Ross Barkley is not one for partying, he claims, and prefers to spend his spare time studying footage of Zinedine Zidane, Paul Gascoigne plus, as his interest in boxing develops, Mike Tyson. A choice of sportsmen synonymous with grace, audacity and power respectively is revealing. That combination has fuelled Everton’s expectations of Barkley since he joined the club aged 11. A decade on, they are coming to fruition.

“I feel I’m a player who entertains and gets people on the edge of their seats, as well as trying to be a game-changer who can win a game for the team,” says the England international. “But I’ve been working on the other side of the game a lot with the gaffer. I’ve been working hard on being more disciplined and staying in shape.” The rewards are evident.

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Announcing that Barkley’s rare talent is ready to impose itself on the Premier League – certainly on a consistent basis – has proven a precarious call in the past. It happened when David Moyes first included the midfielder on the Everton bench at the age of 16, shortly before a horrific triple leg fracture stalled Barkley’s development for over a year. It happened again during Roberto Martínez’s first season as Everton manager, when Barkley’s form warranted inclusion at the World Cup in Brazil. He returned to a season of diminished returns on an individual and club level, prompting criticism at Goodison Park and self-doubt. This term feels different.

“Ross has gone to another level,” said Martínez following the midfielder’s two-goal display against Aston Villa last weekend. The assessment was not hyperbole.

There is more discipline to the 21-year-old’s game, as he said, more consistency (something that also applies to Martínez’s use of the midfielder) and his end-product has increased in an Everton team with the most goals from open play in the Premier League (24). Barkley scored six goals in his first 76 league appearances for his boyhood club. The double against Villa took this season’s tally to five in 13. “It’s eight altogether,” he responds quick-fire when asked to assess that statistic.

England and Capital One Cup goals are not to be overlooked. Crucially, and arguably the reason why this season has heralded significant progress, Barkley’s game intelligence has also improved. Thankfully not at the expense of individuality.

“I think playing with freedom but having responsibility as part of the team is part of my game that I’ve improved on this season,” he explains. “In the past few seasons I’ve made a few mistakes as well as doing great things and I think I’m getting the balance right now. I’m continuing to work hard on improving that part of my game in training – knowing to keep it simple when I’m deep on the pitch but to take risks when I’m higher up, trying to make chances which has been happening this season.

“I think my performances have improved as well as my goals. I’ve scored great goals from outside the box before but I’ve realised there are more goals for me inside the box as well, so by getting in and about the box I’ve managed to score goals like the two against Aston Villa. They were not worldies but I was there in amongst the players to get the tap-ins.

“In the past I was just trying to score worldies because I know I am capable of scoring that type of goal. Because of that I wasn’t really thinking about getting in the box, I was letting our strikers do it. But now I know that, in the No10 role, you’ve got to be a midfielder who can operate like a striker too.”

There have been changes off the pitch, too. Barkley left the family home in Wavertree a few years ago but the guiding influence of his mother, Diane, continues to shape his approach to the game. Barkley is a genuinely reserved, shy character but a fierce determination to maximise his immense potential shines through nonetheless.

He states: “I am being more professional. You can always be more professional. I get more massages, I come in to training every day that bit earlier. I eat better food. It’s everything, really. I don’t really go into town. If I do, it’s just for food with my mates. You need to cut a few things out if you want to be the best you can be. Partying? I don’t really think about that. I just think about football. Football careers don’t go on for very long and you can do what you want after you have finished your career.

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“You have to put everything you have got into making it the best it can be. My mum has brought me up to focus on doing my best. She told me that I might not be able to do stuff with my friends but they would love to be in my position. I have been like that since I was a kid. My mates would be going to the park, I would just go and play football. I’m just a humble lad and I never get too ahead of myself. I’ve always just been focused on areas of my game that I need to improve and I’ll continue to do that.”

Barkley’s education continues when he gets home from the club’s Finch Farm training complex. The midfielder has always been an avid student of past and present players on YouTube. “Not just their best clips,” he points out. “I want to see what they do through the whole game.” Zidane was the childhood favourite. “The way he moves with the ball, dictates play and creates chances. He made unbelievable players look average.”

The recent international break afforded time to watch Gascoigne’s display against Holland at Euro 96. “He ran the game,” says Barkley, who added Mesut Özil, Santi Cazorla, Yaya Touré and Paul Scholes to his viewing schedule in the summer. “I try and replicate what I have seen. I think it is good to do that. I will work on things I’ve seen they are good at, try and pull it off in training and take it into games.”

It is footage of Tyson in his prime, however, that has recently captivated the midfielder with a super-middleweight frame. Barkley explains: “I’ve started to get into boxing a lot more. I’ve been looking at Mike Tyson and how he used to be. I like how powerful he was. He had no fear. I’ve seen clips of him just walking into the ring with no jacket on. Just fully focused. You can take a lot from other sports. He would just go into the ring, fully focused on knocking his opponent out, and do it. I just want to play with no fear.” And, of course, to win.

Barkley was 18 months old the last time Everton won a trophy, the 1995 FA Cup. This season, with the top four open, a Capital One Cup quarter-final at Middlesbrough on Tuesday and the European Championship next summer, he believes there is opportunity to end the droughts for club and country.

The England man’s career objectives are: “Winning the league, winning everything really, and I want to win something with England. Winning a few things with England to be honest. England has the talent. I feel it has gone really well for me with England this season but I can do better.”

Barkley’s ambitions with Everton have been ingrained since boyhood but the resolve to fulfil them hardened last month when sitting among the congregation for Howard Kendall’s funeral at Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral, he listened to Peter Reid and Joe Royle eulogise the legendary manager’s achievements.

“When I was at the funeral I looked around and saw all those players,” he recalls. “I was thinking of the history of the club and how it used to be, back then, winning things. All the best players mixing together and having success with Howard, who was a great manager and goes down as the best manager in Everton’s history. You want that. I want that. As a group, we know we can go down in the club’s history if we are the next team to win something. We have the potential in the squad to achieve that and it will be a waste if we don’t win something.”