Roberto Martinez admits Everton will find it hard to repeat their record breaking run of last season.
The Blues’ 1-0 win at Sunderland in April was the side’s seventh consecutive league victory – the first time any Everton side had achieved such a run of results since the title winning term of 1987.
But Martinez says that the strength of the Premier League this season means that replicating their winning run of last term could be difficult this time around.
Asked if he felt another seven game winning streak was unrealistic given the level of competition in the division, Martinez said: “That is fair to say.
“The league is so competitive now that it is rare that you are not going to get into a difficult game, from game to game.
“Maybe you could get a couple of fixtures where everything goes your way, maybe when you are at home, but I cannot see a run of seven games now.
“You are going to be under massive, massive threat and I said that in the last two or three years I have seen a big difference in the teams coming up from the Championship.
“Picking the games they need to win and then concentrating on damage limitation, doesn’t happen anymore.
“Teams are brave, they want to hurt you and they want to make very difficult games.
“And then you have the margins are smaller all the time.
“When you are a top four team playing Champions League football, that can become a big demand.
“Then you have a group of teams that are not in Europe but invest well, like we saw last season with Liverpool and they can make a very strong attempt at the league, and that happens every year.
“And this season, as well, with Southampton and West Ham, that is the nature of this league. It is unique in Europe.”