said: “At Burnley… he had a team with quite a small budget and were expected to go down at the start of every season. He kept them in the league and he has a history of doing that.”
Everton will go into their final four fixtures without captain Seamus Coleman, who was injured in last Monday’s 2-2 draw at Leicester.
The 34-year-old’s injury is not as bad as first feared but is likely to have ended his campaign prematurely, a major blow to the club at a difficult time.
Even as Coleman was being carried off the pitch at the King Power, the full-back was trying to rally his team-mates.
“That tells you everything about Seamus,” Tarkowski said. “When I first turned to see it I thought he was shouting at the lad who tackled him, it was only when I heard our fans start to cheer that I realised what he was actually doing.
“I haven’t seen that before but it just epitomises what Seamus is like and his love for this club.
“Seamus is such a good leader and a good captain, he is a great talker in the dressing room, so he will be a big miss in that aspect. That puts a bit more demand on the other lads to start talking and taking that ownership.”
Silva grateful Fulham's dominance was rewarded with late win
Marco Silva believes Fulham claimed a "deserved win" against Brentford, though admits they should have secured the three points much earlier in their 2-1 victory.
It looked like Vitaly Janelt's 24th-minute strike against the run of play was going to wrap up all three points for Brentford, but Harry Wilson proved the Cottagers' hero off the bench, scoring twice in stoppage time to snatch the three points.
Fulham had dominated from the first whistle and had 26 shots, 12 of which were on target, though they struggled to find a way past their opponents' staunch defence until the 92nd minute.
Wilson became just the sixth player to score an equalising and match-winning goal from the 90th minute onwards in the Premier League, while his second goal was Fulham's latest-ever Premier League winner at 96:46.
Silva was delighted with how his team pushed until the final seconds to ensure they came away with a win.
"It was definitely a deserved win. We started on the front foot and dominated all the game. In the first 20 minutes, we had two clear chances to score," Silva told BBC Sport.
"After they scored, we didn't lose the confidence and the trust in ourselves, we kept pushing them back, and we created enough to not be losing at half-time.
"I told the players this is football, it can happen, but we have to keep pushing, working hard and playing our way.
"It was late, it should've been much before, but that's football."
Brentford, meanwhile, have now dropped a league-high 14 points from winning positions in the Premier League as they suffered a fifth consecutive away defeat in the competition.
In fact, they are the first side in the competition's history to score the first goal in four consecutive away games and lose all four.
They had defended resolutely until their late lapse in concentration, and even had a chance to win it, only for Bernd Leno's impressive save to keep out Fabio Carvalho in the 95th minute.
Thomas Frank, though, admitted he was not yet ready to take the positives from the performance after the disappointment of their late defeat.
"It was tough. It is emotionally very tough right now," Frank told Sky Sports.
"When you are leading in the 92nd minute, and you lose, it is tough. I don't think we hit our highest level. I think on the day Fulham were better.
"There was a lot of good defending and effort, and I thought that would have given us the win. We could have won it with the chance for Fabio Carvalho and then we lost.
"When we look at the game back, and we are more cool-headed, we will probably be very happy with the defensive standard. I thought there were unbelievable blocks, and recovery runs and all that we did well. On the ball, we didn't do enough."
Fulham 2-1 Brentford: Wilson's late brace seals comeback win
Harry Wilson scored twice in stoppage time as Fulham came back to beat Brentford 2-1 in an enthralling West London derby.
Wilson was the hero from Fulham's bench on Monday, as Marco Silva's team – who were on the wrong end of a late comeback against Everton last time out in the Premier League – salvaged a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Fulham will feel it was a win they earned from a match they dominated from the off, with the Bees having taken the lead against the run of play through Vitaly Janelt's stunning 24th-minute strike.
But the Fulham pressure finally told when Wilson rose high to flick in his first in the 92nd minute, and – after Bernd Leno made a superb stop to thwart Brentford at the other end – the former Liverpool midfielder nodded in again to send Craven Cottage into raptures.
Fulham's win takes them up into ninth, while Brentford drop to 12th after suffering a fifth league loss of the season.
Data Debrief: Super-sub Wilson to the rescue
Fulham will feel they deserved to come away from that match with three points, having had 26 shots, 12 of which were on target, in an incredibly dominant display.
They also had 46 touches in the opposition box compared to Brentford's nine, but they could not make those count, at least until Wilson's late intervention as he finally broke through Brentford's stubborn defence.
The Welshman scored with both of his shots on target, having three attempts overall, with his goals coming from a combined 0.19 expected goals.
The Bees looked sure to get a first away win, and first clean sheet, of the Premier League season until their late lapse in concentration, and they have now dropped 14 points from winning positions in the competition this season, more than any other team.
Arsenal sporting director Edu steps down
Arsenal have confirmed Edu has resigned from his role as the club's sporting director.
Edu, a former Arsenal player who was part of the "Invincibles" squad in the 2003-04 season, has been involved in the behind-the-scenes running of the Gunners since July 2019.
He first returned to the club as technical director, and was promoted to sporting director in November 2022.
Edu has played a key role in supporting Mikel Arteta, and helping the Spaniard transform the Gunners into Premier League title contenders.
Reports emerged on Monday, however, that the Brazilian was quitting his role, with speculation mounting that he will be joining Evangelos Marinakis' footballing organisation - the Greek magnate owns Nottingham Forest and Olympiakos.
"This was an incredibly hard decision to make," Edu said in a statement released on Arsenal's website.
"Arsenal has given me the opportunity to work with so many amazing people and the chance to be a part of something so special in the club’s history. It has been a special journey.
"I've loved working with so many great colleagues across our men’s, women’s and academy teams, especially Mikel, who has become a great friend.
"Now it is time to pursue a different challenge. Arsenal will always remain in my heart. I wish the club and its supporters only good things and all the very best."
The news comes after Arsenal were beaten 1-0 by Newcastle United on Saturday to leave them seven points adrift of Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Arsenal face Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday.
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