Winning 2-0 at home in the first leg of a two-legged European tie would be satisfactory for many. However, Everton manager Ronald Koeman was not among those content with the score line after Thursday's win against Hajduk Split.
Koeman lamented a drop in tempo and intensity that leaves Everton with a healthy but not decisive cushion ahead of the second leg on Thursday. Another goal or two and the return trip to Croatia would be a mere formality.
Such high standards may seem churlish after a 2-0 win, but this lofty benchmark is exactly what Everton need to continue climbing the league table and reaching the latter stages of cup competitions. A so-called winning mentality is something Koeman brings in abundance and helps explain his pursuit of Wayne Rooney, who has won everything there is to win at club level.
Self-belief will be vital as the fixture list begins to ask serious questions of this much-changed Everton squad, starting with a trip to Manchester City on Monday night. Sandwiched between two Europa League games, this is the first test of the strength in depth at Koeman's disposal.
Koeman also has to decide what role to give record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson. With the midfielder short on fitness due to the protracted negotiations disrupting his preseason playing time at Swansea, a place among the substitutes would appear the likely outcome.
Once Koeman settles on a starting XI and formation, the task for the players is to preserve an unbeaten start consisting of four wins without a single goal conceded in all competitions. Further tests follow with upcoming games pitting Everton against Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United.
This four-game sequence against four of the five teams finishing above Everton last season should give an early indication of the ability within the squad and whether Everton are equipped to upset these teams as the season advances.
Away form in general held Everton back during Koeman's first season and it needs correcting. While finishing fourth on home points and home goals scored, just 18 points and 20 goals told the tale of a team failing to replicate home form on their travels. Everton won just four matches outside Goodison last term, as many as Swansea and Stoke, less than West Ham, Crystal Palace and Southampton and only one more than relegated Sunderland.
This need for improvement on the road faces several early tests with the first three away games of the new season sending Koeman and his array of new signings to the Etihad, Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford. The first of those is a fixture Everton used to dominate under David Moyes, winning four seasons in a row at City as an aggressive approach tended to upset their expensively assembled hosts. However, fortunes reversed once Roberto Martinez took charge. Three defeats and three draws is the story of the last six visits to this ground.
Everton handed City a 4-0 drubbing at Goodison in the last meeting between the two sides, inflicting the heaviest league defeat of Pep Guardiola's managerial career, but the 1-1 draw in the corresponding fixture in October showed the gap Everton must narrow against the top teams on a consistent basis.
A fine solo goal from Romelu Lukaku had Everton on track for the ultimate smash and grab but pressure eventually told with a Nolito strike leaving the teams with an entertaining draw. That Everton returned to Merseyside with anything was owed to the heroics of Maarten Stekelenburg, becoming only the eighth Premier League goalkeeper to save two penalties in the save game, not to mention a catalogue of saves in open play.
Lukaku was the only exception on a day when the visitors barely registered as an attacking threat. Even with new signings Jordan Pickford and Michael Keane settling quickly and beginning to excel in defence this season, it is unreasonable to expect Everton to adopt the same approach or withstand such relentless pressure.
An ambitious setup is no guarantee of a positive result, but there is often a crushing inevitability to the outcome when sitting back and employing a rather passive approach.
Money tends to go hand-in-hand with ambition in football and a summer of heavy spending generates a level of expectation. While there are some teething issues and positional quandaries for Koeman to solve while moulding his new signings into a winning unit, shifting the mentality of a club notoriously poor in away games against the best teams is long overdue.