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Roberto Martinez has set his high-flying Everton team a 71-point target to gatecrash the Champions League elite.

The Toffees' boss has pored over the stats surrounding a top-four Premier League finish over the past decade, and is convinced that total will guarantee they can join the big boys in the money-spinning competition.

And the immaculately-prepared Martinez has even worked out that if Everton continue their current form – which has taken them to fifth, with 24 points from 13 games, after losing just once all season – over the Christmas period, they will need 1.94 points per game over their final 11 matches to finish in the top four!

Martinez is a coach who leaves nothing to chance, and he said he looked long and hard at the stats when he revealed his side’s ambitious target on the eve of a vital visit to Manchester United, which will seriously test their credentials.

“You need to be in a position where you can get around 70 points and, if we get 71, we will be in the Champions League,”

he explained.

“To make the Champions League, I can guarantee you now, what you need to do is get an average of 1.94 points from the last 11 games. It doesn’t matter if we are 10th or 15th now – that’s the way it happens.

“That is what we are working towards – getting into that position to be able to reach 71 points. Winning at Old Trafford or not is not going to affect being in that position.”

While that all sounds like a confusing statistics nightmare, the equation is very simple – Martinez has calculated they must keep winning at the same rate over the next 14 games to keep within touching distance.

If they can do that, then they will have a real chance of reaching 71 points in their last 11 games with, precisely, six wins and three draws.

But the Christmas period could be make or break for the Blues because they travel to United and Arsenal in the next four days, and then have to visit the likes of Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea in the coming weeks.

“I feel they are ready to win these important games. What we have is a very, very good mixture of experienced players... young, brave, arrogant footballers who have no fear,” insisted Martinez.

Everton will recall Ross Barkley and Kevin Mirallas for their first meeting with former boss David Moyes, and Bryan Oviedo should again deputise for Leighton Baines, while brilliant teenager Gerard Deulofeu may be used as an impact player from the bench.