The injuries have given opportunities to several players including Dan Gosling, who netted the what was ultimately the winner at Upton Park.

And despite reiterating the 19-year-old is being over-utilised at present, Moyes reckons the teenager has shown an appetite to learn.

“Dan’s stepped up to every challenge,” he said. “It’s a big stage and if he plays tomorrow I think he will be able to handle it.

“We are asking a lot of him. He’s playing regularly, but in an ideal world he’d be getting a game here or there.

“He did really well a couple of times, got his name in during the Liverpool games, but at the moment the injuries to the wide boys means he has to play. He sees himself as a central midfielder but we have to play him where we think we can get something out of him.

“He can get himself the odd goal, he has that in his locker.”

Jack Rodwell is another Everton youngster to have become an integral part of the midfield in recent months, with his performances reportedly drawing interest from Manchester United and Chelsea.

Moyes, though, has dismissed suggestions of any contact from potential suitors.

“Look, what I can say on Rodwell, is that we have had nothing, no calls, no enquiries, and there is certainly not a bid on the table,” said the Everton manager. “You can check my phones, you can come and sit at my desk and have a look, and there has been nothing.

“He has a five-year contract and he’s very level-headed. There’s no point in me turning round and saying he’s not for sale, because we said that with Lescott and had to sell in the end. But what I can tell you is – 100% – we have had nothing.

“Of course Jack is a talented young player who is English and already established in the Premier League at a top six club, so there is bound to be interest from other clubs.

“But that is hypothetical, for the future, and yet people are saying it has come now. It hasn’t. I don’t doubt he is on other teams’ radars, but he’s on ours, and we have had nothing, and that’s the end of the matter.”

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov is absent this evening as he serves the second of his three-game suspension, while Phil Jagielka, Mikel Arteta, Victor Anichebe and James Vaughan are all still out.