EVERTON goalkeeper Tim Howard wants his teammates to give his manager David Moyes sleepless nights.

Following a 1-0 win at Portsmouth on Saturday – Everton’s fourth consecutive victory and fourth successive clean sheet in the space of 10 days – Howard believes that after years of having to make do with an often threadbare squad, Moyes is finally going to have some selection dilemmas.

Fratton Park match-winner Louis Saha is suspended for the Goodison Park outfit’s next match – Thursday evening’s Europa League match against Belarussians BATE – but Moyes can call on Jo, who has also netted twice this month, and Ayegbeni Yakubu, who struck against Hull in his first start in 10 months, as alternatives.

The Scot could also have a dilemma in midfield providing the suspected knee injury that forced Steven Pienaar off on Saturday is not serious with his replacement Diniyar Bilyaletdinov – another hero of Everton’s Europa League opener against AEK Athens – also impressing.

With competition for places becoming increasingly fierce, Howard, who hasn’t missed a game for the club since he was rested 18 months ago is arguably the only player in the side currently guaranteed a place.

He said: “I don’t think anyone takes their position for granted.

“We want to make decisions so hard for the manager so that he can’t sleep at night.

“We want to be saying we’re all ready to go. We’re amongst the goals, we’re amongst the clean sheets – we want to make it difficult for him.

“I don’t think at the moment when the manager gives us the team sheet anyone is particularly concerned at this point about who is on the pitch.

“For a club who has a small squad I looked around the hotel the night before the game and thought ‘wow, there’s a lot of players with a ton of experience’.”

Saha’s seventh goal in as many outings this season settled the contest against the Premier League’s bottom club just before the break.

The French striker’s prolific form has even drawn comparisons to Fernando Torres but as Howard points out, Everton have three frontmen currently amongst the goals.

“Yes, I suppose he’s like our ‘Fernando Torres’ but he’s the guy for us, we just want him to continue doing what he’s doing and keep healthy. The team will encourage him and Jo has been amongst the goals too and Yak (Yakubu) is coming back from injury as well so it’s really going to be good to have three strikers firing on all cylinders.