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Nine months ago Ross Barkley was on his way back down the M62 coming to terms with the fact that Neil Warnock felt he wasn’t ready for first team football in the Championship.

“I spoke to David and Ross but I can’t guarantee playing him – and I did say I would do that when I took him,” said the Leeds boss then, after benching the midfielder for a game against Middlesbrough despite knowing it would mean the end of his Elland Road loan spell.

Fast forward to Sunday evening.

Three days after his 20th birthday, Barkley had just helped Everton to a draw with Arsenal that made the nation sit up and take notice of Roberto Martinez’s Goodison revolution.

As he clutched Sky’s Man of the Match champagne, comparisons with Gazza and Michael Ballack rang in his ears, and the watching Roy Hodgson almost certainly concluded Barkley was on the plane to Rio.

“It was a bit up and down at Leeds but I ended up coming back and playing first team games for Everton so it worked out for me,” he says reflecting on a relative low in a career destined for successive heights.

“My mum and my agent used to say all the hard work would pay off, and now I can see how all that work from last season paid off for me.”

There’s a degree of understatement to his words. Barkley is a down to earth young man who has been earmarked for great things since the age of 11, but his progression this season has been astonishing.

However, he explains how he believed this would be his breakthrough campaign the moment he saw a certain Spaniard linked with the vacant Goodison manager’s post in the summer.

“I knew when I heard Martinez was coming in I’d get my chance this season,” he says. “I’d seen the way he was with Callum McManaman and James McCarhthy at Wigan, that he gives young players their chance.

“I knew I was the type of player to suit him because he’s a really tactical manager who likes to build up the play. So I felt confident this could be the season I’d break through.”

Breaking into the Everton first team has been Barkley’s all-consuming aim since he was 16, and he feels that desire caused his form to fluctuate in the early days after making his debut against QPR in August 2011.

“I’d just come back from a broken leg and wanted desperately to play for the first team,” he recalls.

“I’d wanted that ever since I was 16 when I’d been on the bench a couple of times.

“The injury set me back and then I came back when I was 17 and I had all this adrenaline pumping through me, and it was different coming back from working with the physios every day to training all the time. It took time to get used to and I had a dip in form.

“Then I realised what I was doing before I got injured but it took me a while to get that confidence back, especially in the tackle.”

Confidence on the ball is not something Barkley lacks now, leading to those comparisons with some of the game’s greats.

“To get compared to players of that calibre makes me think I must be doing something right on the pitch,” he says. “I don’t really think about it that much but it’s nice to hear.

“I’ve watched videos of Gazza on YouTube when I was growing up – one of him against the Netherlands in Euro 96 when he was class, so I know what type of player he was. And obviously I watched a lot of Michael Ballack.

“It’s mad because the way Martinez says I’m like Ballack, my Sunday League manager used to say that when I was 11.

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“I remember playing for school in the ECHO Cup and Rafa Benitez gave me the trophy. In all the pictures all my team-mates look really small in comparison to me. I was always big for my age.

“For me I liked watching Zidane and Kaka – they were the players I wanted to be like. It’s the way they run with the ball.

“I like Rooney too and admire Steven Gerrard.”

Barkley is quick to emphasise the importance of his Blues team-mates to his sparkling form so far this term, particularly the duo who provide the rock-solid platform upon which he shines.

“It’s good playing in front of Gareth (Barry) and James (McCarthy) because I know I’ve got a solid base behind me for protection,” he says.

“They sense danger and I can express myself higher up the pitch safe in the knowledge we’re secure. If the play ever breaks down they will sort it.

“I’m the type of player that tries things, to try and create chances and beat players. I appreciate them being there. They’re both good on the ball too as well as defensive minded.”

In North London on Sunday Barkley’s surging runs from deep, and quicksilver feet almost stole the show. One moment stood out, when a graceful turn left Mesut Ozil bamboozled.

For Barkley it was one of the highlights of his brief time under Martinez – every minute of which he is savouring.

“It was a good test playing against a team that passes it as well as us, and on the day we went there and passed them off the park,” he says matter-of-factly.

“It was a great game to play in because it suited my style. I got the chance to drive at their defence.

“The tactical side of it has happened naturally under the gaffer. It’s never been complicated.

“We haven’t stood there scratching our heads because we’re all good players. We know what he wants.”

Finally, a sobering thought for those charged with marking Barkley over the coming months.

“Like any player there’s loads of ways I can improve,” he says. “I want to score more, but I’m young and I know I’m going to score plenty more.

“I want to be creating more chances too and contributing assists because in my position that’s something I’ve got to be able to do.”