Soccer-Koeman backs Everton's new signings to eventually come good

Oct 20 (Reuters) - Doubts persist about Everton's new signings after the club's poor start to the Premier League campaign, but manager Ronald Koeman believes they will eventually deliver on their promise.

Despite spending around 140 million pounds ($184.3 million) in the close season on new players, the Merseyside club have failed to fire in the league and sit 16th in the table with eight points from eight games.

Koeman has faced questions over his recruitment policy despite bringing in players like goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, centre-half Michael Keane and a proven midfielder in record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson.

"The future will show that the signings we made were in fact good signings," Koeman told a news conference on Friday, ahead of Sunday's game against Arsenal at Goodison Park.

"I still believe in the players and the signings we did in the summer because maybe everybody can have some doubts about several of the signings.

"It's not time to stop and talk about reasons why (we haven't lived up to expectation). We need to take the situation how it is now and prepare the team for Sunday."

Koeman's side defeated Arsenal 2-1 at home last season and the Dutch manager said that the team could draw inspiration from similar previous good showings against the leading teams.

"If you look back to last season, we had some great games against some of the big teams in the Premier League. And why not against Arsenal? Arsenal is not unbeatable, it's also not the strongest team away from home this season," he said.

Arsenal, who were beaten 2-1 at Watford last Saturday, have picked up just one point on the road and have lost three times on their travels to sit in sixth place.

"We know we need to improve, we need to play better but I think if we bring the fight and the aggression on the pitch, in a good way, then we have a good chance to win the game."

($1 = 0.7596 pounds) (Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)