Moyes' Programme Notes For Chelsea Clash

It’s a couple of weeks since we last played here. That night we came away with a really good win against Burnley which, on the back of a great three points at Newcastle, saw us enjoy the experience of back-to-back Premier League victories.

On Saturday evening we returned from London disappointed we didn’t take anything from our trip to Arsenal, but overall there were lots of positives we could take from the game. The players’ performances, their energy levels and their effort was all to be commended.

We all know the levels Arsenal are at but we have now had two narrow defeats against them this season, which shows how far we still have to go if we are to get to those levels ourselves.

We took the opportunity to have some training days away before that match. We spent four excellent days away and the quality of the performance at the Emirates, if not the end result, showed the benefits of working together so intensively.

We’re now down to our last eight games of the season – four at home and four away – and every point we pick up will hopefully keep us in with a chance of achieving European football next season.

I firmly believe it would be a great achievement for our club to get back into European football this season after years of being closer to the Championship than European levels.

We’re fighting incredibly hard to try to achieve that and your support can help us push on in our remaining home games. Your backing can make a huge difference.

The quality of opposition we have left to face at Hill Dickinson means it will be tough, but I strongly believe that with nearly 53,000 Evertonians in full voice behind us, it will give us a better chance of making it.

In the past, your support has been crucial in helping this football club to avoid relegation – hopefully now it can help us to edge closer to something which we would all consider as success.

Today we welcome one of those four remaining teams here. It isn’t long since Chelsea were crowned World Club champions and since then they have been slowly progressing up the Premier League.

We welcome Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior and his staff to our home for the first time and wish them well, but only after today’s game has finished!

After this evening’s match, we have the last international break of the season and there is a lot at stake for some of our players. Seamus Coleman, Jake O’Brien and Mark Travers will be with Ireland, while Vitalii Mykolenko goes away with Ukraine and we really hope these boys can get the victories which will see them go to the World Cup finals this summer.

I’m also looking forward to seeing Ivory Coast host Scotland here in just over a week’s time. No doubt that night will see Liverpool full of lots of kilted men and I hope you make them all welcome. No doubt many of you will be here yourselves – hopefully cheering Scotland on!

Finally, I want to finish these notes by thanking you for the support you have shown in the past few weeks. It’s been amazing away from home and the atmospheres at our last few home matches have been really good, too.

The year we finished in the Champions League places in my first spell here, we had to win one of the big games in the run-in. We are not at that level at the moment, but I do believe the support we received on the night we beat Manchester United, when Duncan Ferguson scored the winner, was certainly one of the main reasons for us finishing fourth that season.

Now we want to get back into Europe and we need your support again to help us in these important games coming up.

Enjoy the game.

David