Everton v Aston Villa: David Moyes calls on Everton to deliver

Apr 26 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

DAVID MOYES celebrated his 45th birthday with a quiet family meal last night.

Now he wants a noisy Goodison Park to help ensure the belated present of three points and a step nearer a return to Europe.

Moyes’s Everton entertain Aston Villa in a clash that could go some way towards determining who claims fifth and the final UEFA Cup berth.

An home win, and the Goodison outfit would need only three points from their final two games, a trip to Arsenal followed by a final-day home game against Newcastle United, to seal a first successive European qualification in almost 30 years.

A draw, and there remains work to be done. But a defeat would leapfrog Villa above their opponents and ensure Everton are no longer masters of their destiny.

In a season of big games, this is another one for Moyes’s side.

“This weekend could be the deciding factor, but it could still go right to the last game because everyone will have two more still to play,” says the Goodison manager.

“I said at the beginning of the season that it would be difficult for us to finish in the top 10 with all the money that has been spent by lots of other clubs.

“So to be up around fifth and sixth spot all season is very good. And it is difficult to stay there, there is pressure, but we have to prove we are worthy of that fifth spot in these last three games.

“We would have preferred not to be in this position, we have let a few points slip recently that we should not have done. But that is the way it goes, we have had great runs when others have been dropping points.

“Now it is down to the nitty-gritty, very important, and we aim to win it to make the position clearer. And it would certainly be a belated birthday present if we got the three points!”

A run of just five points in six games has effectively ended hopes of beating Liverpool to fourth place and a Champions League berth, while allowing Villa and Portsmouth to exert pressure on fifth.

But even if the unthinkable happens and Everton cannot arrest the end-of-season slump that remains a worrying feature under Moyes, the manager reckons it has been another season of progress.

“I don’t think that not finishing at least fifth would be a failure,” he says. “At the start of the season, you’d have said for us to finish above Tottenham and Newcastle would be a great thing to do, and it looks like that will happen.

“We are more looking at it positively and hoping we can have another strong finish in the Premier League, and have three of the last four in the top six. We’d have to say that is decent progress.”

Moyes believes that continued improvement will prove a significant selling point when he delves into the transfer market this summer.

And the Goodison manager refuses to accept that UEFA Cup football must be secured to attract leading players to what he believes is a “progressive” Everton.

“I’ve been given no indication whether it will make any difference if I finish fifth or sixth (as to what backing I get),” says Moyes.

“But in terms of attracting players, we’re an attractive football club. We’re a progressive club that people can see are making strides and challenging.

“If you can’t play in England for maybe some of the other teams, then Everton are a team that you’d be interested in coming to. We have to keep that going.”

What Moyes knows he has to get going again is Everton’s spluttering forward line. His team have netted only six goals in their last nine games – immediately after netting 11 in three – with Yakubu still one short of the 20-goal mark.

Like Everton, Villa have been operating with a relatively small squad in comparison to teams in and around the top six.

But whereas the Goodison side play their 52nd game of the season tomorrow, it will only be Villa’s 39th. And Moyes believes that comparative lack of football has helped keep the Midlanders fresh, with Martin O’Neill’s men having netted 15 goals in their last three games alone.

“They’ve got a wee bit of momentum with them at the moment, we had a lot of that around February and March,” he says. “That’s what happens in football, there are different periods when you are right on top of it.

“When you have a strong squad, you can help to maintain that right throughout the season.

“I’m sure when Aston Villa were having a dickie spell, if you’d have asked Martin O’Neill he’d have probably said he’d want to change a few players at that time.

“It’s no different here. We could probably do with freshening one or two players up, but we don’t have that at the present time.

“We did have it in the first half of the season and could do it quite regularly. I’d often say we had a full squad to choose from, but we haven’t had the probably from maybe the end of January.”