David Moyes claims Everton are planning no further ahead than securing their Premier League status, with top-flight survival their priority.
The Toffees have moved into mid-table over recent weeks and are only seven points worse off than Newcastle, who made a flying start to the season.
It appears as though a top-six challenge may be beyond them, but they are handily positioned to try and match their seventh-place finish from 2010/11.
Moyes, though, insists talk of top-half challenges can wait for now, with the club needing to double their tally and get to the 40-point mark before they can start setting loftier targets.
He said: "I can only look at our games and I am only looking to, first of all, get 40 points. Once I have got 40 points I will see what I can do after that.
"That has got to be the target for us just now and make sure we are not at the wrong end of the table."
Everton's next outing takes them to Sunderland on Boxing Day, and Moyes will be looking for his side to build on a welcome 1-0 victory over Swansea in their final fixture before Christmas.
Kick-start
Pressed on whether that result could represent a turning point in the Toffees' season, Moyes said: "I just see it as three vital points.
"The game was really tight and there wasn't a great deal in it.
"I thought we had the best of it and deserved to win the game, but there have been other games where teams have had one chance in the second half and it could have gone in.
"I thought we had chances in the first half and could have gone in one or two up and you could have been saying it was a more comfortable victory.
"But for us the games have been tight, so I don't know if it will kick-start anything at all. We won a couple of games a few weeks ago and we thought that might be the case.
"We have now got three away out of the next four games and that is tough. There is no point me saying this is the start and then finding we can't back it up."
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7393323/?
What do you all think of the survival first messages being pushed my Moyes, and the Club?
It's fair to say even his biggest fans, myself included, are becoming withered with our manager. Granted, we're only poor old Everton, and we're incredibly fortunate to have a manager of David Moyes' standing - or at least that's what the media have rammed down our throat for years, but should he be again almost publicly belittling us and telling the world (and indeed potential transfer targets like Ever Banega who has just told the world he'll only join a Club offering a super project) that we're amongst the relegation fodder?
Where's the logic in this?
While asking that very question, where's the logic in scowling on the prospect of the Swansea result spearing a good run of form? Heaven forbid any ambition.
Where's the logic on casting doubt on whether his confidence devoid team can back up any of his positive words?
Where's the logic in, point blank telling the media prior the Chelsea game that he can't see us even looking like scoring? Even Sharpy couldn't condone that.
Back when he arrived in 2002, we couldn't afford to look any further ahead than securing survival.
His job, through his own constant admission, is to raise expectations;
At the end of the game Everton's fans chanted "we're going to win the league" and Moyes refused to rule out that possibility.
"We were all singing it in the bath," he joked. "It's a manager's job to raise expectations. If we can keep this going a bit longer then who knows what can happen."
What's going on then?
Nearly ten years on, is our squad not any better than what it was then? - If it is better, then why is our manager's expectations the same as what it was on day one?
The easy answer is to point a finger at the board - but I don't think our manager is paid the money he is, and is in a privileged position as he is to be so defeatist and dare I say, cowardly?