League form still priority for David Moyes

Dec 15 2007 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

EVERTON manager David Moyes admits that while he’d love to win a cup this season, success in the Premier League remains his priority.

Moyes led the club into their first semi-final in almost 13 years on Wednesday as his side defeated this afternoon’s opponents West Ham United 2-1.

Although victory in the Carling Cup would ensure Everton qualify for Europe again next season, Premier League points are top of Moyes’s agenda as he returns to the Upton Park. He said: “I’d swap the win on Wednesday for three points on Saturday, that’s the kind of bore I am. The reason we’re in the UEFA Cup is because we finished sixth last year.

“It would be great if we could win a cup this year and get into Europe that way but we’ve got to get the basics right and get Premier League results to push up the table.

“We’ve been on a good run and we want to keep it going. This is a completely differ-ent competition, a completely differ-ent game, a differ-ent mind set and we have to try an get a result again.”

Everton are seventh in the Premier League table but are just three points off a Champions League place. Moyes has predicted all season that the scramble for European qualification will be particularly tight this year so he is determined to stay in touch over the busy festive period.

He said: “That’s why if you want to stay in the dizzy heights and be close to the teams at the top you don’t want to be slipping six points behind teams because it’s very hard to make up.

“You have to be within touching distance and cert-ainly by Christmas and New Year we want to try and be in a position where we can be close enough to be among those top spots.”

As often seems to happen when two sides are drawn together in a cup competition, a league meeting is also be played at a similar time but with West Ham and Everton meeting twice at the Boleyn Ground in the space of just four days, today’s repeat is quite unusual.

Moyes said: “We’re both at the same place, a little bit of deja vu but I hope the score is the same, that’s all I’m interested in.

“Strange enough on this occasion I think both of us will just do what we think is right for our own team.

“We’ve had a good look at each other on Wednesday night but that game is over and we’ve got another 90 minutes against each other.

“The important thing is mentally we’re ready to play them again. We realise it’s a diff-erent competition, we’ve looked at the league table and think with another three points we can try and move on up so that’s what we have to do.”

Although Everton ended a run of three consecutive clean sheets on Wednes-day night, the defensive aspect of their play generally satisfied Moyes – apart from Carlton Cole’s opener.

He said: “Throughout the game I was pleased with the way the players performed. We knew it would be tough coming to Upton Park even though they had a few changes.

“It just shows the level where we are going away from home and looking capable of winning.

“We’re playing well and were satisfied with the result. There were no celebrations because we haven’t won anything.

“We’ve been really pleased with how the back five have been performing.

“I wasn’t pleased with the goal as we should have done better there but overall we defended well and we’ll have to do that again because there’s no way we’re going to come to West Ham and not have a tough encounter.

“They’ll be desperate to try and get back and level with us after the way the game went midweek.”

Instead of returning back up to Merseyside, Everton have remained in London since Wednesday’s match and Moyes is happy with how things have gone.

He said: “We’ve got a great spirit. I don’t think being down in London for a couple of days has hindered us because we’ve avoided the travelling.

“We’d have liked to have prepared for the game among familiar surroundings but apart from that we’re fine.

“The players are in good spirits after the result in midweek and we’re looking forward to playing this game and getting back up the road.”

Nuno Valente is the only change to the squad from midweek having now recovered fully from his hamstring injury.