Sean Dyche has detailed Everton’s response to Monday evening’s defeat at Chelsea - and insists he and his players must take a collective responsibility in their aims to improve.

The Blues welcome Nottingham Forest to Goodison Park on Sunday for a 1.30pm (BST) kick-off, looking to recover from a disappointing defeat at Stamford Bridge.

After suffering their heaviest defeat of the season, Dyche stressed the importance of this week's efforts to address the result and performance, while making sure to use the disappointment as motivation for their next outing.

“We can’t just park it - that’s for sure,” said Dyche, speaking in Friday’s pre-match press conference. “We certainly haven’t. Players were affected by it, and they were very disappointed. As was I, in my part as manager, as well. I take responsibility.

“We spoke to the players about it, and they fed back their disappointment, as well as mine. But equally, by now we’ve made sense of it, of course. But, the day after, we certainly didn’t. It was a challenge.

“There were a lot of home truths - me included, by the way, about what I expect from myself, from the staff, and from the players, and realigning, saying: ‘Right, you can only do it as a group. You can’t do it as individuals'.

“The players have been disappointed. I must make that clear. It’s a funny thing about football nowadays, [people asking] ‘Do they care?’ They care. Trust me, they care. I care deeply about what we’re trying to achieve here.

“We’ve had a chat about it this morning to finish it off and go: ‘Right, that’s gone. We move forwards.’”

Sunday’s visit of Nuno Espirito Santo’s side represents Forest’s fourth game against Everton since their promotion in 2022. The Toffees are unbeaten in the previous three, including a 1-0 victory in December of this season at the City Ground.

Dyche is keen to rediscover the consistency his side displayed during that end-of-year period, when the Blues earned wins in seven out of nine games between late October and mid-December.

Asked if a fast start is essential for Sunday’s encounter, he explained: “Everything’s important now. Being right for the game, being prepared for the game, starting the game, finishing the game. Every detail is important, and I keep expressing that to myself, the staff, and the players. Everything needs to be on point.

“Every game should be a must-win. That’s what I want the players’ mentality to be. I’ve spoken endlessly since I’ve been here about finding consistency. We’ve had spells when we have. We’ve had spells when we haven’t.

“We certainly haven’t over the last run, but equally [it’s about] making sense of that, and using the things we learn to move forwards.

“The next one is a big one, but they should all be big games when you’re wearing an Everton shirt.”

Sunday's match at Goodison sees the Blues take on their first game in front of their home support since beating Burnley two weeks ago.

Praising the efforts of the Everton faithful, Dyche added: “I’ve never questioned the fans. They travel and they make a noise. They question us, but that’s fine. That’s part of being a fan. All I can ask is to stay as solid as they can with us.

"We’ve got to give them more; I’ve got to give them more. I understand that, but some of the stuff we can’t control has affected us. There are no two ways about it, and that’s difficult.

“I can’t control the Premier League and the points. Control of the pitch, I’ve got to do better, and we’ve got to do better. [The fans] can hopefully continue to play their part as they have been doing.”