Everton had a fantastic start to their Premier League season but seem to have stagnated in their recent performances, losing their third consecutive clash on the bounce against Newcastle United last night.

It is without a doubt that the defensive play has come a long way from the performances of last season with James Tarkowski and Conor Coady's centre-back partnership flourishing since their arrival at Goodison Park this summer, with the Toffees conceding just 12 times this term, the best record in the bottom half.

However, when it comes to attacking and being clinical in the final third, Everton have drastically declined with the exit of Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin's injury problems clear factors in their lack of goals so far.

Indeed, the Toffees have conceded the joint-fourth fewest goals this season which is a testament to their improved defence, but have also scored the fourth least amount of goals in the entire Premier League, which is now starting to take its toll on their comfortable league positioning.

Everton are now just one point off the relegation zone ahead of their clash with Crystal Palace on Saturday and there is one player who will be giving Frank Lampard sleepless nights over his scrappy performances in the forward line.

Anthony Gordon has become somewhat of a liability to the team, picking up six yellow cards in just 780 minutes with his unnecessarily reckless behaviour and lack of discipline on the pitch which has already led to a match suspension. Not just is his attitude questionable, but his attacking output has also been completely uninspiring.

Not only has the 21-year-old picked up more yellow cards than any other player in the Premier League already this season with a booking every 130 minutes, but the Everton winger has also lost the ball every 3.1 touches, failed to win 65% of his duels and has been unsuccessful in 74% of his dribbles too over ten league appearances.

Indeed, the boyhood Evertonian - who was dubbed "fearless" by Alan Shearer - has scored two goals but his lack of creativity and assistance to his teammates over the season so far is contributing to the side's struggles to tally up more goal contributions.

Gordon has been dribbled past once, completes just 13.5 passes and delivers 0.6 key passes per game, proving that the player may be getting stuck into challenges but isn't being effective when he does have possession of the ball.

As a result, it might be worth taking a look at the other attacking options Lampard has at his disposal for the upcoming fixtures to see if there is a player in the squad that could be more clinical, disciplined and focused on the task at hand.

With that being said, the Everton boss should make the bold move of dropping Gordon when they host Crystal Palace at Goodison Park this weekend as the forward line could potentially benefit from a refresh in order to seal all three points at home.