LEON OSMAN believes Everton cannot afford to be distracted by their forthcoming FA Cup final appearance during the Barclays Premier League run-in.

A memorable week for the Goodison Park outfit continued on Wednesday night when they earned a deserved goalless draw at Chelsea in a dress rehearsal for next month’s Wembley showpiece.

Everton have now lost just four of their last 31 games, a run that has moved them to within a point of fifth-placed Aston Villa and earned their passage to the Cup final after Sunday’s famous semi-final triumph over Manchester United.

With a place in next season’s UEFA Europa League almost virtually assured and Champions League qualification having already been conceded by manager David Moyes, Everton realistically have only league placing to play for during their final five Premier League games.

But Osman reckons it would be dangerous for the team to lose momentum they have built up over the last six months going into the May 30 showdown with Chelsea.

"We have tended to dip in the closing stages of the last couple of seasons," said the midfielder. "But we hadn’t had a dip really earlier on during those seasons, so with us already having had ours at the start this time, then hopefully it’s got it out of the way.

"We’ve got something to aim for at the end of the season, and we don’t want to let our confidence slip between now and the final.

"It’s not easy to turn form on and off like a tap. We have to keep our form and confidence up as it could all go wrong.

"We’ll go into our next few games hoping to take the confidence we have going and into the final."

Everton were the better team during Wednesday’s goalless draw with Chelsea fortunate not to concede a penalty when Leighton Baines was felled by Alex.