Beckford (r) has two goals in 10 appearances for Everton

Everton defender Leighton Baines has backed striker Jermaine Beckford to have an impact at Goodison Park.

The former Leeds striker scored his first Premier League goal for the club in Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Bolton.

"It's a great goal to get Becks off the mark in the Premier League and he'll feel good for it," Baines told BBC Radio Merseyside.

"He's proved that he can be a valuable asset for the club coming on and scoring goals like that."

Baines added: "He's been doing it quite regularly in training and he looks sharp. Early on in the season he was thrust in a little bit because we were short on numbers.

"I think now the manager will be able to do it the way he'd like to and introduce him gradually."

Everton host Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday on the back of an unbeaten sequence of seven games, collecting 13 points in the process.

The England defender insists the Toffees must improve their performance against the Gunners if they are to add to their points tally.

"Arsenal will come here and they are a very good side," Baines continued. "If you give them too much space they'll definitely expose you and they embarrassed us one time at Goodison on the first game of last season.

"There have been occasions I can remember when we've been very unlucky and they've scored late on and we've played very well.

"They're the type of opponents we try to raise our game for and hopefully we'll be able to do that at the weekend."

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