Everton captain Phil Jagielka insists that there is no need to panic as the club hover just above the relegation zone.
Roberto Martinez's side have collected six points from their opening seven Premier League matches, and sit one place above the bottom three.
They also have the division's worst defensive record, having conceded 16 goals, one more than bottom club Queens Park Rangers.
Everton's points tally so far is significantly down on last season, when they picked up 12 points from their first seven games on their way to finishing fifth.
They did make a habit of recovering from slow starts under previous manager David Moyes, who dragged the club to fifth place in 2008-09 after winning only two of his first nine games.
Two seasons later, Moyes took Everton to seventh spot after failing to win any of his first six matches, and a year later secured an identical finishing position after losing six of his opening 10 games.
Jagielka, signed from Sheffield United in 2007, played in all three of those campaigns, and feels Everton can make a similar recovery this time.
Ahead of Saturday's Premier League home game against Aston Villa, the 32-year-old England international told Sky Sports: "I don't think it needs to be that drastic yet. There are still a massive amount of points to play for.
"If we were in a similar position in the last three months of the season, then it would be different.
"But we dropped points throughout the whole of last season. We just seem to have dropped points a little bit earlier this season, and obviously that's going to make things a little bit tougher to get to where we want to be. But we're still going to be driven to get there."
Everton have not been helped by injuries to key players, with Ross Barkley only just regaining full fitness after suffering medial knee ligament damage in August, and defender John Stones likely to be out until January with an ankle injury sustained during the 2-1 defeat at Manchester United on Oct. 5.
Stones, 20, had only recently made his competitive England debut, and Jagielka had plenty of sympathy for his teammate.
"We all feel for Stonesy," he said. "He's a great lad. But we'll support him. Injuries happen in football. It's just unfortunate for him that it's cropped up when things seemed to be going so well."