Carlo Ancelotti is demanding his players are faithful to Everton’s “fighting DNA” in the remaining games of this season.

Everton meet Aston Villa on Thursday aiming to extend their unbeaten home run to an 11th Premier League match.

Ancelotti expects a “reaction” following Sunday’s defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers and is promising his side’s “attitude, mentality and character” will be markedly different from the weekend.

Everton emerged from lockdown in encouraging fashion, claiming seven points from three games.

Their following three fixtures, however, yielded a point – against Southampton six days ago – and Everton will encounter a Villa team fighting for its Premier League life.

“We expect a reaction from the bad game we played against Wolves,” said Ancelotti, whose side also face Sheffield United and Bournemouth before the end of 2019/20.

“Different attitude, different mentality and different character.

“I understood in my period at Everton, a big part of the DNA of this club is everyone wants to see players fighting.

“This is the most important part.

“We have to fight, then try to play well and win games.

“If there is no fight, it is not in the DNA of this club.

“[You can change over] a period of time where you have to work hard on the pitch, increase your knowledge on what you want to do on the pitch.

“The only way I know is to work hard, to try to give ideas to the players.

“The players, when they go on the pitch, have to be comfortable and know what they have to do.

“After that the spirit is really important.

“To keep a fighting spirit, with players showing more personality and character on the pitch.

“Not being afraid or worried on the pitch.

“This can be the key to being competitive.”

Ancelotti’s eight home games in charge have been evenly split between wins and draws.

Everton scored 11 goals, recorded two clean sheets and conceded only six times in those matches.

The focus of Ancelotti’s pre-match media briefing on Wednesday, then, turned to the need to cure Everton’s perceived ills on the road.

Ancelotti pointed to wins at Newcastle United, Watford and Norwich since his appointment back in December.

The former AC Milan boss nevertheless conceded his side must improve in a number of areas to consistently compete with teams from the league’s upper reaches – and accepted Everton lacked punch in their most recent away games, at Tottenham Hotspur and Wolves.

“I think we feel more protected and safer at home,” said Ancelotti, who has Mason Holgate and Andre Gomes available following their respective recoveries from injury.

“We have to improve our mentality and knowledge to be more comfortable when we play away.

“I don’t think this is an issue of there being a crowd in the stadium or not.

“This team has to improve its personality in all away games.

“I am really satisfied with what we were able to do at Goodison Park.

“I am not satisfied with what we did away.

“We competed well against some strong teams.

“But to be more competitive, we have to improve on the mentality.

“I was surprised [by the performances against Spurs and Wolves].

“Since I arrived this team showed fantastic spirit and effort

“It is an unselfish team with unselfish players.

“They work hard for each other,

“Sometimes we didn’t play well but we never lost our fighting spirit.

“I don’t need to explain to the players what the fans want at Everton.

“They know this and I hope they can show it in the next few games.”

Everton’s Europa League qualification hopes are dangling by the faintest of threads following the team’s past three results.

But Ancelotti is unequivocal over the Club’s determination to be playing European football sooner rather than later.

He added: “This club has to compete in Europe… we want to fight next season to reach European competition.

“It is a target for this club.

“This season didn’t start well for Everton.

“We were close to the bottom in December, we went up [the table] quickly and had the dream to reach Europe.

“The recent results were not good but this doesn’t change the plan.

“The priority when I arrived was different, it was to be safe as soon as possible.

“The target [for the future] has to be to reach Europe.”