Abdoulaye Doucoure accepts he and his Everton teammates must show more belief in front of goal if they're to validate their dominant displays with positive results.   

It was a case of déjà vu at Goodison Park for the Blues on Saturday afternoon as they dominated their opponents Wolves, much in the same way they did against Fulham on the opening day, but squandered several golden opportunities en route to a 1-0 defeat.  

Gary O'Neil's side struck the decisive goal with their first shot on target in the 87th minute, a cruel slice of bad fortune that Doucoure admitted was hard to stomach. 

"The performance was okay, we can take that as a positive but we need to win games to validate those performances," he told evertontv.  

"The result is difficult to take obviously. We were the better team, we created more chances than them but in the Premier League, we need to score goals to win games and at the moment we aren't which is a problem." 

Everton went closest to breaking the deadlock through Doucoure. He saw a diving header superbly tipped over the bar in the second half before finally getting the better of an inspired José Sá in goal soon after, but his effort was ruled out by VAR for a marginal offside.  

Just 10 minutes later, Wolves' Sasa Kalajdzic nodded the winner past Jordan Pickford.  

"You could say [it's bad fortune]," said Doucoure reflecting on that crucial 10-minute period. "Obviously, I haven't watched the goal back, but we need to be more clinical and believe more that we can score goals that win games. At the moment it is difficult to take. 

"We need to stand together. The team have the right mentality, but the Premier League is ruthless and we need to be more clinical in both boxes and win games. 

"We have two important games through the week before the [international] break. We need to be ready to play and get back our confidence."

Everton return to action in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday (8pm kick-off BST) as they travel to take on League Two side Doncaster Rovers.