Mason Holgate has described Carlo Ancelotti's simple message to his side throughout an eventful week at Everton.
The Blues were embarrassed at the hands of Liverpool in their FA Cup defeat last Sunday, and it was imperative they bounced back against Brighton back at Goodison Park this weekend.
Marcel Brands addressed a group of supporters outside Finch Farm earlier this week, before Fabian Delph was caught in a social media dispute in the aftermath of the Merseyside derby defeat.
However, Holgate has revealed Ancelotti kept his message throughout the week simple, urging his players to block out some of the "outside noise" being directed at them.
When asked what the manager's message to his squad was, Holgate told the ECHO : "Just to keep doing what we're doing.
"In all points of the season there's going to be lows and highs. That was a massive low for us but we needed to believe how good we are as a team and not listen to a lot of outside noise.
"I think we've done that and I think that showed. I think it showed the character we have as a team, to bounce back.
"You look at our league results in the last few weeks and we've been doing really well since December and it's good to carry that on. Obviously we got beat by [Man] City but in the league we have been going on really strong."
Everton secured a 1-0 win over Brighton on Saturday thanks to a first half strike from Richarlison, making it three wins from four matches in the Premier League under Ancelotti.
After what was a disappointing performance and result in the FA Cup defeat to Liverpool almost a week previously, Holgate and his teammates knew it was down to them to give a response.
"Just in ourselves I think we knew it was a performance we weren't happy with," the defender added.
"We've had a full week of training, working on things, then it was down to us to go out there and show it.
"I think we did, we controlled the first half and deserved the goal. In the second half it opened up a little bit more and we didn't really need to get involved in the game we ended up in, but we're really happy as a team.
"We showed grit in the second half to keep our clean sheet. We all hung in there for the last 10 or 15, we rolled our sleeves up and we did it together."
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