PREMIER LEAGUE PREVIEW: Tim Cahill looks to the Champions League

Feb 25 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

THAT their team could visit the City of Manchester Stadium twice this season has become the focus of a popular chant among Everton supporters in recent months.

However, David Moyes’s side would ideally not be making the short journey down the M62 to Eastlands this evening.

A campaign of continued progress has already taken the Goodison Park outfit their furthest in cup competitions in 13 years, only to be halted at the semi-final stage of the Carling Cup by Chelsea last month.

So, instead of a date at Wembley against Tottenham Hotspur yesterday, Everton take on Manchester City in a pivotal clash in the race for fourth place.

Moyes’s men were leapfrogged by neighbours Liverpool at the weekend, and with Aston Villa and Portsmouth also winning, only three points covers five teams challenging for that final Champions League qualification berth.

Everton will tonight look to build on the form that saw them record their biggest ever win in Europe with the 6-1 thumping of Norwegian champions SK Brann last Thursday.

The UEFA Cup has proven fertile ground for the Goodison Park side, racking up seven successive wins in the competition to set up a glamour tie against Serie A team Fiorentina in the last 16 next week.

But for Tim Cahill, Everton’s run is hopefully just an appetiser for next year’s main course.

“As players you hope the next level is the Champions League,” says the Australian. “Every year since I have been here this football club has moved on to the next level.

“We have done well to get into the Champions League in 2005, the next year we had a bit of a stumble, then we did well again and this year we are in the UEFA Cup.

“I feel we have to think like that for us to move us forward – always trying to break the transfer record, always trying to make ourselves better players and for the fans as well.

“You can become stagnant and stale and then end up moving sideways or even move backwards.

We have a lot of young players who could most probably play in a Champions League side. As individuals we have to try and do as best that we can. We have to do well in the UEFA Cup and as well as we can in the Premier League.

“If we finish fourth it will mean the world to us because the consistency of being up and around the top six and being in that area is important.

“Hopefully, the next level is Champions League but if not, if it is UEFA Cup again then we just have to do better.”

With such a tight battle for fourth place and Everton entering the business end of the UEFA Cup, every game holds significant importance for Moyes’s side between now and the end of the season.

Next month alone, they play seven games in 28 days including both legs against Fiorentina and the Merseyside derby at Anfield.

“There’s a lot of pressure on the manager and the players to do well,” says Cahill. “When Everton play average at home, everyone says it’s not good enough. There is expectation from the fans and the players as well, if you don’t play well you question yourself and how you can make yourself better.

“Every game is massive now, and it doesn’t get any easier. We’re not battling to avoid relegation, so it’s a nice position to be in. It’s nice to be involved in a real successful squad.

“It is probably one of the strongest squads we have had. But we haven’t really achieved much yet.

“We are working really hard as players to try and make something happen. The fans are always looking for something to cheer about and we are trying to keep it that way.”

Everton have an indifferent record at City, with Cahill’s winner in September 2004 giving them their only success at the blue half of Manchester during the last 12 years.

A gritty performance was required by Moyes’s side to eke out a 1-0 win against Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men at Goodison Park last month, one of only two league victories against teams currently residing in the top half of the table.

And the Everton manager says: “Manchester City is a real six-pointer. It is a massive game. It will be very hard, but hopefully we can continue our winning run.

“Some players are hopefully coming back into form. There is still a long way to go a quarter of the season to go so we are not at the finishing line yet. We have to keep it going and hopefully we can still be in a strong position at the end.”

Moyes was rewarded for naming a virtual full-strength line-up against Brann with a thumping victory, and is relying on his major players to deliver again tonight.

“You always have to up it again,” he says. “It is time for the big players to stand up and be counted in the big games.

“With respect, it might be easy to get on the ball and play when we are 4-1 up against Brann but I want players to get on the ball when it is 0-0 in tight games and show what they can do.

“If they want to be in this position in the league and challenge then you need the top players performing at their peak.”

Tonight will be Everton’s 41st game of the season, compared to the 42 played during the whole of the previous campaign.

And of his team’s hectic schedule, Moyes adds: “It is going to test us all and maybe we will find it gets too much. But at the moment we are all flying, we look strong and I don’t see anyone feeling jaded. Certainly not me, we are full of life and showing a lot of confidence.

“We need our big players now. We will find out the ones who can cope at this stage, someone called it ‘squeaky bum time’ I recall, and that’s what it is now for us.”