In this wildly unpredictable season, one of the few constants has been Everton’s maddening inconsistency. They have undermined sharp bursts of inspiration in attack by fading late in games on too many occasions and chucking points away because of defensive frailties and mistakes that provide ammunition to the critics of Roberto Martínez who believe that his teams do not know how to play for 90 minutes.

Martínez’s argument that his young players are maturing is a valid one, yet it is still a source of considerable frustration for Everton’s supporters to see their team repeatedly squander winning positions because of their lack of nous when they are put under pressure. At Bournemouth in November and Chelsea last month, they led 2-0 in the second half of both matches and ended up drawing 3-3 after conceding equalisers deep into stoppage time. Floating around mid-table is not good enough for a squad with this much talent and, for all their potential, Everton will reflect on a wasted opportunity if they do not challenge for a place in the top six.

Ross Barkley the inspiration in easy win for Everton at Stoke City Read more

Their thumping victory over Stoke City, however, was an encouraging step in the right direction. Everton found a better balance at the Britannia Stadium. They conceded possession, used their pace on the break to devastating effect and were 3-0 ahead thanks to a penalty from Romelu Lukaku, Seamus Coleman’s header and Aaron Lennon’s ruthless finish after a dreadful error by Philipp Wollscheid.

In driving rain, Everton soaked up the pressure, kept their cool when Stoke came out all guns blazing at the start, fought for the right to play and then trusted in their ability. Ross Barkley was outstanding and Lukaku scored his 20th goal of the season, but the experience of Phil Jagielka, Gareth Barry and Tom Cleverley was also crucial. Ramiro Funes Mori was excellent in central defence. Coleman marked Marko Arnautovic out of the game. Bryan Oviedo got to grips with Xherdan Shaqiri after a shaky start.

After Wednesday’s 3-0 victory over Newcastle United, Everton moved from 11th to eighth by winning consecutive league games for the first time this season. That staggering statistic sheds some light on why they are so far off the top four.

“School of science, it’s on the way back,” was the chant from the away end on Saturday, but a sizeable majority of Everton fans have grown frustrated with Martínez.

“We wanted to manage leads a little bit better,” Martínez said. “We did that pretty well against Newcastle, we got a three-goal lead but really, really late. Today was different, it was really early. We managed the game in a manner that we had to defend, because Stoke were going to put us under pressure. But we defended really well.

“You need to very quickly switch from when you are in possession and when you are out of possession. Sometimes we can be a little loose and leave ourselves exposed too quickly. The philosophy will never change, we need to get even better, but you look at players with a little more experience.

“The introduction of Aaron Lennon and Tom Cleverley in this period of the season has been very influential. Having a player like James McCarthy coming back, he has a unique relationship with Gareth Barry; Phil Jagielka having a little bit of time and coming back and stating his leadership on the pitch.”

While Martínez spoke about philosophy, Mark Hughes was simply philosophical after watching Stoke’s winless and goalless run in the league stretch to four matches. “It is what it is,” Stoke’s manager said.

They are in a rut at the moment. Their performance was a far cry from the one in their final match of 2015, the 4-3 win at Everton that brought them such acclaim. Everton were in trouble then, but these two sides are heading in different directions now.

Man of the match Ross Barkley (Everton)