Moyes added: “You can never put your feet under the desk and think ‘I’ve made it, I’m a football manager’.

“The longer you’re in it, if you want to get to the top you’ve got to work harder. Even to maintain where I am now.

“I’ve been lucky to be at a club where they haven’t panicked. If there have been moments I think they’d have been off their head to change things because I think I’ve probably been the right person for the job.”

Moyes also paid tribute to his captain Phil Neville who was turning out for Everton for the 200th time since his £3.5million transfer from Old Trafford in 2005.

He said: “Phil has treated his move here in the right way, I think it probably gave him a new lease of life when he left Manchester United.

“He’s been inspirational to everybody here because of the way he goes about his daily business and all the young players here should look up to him.”

Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta believes Everton will need to win six of their remaining eight games to claim a place in Europe.

He said: “I think we are right in the mix at the moment and we have had some good results for us this weekend. We are really pleased.

“I think we are showing that desire.

“You can’t always be really pretty and do everything nicely – the most important thing was to get the points and another win at home.

“But I think we need to win another six games. That is really tough but we want to get into the mix.”