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Everton must be careful not to place too much expectancy on gifted midfielder Ross Barkley , Leighton Baines has warned.

The 20-year-old endured a difficult spell during his side's 1-0 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday, when nothing went right for him after he replaced Leon Osman with half an hour of the game remaining.

Barkley has yet to recapture the sparkling form he displayed before suffering a broken toe at the start of January, but left-back Baines urged fans to be patient with him.

The England defender said: “Over the course of a season every player's form will fluctuate, usually more when you are young because you are still learning and developing.

“What we have to do is be careful not to weigh him down with too much expectancy this early in his career.

“Ross is still going through these development years and discovering new things. The great thing for him is that this season he has had more football than before and been allowed to grow in that way, and both us and him will see the fruits of that further down the line.

“I've been in the same boat this season with a similar injury and there is still pain after you come back. We need to show him patience and understanding.”

The Toffees left Stamford Bridge harbouring a sense of injustice, with nothing to show for an impressive display thanks to Chelsea's heart-breaking 93rd-minute winner that was credited to John Terry.

And Baines admitted that once again it was a lack of cutting edge in the final third which cost Roberto Martinez's side, who had lost on-loan forward Lacina Traore to injury during the pre-game warm-up.

“We played really well – in the first half in particular, we dominated the game,” said Baines. “But you've got to score goals when you control games in that manner and that was our downfall in the end.

“To concede at the death from a set-piece is gutting really.

“We didn't give up many chances at all and felt like we were controlling the game. We didn't quite get the same rhythm in the second half but we were still comfortable enough so it's disappointing to get nothing.

“We need to add more goals to our game because ultimately that's what it's about if you want to win games.”

Baines believes that the Blues can take some solace from the way they matched the Premier League leaders.

“Similar to this, we pretty much dominated,” he said. “We've been to all of the big grounds and acquitted ourselves really well – we've been the better side more often than not. That's a positive but we've got to get more clinical in the final third.

“There were good options to come off the bench – attacking ones like Aiden and Gerry and Rom will be coming back. There's plenty of options there.

“Unfortunately, Lacina pulled up just before the game and had to pull out, but hopefully it won't be too serious and we'll have him back soon as well.”

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