Amid more speculation that an overseas buy-out is close, Everton have gone seven games without a victory, and Jagielka believes that things must change - starting with Saturday's visit of champions Manchester United to Goodison Park.

The Toffees, who will not comment on claims of investment coming into Goodison Park, are yet to win a home game this season, and they slumped to defeat at Arsenal on Saturday despite being 1-0 ahead at the break.

Jagielka admits Everton are capable of one decent half each match, but rarely two.

He said: "We would prefer to be putting two good consecutive halves together in each game, but at the moment it doesn't seem to be working like that.

"We've got to start doing that. We have got Manchester United next and that is going to be another hard game, and we will have to keep it together for the whole game next weekend."

He added: "We need to start backing ourselves a little bit more. We weren't particularly nervous at 0-0, so why should we be nervous at 1-1? It is something we need to address.

"We are playing better than we did at the start of the season, but the results are pretty much the same.

"It is hard to put a finger on why we've stopped keeping clean sheets. In the first half, Arsenal had a few opportunities but considering it was at the Emirates, it was quite a quiet half for them.

"We then shot ourselves in the foot at the start of the second-half by not clearing the ball properly and they were level.

"It is a hard place to go, and now we have United next. We must improve, and quickly."

Jagielka said: "At half-time we were looking okay, but we've heard that one before already this season. The first half went to plan, and the second half didn't.

"You can see there are a little bit of nerves among the squad, and from Arsenal's equaliser they went from strength to strength, put us under immense pressure and created five or six more chances.

"If you give Arsenal any sort of encouragement at the Emirates, then it is hard to calm them down, especially given the freedom they play with and the way they like to express themselves."

And colleague Leon Osman, who scored Everton's first-half goal, reckons a week of tough training will help ahead of United's visit.

He said: "We have shown how resilient we can be in the last couple of years but conceding goals is something that has been happening for too long now.

"Maybe we are going to have to start getting into each other(in training). We have got to put it right over the next couple of weeks.

"Our aim is put to it right against United - our belief won't wane this week."