Everton, under the watchful eye of Sean Dyche, have made a steady improvement across his nine months in charge at Goodison Park.
That is an irrefutable claim, but was a turnaround that had to be made to ensure they retained their top-flight status following the dreadful tenures of Rafa Benitez and Frank Lampard.
The former Burnley boss was left with a club broken from the countless clueless decisions made by both the management and ownership, with his work in rebuilding it an admirable one.
However, one of his greatest triumphs thus far has been getting a tune out of Vitaliy Mykolenko, who seemed destined to be plagued by the mere association with the aforementioned Spaniard as well as his underwhelming displays.
Signed as a replacement for Lucas Digne after the French creator was forced out of the club, the 24-year-old instantly had impossibly high standards to live up to.
However, he did little to ease the complaints aimed his way.
That being said, his performances have shown a gradual improvement since acclimatising to England, and it is now fair to say that the Ukraine international looks reborn under Dyche.
How is Vitaliy Mykolenko performing?
What makes this turnaround so impressive is that it has not been meteoric, but instead a slow process with which the £58k-per-week full-back has just returned to basics.
After all, across his 34 Premier League appearances last season, the defender struggled offensively, as was expected, but was very often left for dead by his opposition man.
He offered little, and as such would not score or assist whilst only making 1.7 tackles per game, via Sofascore.
Already those figures have been propelled in the new term, which is outlined by his average Sofascore rating, having risen from 6.77 to 7.17.
With a goal to his name, having opened the scoring last weekend against Brighton and Hove Albion, the 24-year-old has become a defensive rock for Dyche, with his left flank always on lockdown.
James Tarkowski even sought to praise that showing, noting: ‘He’s been brilliant recently. He’s come up against some good players, and he’s been one of our best players to be fair to him, so he deserves a goal.’
He kept Mohamed Salah silent in the derby before his late brace, neither of which were his fault, before also quelling the threat of Jarrod Bowen a week later.
This progress shows up in the data too, with his tackles having risen to 4.1 per game, and his ball recoveries sitting at an impressive 5.9 per game, via Sofascore.
The former Burnley boss has pulled off what seemed like a miracle this time last year, getting the best out of Mykolenko despite there being no outstanding physical qualities.
They will hope to continue their collective resurgence again this Saturday with another win before the international break.
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