Premier League: Rising Everton are surely top-six certs

Romelu Lukaku has scored four goals in his last six league games

Michael Lintorn is slightly surprised to find Everton odds-against for a top-six Premier League finish...

Two statistics to kick this story off: Everton have made the top six in five of the past eight seasons, and the Toffees have more points after nine games this term (12) than they mustered in four of the prior six. With that in mind, it is bizarre that they are 2.3611/8 to achieve another top-six finish.

The team accustomed to overcoming laboured starts to establish themselves among the elite are a point ahead of Tottenham, one shy of Man United and two behind Arsenal and Liverpool, yet are bigger odds than all of them.

It is the contrast between their 2.3611/8 price and the 2.226/5 available on the Spurs side trailing them in the table which will rankle most, particularly because they finished three points above the Lilywhites last season, conducted a more ambitious transfer window and have negotiated trickier matches.

Roberto Martinez's men have faced four of their "Big Seven" companions to the north Londoners' three, holding Arsenal at home and Liverpool away, being narrowly beaten 1-2 at Man United and falling 3-6 to leaders Chelsea at Goodison Park.

Whereas Tottenham's best form came at the very beginning as the novelty of another new manager in Mauricio Pochettino fuelled them, Everton encountered early wobbles - drawing at Leicester and losing at home to Crystal Palace for the second campaign running - before improving since the last international break.

They have recently defeated Aston Villa 3-0 and Burnley 3-1 - their goal-per-game average in that double header increasing from 1.86 previously to 3.00 as, most importantly, their concession rate thinned from 2.29 to a more palatable 0.50.

The success at Turf Moor provided the encouraging discovery that Samuel Eto'o and Romelu Lukaku can play together, with the former scoring twice and being a post strike shy of a hat-trick as the latter grabbed the other, while they thrived even without Sylvain Distin and John Stones at the back.

Everton's freshly-generated momentum is given a reasonable chance to flourish by the fixture list too: trips to Tottenham and Man City are their only clashes with Big Seven rivals in 11 leading up to New Year's Day.