Everton manager Roberto Martinez believes that his side are improving week by week following their unbeaten run of three games in the Premier League.
The Merseyside outfit took four games to find their first win of the campaign, and only have three victories out of 10 games, but the Toffees have not tasted defeat since October 5.
On Sunday, Everton travel to the North-East of England to take on Sunderland, who are two points behind Everton in the table.
"We go to the Stadium of Light with a lot of respect but knowing this is a very very important game," Martinez told reporters. "We are where you deserve to be. The four points we dropped in the first two opening games were probably going to mark how we started the competition.
"I think we've played a lot better this season than this stage last year. We can score goals, we're getting sharp in that respect. Defensively, some of the aspects of our play cost us points, but now we've only conceded something like one goal in five games and we are fresh - that will be important for the season."
Everton head into this weekend's match on the back of a 3-0 triumph over Lille in the Europa League.
