Moyes had actually rested Jagielka for last Wednesday’s goalless draw at Chelsea in an ‘FA Cup final dress rehearsal’ following his excursions at Wembley against Manchester United and Joleon Lescott dropped down to the bench for City’s visit as the manager tried to rotate his squad at the end of a busy week although the former Wolves man was unable to replace his England international colleague as all three substitutes had already been used.

Moyes revealed that he will continue to manipulate all of his resources for the remainder of the Premier League campaign.

He said: “In midweek we tried to do it and to an extent we have tried to do it today.

“You need big performances. That’s what keeps you going. We’ll be looking for more than what we were given for a lot of today.

“I would expect to keep the same level (of performance) up. That is what I expect. If it isn’t then I will be letting them know.”

Moyes acknowledges that the prospect of the club’s first cup final in 14 years will remain a constant factor for the rest of the season but he wants to finish his side’s Premier League programme on a positive note as Everton bid for a third consecutive top-six finish and potential back-to-back top five spots.

He said “It’s difficult. Every question is tied up with something to do with the FA Cup final so we’re trying to concentrate.

“We know we’ll be there, we’re delighted we’re in that position but we need to keep playing.

“We’ve had a really good season and we want to finish it off properly.”

Moyes was pleased with how his side kept on battling in the defeat to City even though the performance and result were disappointing.

He said: “You could see it was a toil for most of the game but they never gave up.

“When we were down to 10 men and 2-0 down, they never stopped. They kept trying to get there.

“It never allowed us to pick up any steam because of that. I was going to make the changes at half time but I thought I’d give it 10 minutes, 15 minutes to see how it went.

“Fortunately we did start the second half well. We had a good chance but they scored again on the counter attack. It made it harder but I still thought we could get back into it.”