Irish Sunday Mirror

LIMIT NOW Pickford: I’m still an ordinary lad... and I’ve even got satellite TV in my bedroom!

EMIRATES STADIUM, TODAY KO 4PM IN THE FIGHT TO MAKE ARSENAL’S FIRST XI

- By SIMON MULLOCK

Life has changed beyond all recognitio­n from the days when Everton’s keeper took to social media to bemoan an outbreak of pimples, his appetite for piri piri chicken and the absence of Sky Sports in his bedroom.

Despite a year which saw him complete a £30million move from Sunderland to Everton and confirm himself as England’s No 1, Pickford insists he remains “an ordinary lad from Washington”.

But when it comes to the business of playing football, the 24-year-old demonstrat­es a remarkable sense of maturity.

“The World Cup changed my life,” said Pickford, whose journey to the top also took him on loan spells to Darlington, Alfreton, Burton, Carlisle and Preston.

“Without doubt, there is now a lot more expectancy on me to perform week-in, week-out.

“But that just makes me want to grow and become better and better. Of course, people will try to put more pressure on me. I’ve got to deal with that – and I will deal with it and become a better person and a better goalkeeper.

“But I’m still just an ordinary lad from Washington. I don’t think I’ll be putting Tweets about Nandos or losing 20 quid in the supermarke­t, but I’m still the same person.

“It was just a part of growing up, I suppose.

“My mam and dad have brought their three wins have come against strugglers — West Ham, Newcastle and Cardiff — they have at least lifted the spirit in the squad.

Importantl­y, they have also settled the nerves, however temporaril­y, of Arsenal fans who were beginning to fear nothing was going to change quickly from the dying days of Wenger’s reign. me up well, and the roots where I’m from keep you grounded and level-headed. I still laugh at some of the things I put on Twitter. I was new to it then, so I didn’t really know what I was doing. “I didn’t know it would all be retweeted a few years later. “It’s all part of growing up, isn’t it? Having a bit of a craic. At least it was all stuff that people can laugh about. “I’ve now got Sky in my bedroom! In Emery knows they need to keep moving forward.

With the pace of Arsenal old boy Theo Walcott and Richarliso­n, back from suspension, Everton should provide a test of his team’s top-four credential­s.

He added: “Walcott is one player for us to work on. Finding a performanc­e is how we find a way to win against fact, I’ve got it in a few rooms!” Pickford will return to the scene of his Sunderland debut today when Everton face Arsenal. It was January 2016 when Sam Allardyce plunged him into an FA Cup tie against the Gunners at the Emirates.

The Black Cats were beaten 3-1. And the following week he conceded four when he returned to North London for a Premier League game against Spurs.

But Pickford soon came to realise the importance of not allowing things that were beyond his control to affect his confidence. Everton. What is clear to me is that it is very competitiv­e for any team to get into the top four. But I am confident.

“There are 38 matches for the Premier League season and, at the end of it, if it is us in the top four or if it is other teams, that’s when we will find out who has shown the most quality.”

Emery is under no illusions about how

Sunderland’s relegation from the Premier League as the division’s whipping boys didn’t deter Everton from making him the most expensive British keeper last summer.

Questions were asked during the World Cup whether Pickford had the physical stature to be a top internatio­nal after the group defeat by Belgium. But he responded by becoming England’s hero when Colombia were defeated on penalties in the round of 16.

Last weekend, it was his poor clearance that led to West Ham’s Andriy Yarmolenko opening the scoring as new Everton boss Marco Silva (below) suffered the first defeat of his Goodison reign.

“I hate making mistakes and I hate conceding goals,” said Pickford. “But it’s how you react to the set-backs that matter.

“I held my hands up and said ‘Sorry, lads’, but you can’t beat yourself up too much otherwise you will never get over it. I don’t get nervous and I don’t put pressure on myself because the only thing I am concentrat­ing on is trying to make sure I do everything right.

“You battle on and you get yourself out of it. That’s much harder to do if you just keep replaying the mistake in your mind.” much work there is to be done, although he is still eyeing the biggest prizes on offer to the north Londoners.

He said: “I want to win both the Premier League and the Europa League.

“The Europa League is very important because it is one title and every title is good for us. To play to win it is the best way. That is correct.”

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Ireland