What Moyes Wants To See From Everton Run-In

David Moyes praised another spirited performance from his Everton team in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal at Goodison Park – before setting key targets for the rest of the campaign.

Less than three days after running Liverpool close at Anfield, the Blues got reward against the second-placed Gunners on Saturday, Iliman Ndiaye’s 48^th-minute penalty cancelling out Leandro Trossard’s first-half opener.

The result moves Everton on to 35 points and means they have now tasted defeat in just one of their past 11 Premier League matches.

Ndiaye made his first start since mid-February after recently returning from a knee injury, while Tim Iroegbunam and Nathan Patterson were called into the starting XI, with Dwight McNeil among the substitutes after recovering from the knee problem that has kept the winger out since early December.

With the likes of Armando Broja and Youssef Chermiti also pushing for game-time, Moyes wants his players to take the chance to catch the eye in the Toffees’ final seven matches.

“I’m really, really pleased we got something out of the game,” Moyes told evertontv. “We were really poor in the first half. I just think we connected in very little. We still made a few chances, but I was a bit disappointed. And the goal was a really poor goal to give away, too. A lack of communication and flicked on, and before you know it, we got ourselves done.

“But we stuck at it. The players came out at half-time, ready to go again, and we got something from it.

“I need to get a chance to see how they're playing, and part of the reason today was to look at Tim. Jimmy Garner’s played really well for us but we had the game on Wednesday and, unfortunately, we had an injury to Myko [Mykolenko] so it gave Patto a chance to play, albeit out of position.

“We're getting Broja back up to speed and getting him ready to see as well. So we're just beginning to get all the players back. Dom [Calvert-Lewin] is the one who we’re really missing, and Myko and Jesper [Lindstrøm] have little injuries but all the rest are fine so we hope we can get them ready to play.”

CLICK HERE OR BELOW FOR DAVID MOYES' POST-MATCH INTERVIEW FROM EVERTON'S 1-1 DRAW WITH ARSENAL

On the return of Ndiaye, who levelled from the spot after Jack Harrison was bundled over by Myles Lewis-Skelly shortly into the second half, Moyes added: “It was nice to see Ili back. I don't think he's at his sharpest or quite at full throttle yet, but that would be expected because we're only getting him back in. He's trained really, really well and we felt, why would we not put him in and give him a start? Maybe another time we may have waited but we just felt with the two games in three days we thought we should get him started.”

Having not yet been to Everton Stadium, Moyes revealed he would make his first trip to the Club’s world-class waterfront home next week, while stressing the importance his players continue to give their all to give Goodison a fitting send-off.

“The Club and team didn’t do well enough in the first half of the season,” added the Blues boss. “The crowd today was great. I liked a lot of what they were doing. We needed to give the crowd something and when we did, they responded to it, which was great.

“We've got to keep getting points at Goodison before we move. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to go to the new stadium some time next week and have a look at it because I'm feeling we're much closer to safety now. Hopefully, we can all go down there, certainly as a Premier League team.”