Conor Coady has stressed Everton cannot afford to find themselves in a relegation battle for the third season in succession next year.
Avoiding the drop on the final day of the Premier League season, the Blues had Abdoulaye Doucoure to thank after his stunning second half goal secured three points and survival status.
Sean Dyche's side will not wish to be part of another campaign filled with such tension next term, after the stressful experiences of 2021/22 and now 2022/23, and Coady has made clear it is down to those at the club to put a stop to Everton's continued slide down the division.
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Describing his overriding emotion after the full-time whistle of the Blues' 1-0 victory versus Bournemouth, the Wolves loanee told Sky Sports: "Relief. This [relegation battles] has become a bit of a thing now, and we don't want to make it a bit of a thing. This is where we need to improve and need to reset. I'll be honest, it has been the hardest season of my life and my career. Finally we're there now and there is a lot of relief.
"It’s something you don’t want to be a part of, this giant of a football club, going down. It is up to us now. We have to better as a football club. We can't keep this going as a common theme. We have to draw a line in the sand somewhere and get better. It has been a real hard season. This club has to improve because it is a giant."
News of Leicester City taking the lead at the King Power Stadium began to filter around Goodison Park during the first half, leaving some supporters with hands on their hands and feeling sick to their stomachs. On how the Everton squad were feeling after learning of Harvey Barnes' opener for the Foxes, Coady responded: "I heard the crowd singing, but we had a plan and we focused on ourselves. We’ve worked ever so hard in the last few weeks to put it in our hands, and we’ve done it. It was important we’ve done that to give us that fight there, and I actually thought we played really well considering the circumstances.
"It was fantastic and a goal worthy to win any game," he added on Doucoure's winner. "He’s done that for us since the gaffer came in: he’s been that driving force from midfield."
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