Mikel Arteta helps David Moyes find right formula

Oct 1 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

DELIGHTED David Moyes praised a virtuoso performance from Mikel Arteta as Everton moved up to fifth in the Premier League yesterday.

The Spaniard marked his return from injury with a hand in both goals as the Goodison outfit scored a 2-0 home win over Middlesbrough.

Arteta delivered the corner from which Joleon Lescott eventually headed Everton into a seventh-minute lead before providing the perfect pass for Steven Pienaar to complete a flowing move in the 58th minute.

Arteta was substituted to a standing ovation in the closing moments, and Moyes said: “Mikel is a really important player for us and he played well today.

“In truth the games prior he hadn't played as well as he should have done, but today he made a difference to the game.

“Mikel is able to take the ball and gives us a composure. Not only that, he can eliminate players, play in the middle of the park, go past them in wide areas and can pass it as well.

“He has an ability to not give the ball away and keep it, and sometimes that means we can earn free-kicks as he does very well at getting his body between the ball and the opposition.

“The last thing I want to do is talk about injuries, but it’s hard not to say that the creativity Mikel gives us has been missing, and to a lesser extent Steven Pienaar who did not give the ball away today and scored a good goal.

“We’re just trying to find the right formula at the moment.”

Everton’s victory was their first at Goodison since the opening day of the season. It halted a run of successive Premier League defeats and came days after the confidence-building victory over Sheffield Wednesday in the Carling Cup.

And Moyes believes his side have turned a corner ahead of Thursday’s crucial UEFA Cup second leg in Ukraine against Metalist Kharkiv.

“Sometimes you can smell a change,” he said. “I think there was just a little change today and I started to smell that things were improving a little bit.

“Before the game, I thought we were due a change of fortune and maybe we had it at times today.

“There are a lot of games in the Premier League at the moment where teams are not playing particularly well but getting results. We are a little bit like that right now but hopefully that will change.”

Everton kept their first clean sheet in the Premier League this season, and Moyes said: “Clean sheets are sometimes more important than goals.

“We have been hard to beat to beat in most of my time here. That’s two clean sheets and two wins – if we get that in midweek, we will be okay.”

Lescott’s strike was his

fourth of the season and means the defender is now Everton’s leading scorer, while Pienaar netted his first for the club following his loan move from Borussia Dortmund.

Moyes added: “It’s the start of a big week for us. We got through in the Carling Cup in midweek and got a result today. If at the start of the season we’d have been offered the Premier League points we have now, we would have taken them.

“Expectations have risen, not just from the supporters or the media, but from me as well. Maybe I’m too critical because I want us to play really well, and I’ve been disappointed we haven’t done that at times.

“I want us to play well and win well, and if we can’t play well then I want us to win, and I think we did that again.

“Today I thought we made chances. At Aston Villa l last week we probably had as many passes but didn’t create chances. We made chances today, but Middlesbrough did as well.

“The games have been really tight lately. Against Manchester United we lost a goal at a corner, we conceded two poor goals against Villa and today was a bit of the same. We scored at the right time.”

Andrew Johnson missed the game after picking up a groin strain during training last week, while Leon Osman was absent following a similar complaint. Both are considered doubtful for Thursday’s UEFA Cup tie, which is poised at 1-1 after the first leg at Goodison.