Nathan Patterson and Everton duo send messages Frank Lampard must take notice of

Frank Lampard will probably be fairly satisfied with the lack of Everton players called up for international duty over the current break. Of course, some of that will point to the poor form of his squad - which is obviously less than ideal - but it means he can keep the majority under his watchful eye this week.

There's no escaping the palpable feeling that this could be a crucial period of the run-in. Other sides across the Premier League are gearing up for the fight ahead - some with either much more experience of being in these positions in the past, or with a fair amount of confidence thanks to their recent results.

While Everton might have some of the latter attribute, the match against Crystal Palace will have made a fair dent in that. It doesn't matter if it was in the FA Cup, a side near the relegation zone should be trying to avoid 4-0 defeats as much as they possibly can, that much is obvious.

But, while Lampard will have much of his squad to mould in his image over the course of the international break, there have been a few players who have flew the nest for a brief amount of time. All of them find themselves in hugely different positions in the squad - but could be returning to Finch Farm at the end of next week with important messages for the manager to take note of.

Anthony Gordon might not have had much of a strong statement to make over the course of this week, but he's already making sure that he's firmly in the mind of his club manager still. Coming off the bench for England's under-21s on Friday evening, he scored a fantastic volley to help secure a 4-1 win over Andorra.

He's been one of Everton's strongest performers over the course of recent months, excelling this season as he has been handed