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"First, he is a worker. Then he has great qualities. So far, he has really progressed a lot. He is, in my opinion, one of the players who can improve his game and play higher."

It doesn't take a leap of imagination to believe that Marco Silva could have said this about Idrissa Gueye.

In his four league games under the new manager, the midfielder either leads the way, or only just trails behind his team-mates, in a number of areas at Everton.

Gueye has made the most tackles, he has committed the most fouls, and averages more interceptions, blocks, dribbles and passes per game than anyone else in the squad.

If it hadn't have been for a knee injury, then he'd be joint top for minutes on the pitch as well.

(Image: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

It's always been like that, ever since he signed from Aston Villa in the summer of 2016 and played like a whirlwind, tackling, blocking and intercepting everything in sight.

You wondered what Everton had ever done without him.

The comparisons with N'Golo Kante that season were rich reward for the part he'd played in helping the Blues up to seventh in Ronald Koeman's first season yet as Everton's expectations shifted thereafter, so too did those on Gueye, and the challenge was to become not just a midfielder with an appetite for destruction, but one who could help elevate the team to the next level.

“He is, in my opinion, one of the players who can improve his game and play higher."

Silva was actually speaking about Abdoulaye Doucoure, his midfield Goliath last season at Vicarage Road, who had been the largely unheralded success story alongside Richarlison as Watford rose to fifth under the Portuguese coach.

He managed to sign one of those prized assets for Everton this summer and, reportedly at least, had wanted the other.

Doucoure can play higher, as he says.

(Image: Chris Brunskill/Getty Images)

And he looks to be the sort of box-to-box midfielder, with power, pace and quality that could help Silva evolve Everton's midfield.

But what about Gueye?

Would Silva have really said those things about the Senegalese man?

He continues to be right in the thick of what Everton do but how many times in his Blues career can we say he has dominated a game?

For a player at the heart of everything his team does, how often has he had a telling influence on the outcome of the match?

This is his challenge: to become the main man in the middle.

Sunday is the perfect starting point because if the Blues are to win at Arsenal for the first time since 1996, or even get a point, the 28-year-old has to prove he can be the calibre of all-round midfielder to help the Blues make the next step.

Forget last weekend's woeful first-half display, this has been Gueye's challenge for sometime and he must add goals (he has three in over 100 league appearances) and creativity to what he offers the team when they don't have the ball.

Silva, earlier this season, spoke about missing Gueye's “intensity” as the Blues laboured to a draw with Huddersfield, but he still has to be offering more than that.

Even Sam Allardyce, for all his faults, felt Everton's midfield was missing something and so had planned to go after Steven Nzonzi this summer, before the axe fell.

Silva was, and continues to be, linked with Doucoure.

And so in an area of the pitch that is coming under greater scrutiny, Gueye needs to begin delivering performances that removes the need for Everton to pick up the phone to Watford again.

His challenge is to help the evolution of Everton's midfield.