Frank Lampard has made perfect point over Steven Gerrard reality Everton face

Every matchweek has the aura of being potentially decisive when you hit this stage of the campaign, and perhaps none more so than for Everton in the closing stages of the season.

They're still in the relegation zone at the time of writing, two points behind both Leeds United and Burnley, but with a game in hand on both sides above them in the table. That latter quirk will count for nothing if they can't convert it into some cold, hard points - though.

Frank Lampard is fully aware of that fact, but he also keeps hammering home the point that he's only going to be focusing on Everton's results for the coming weeks. Fans can't help but nervously watch their relegation rivals in action, but there's no chance it should affect the Blues.

In fact, he told his pre-Leicester City press conference: "Realistically everyone is going to listen in or see the results, we saw it last week. It was a positive for Burnley, we had a positive result - it wasn't so positive for Leeds.

"Ideally it doesn't affect how you prepare, it won't affect how you prepare, but it shouldn't affect how you perform in a game. That's completely on us.

"There's a nice bounce, a nice feeling around everybody [after Chelsea], but reality kicks in a day or so later. The next games are the most important ones, two away from home where we haven't performed as well as we'd want to all season.

"So it's critical and crucial for us that we approach these games with a real understanding and a real focus."

There's a few key aspects to break down from those words, but for now we'll need to focus on Burnley and Leeds. By the time Everton kick off on Sunday, they'll be fully aware of their position in relation to the Clarets.

As much as they'd love to, there's nothing