David Moyes says that Dwight McNeil is close to being fully match fit after his four-month absence with a knee injury but hinted that the winger will likely be named among the substitutes again this weekend when Everton entertain Manchester City at Goodison Park.

The reigning Champions have fallen below their usual standards that have made them almost invincible in recent years but they come to L4 in good form and chasing a berth in the top five that would see them qualify for the European Champions League for next season.

Pep Guardiola’s men currently sit in fifth place, just a point above Aston Villa and Chelsea with six games left, but come into their last ever match at Goodison boasting an impressive record against Everton.

City haven’t lost to the Toffees since Ronald Koeman handed Guardiola the heaviest defeat of his managerial career with a 4-0 drubbing in January 2017, a scoreline that only Tottenham Hotspur have managed to inflict on City in the Premier League since.

Everton have drawn at the Etihad Stadium in two of the last three seasons but have lost every game against this weekend’s opponents since that famous victory eight years ago.

McNeil, who came off the bench to lay on the winner over Nottingham Forest for Abdoulaye Doucouré last weekend, has made two substitute appearances since being passed fit after recovering from a knee problem sustained in December.

Even though Moyes was hugely complimentary about what the former Burnley man brings to the team, it sounds as though he might have to wait another week at least before he will be included in the starting XI.

“I think he’s getting much more ready now,” Moyes said in his press conference at Finch Farm today. “He’s had another couple of weeks of training under his belt. He’s beginning to get short periods of games but I think that he’s getting to the intensity a bit better.

“You’ve got to remember, he’s has been out for a long but he’s really important to use. We need him for set-piece delivery, we need him for all sorts of things and I have to say I’m glad to be get him back.

“Whether he’s just quite ready yet, I don’t know but we’ll be happy to involve him if required.”

Saturday’s meeting with City is Everton’s fourth fixture of five against the current top five teams in the division and, thus far, Moyes has overseen a narrow defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, a creditable 1-1 draw with Arsenal and a 1-0 win over Forest at the City Ground.

The Scot feels that even though his charges have been battling away in the bottom half of the table all season, they’ve shown this month that they can compete with the best teams in the Premier League.

“I hope that the fanbase are believing that we’ve got a chance in all the games now,” Moyes said. “I think that the ones who have been away from have seen some really good victories.

“But you’re right, this period [has seen] a real difficult run of games far us and I think when I came in and looked at the fixtures, even at the start, I thought, ‘I don’t know where there’s too many wins there. In this period certainly it looks really difficult but thankfully the earlier results has made this period a little bit easier.

“And as much as it we’re not going into it under as much pressure as we were at the start, it’s also give us a chance to see how we can play against them.

“So I think we’ve done very well against the top teams at the moment. We’ll try and do that against Manchester City as well. We have Chelsea to follow that up as well, which you know when you look back, it looks a real humdinger of a group of teams, but we’ve coped quite well with it and I think the boys are in good fettle.

“We’ve got back on confidence with us now and we look as if we can score so let’s hope we can keep that going.”

Everton vs Manchester City: Saturday, 19 April, 2025

Reader Responses

Selected thoughts from readers
Certain off-topic comments may be removed to keep the discussion on track

1  Peter Hodgson
18/04/2025    15:18:46

I think as long as we all believe there is nothing to fear we should be alright as long as we carry that thought into, and throughout the game.

There is something for us in this fixture if we believe. Come on you Blues!

2  Dave White
18/04/2025    15:32:49

We seemed to have shifted the grip of that monkey who gave us an inferiority complex against the top sides.

When Forest beat us at GP I watched in admiration of a team that played our style…but just did it better. Now things appear to have shifted. Confidence is oozing through this team. There is no reason we can’t get a positive result in this game. City remain fragile and the GP roar might be enough to expose that fragility further.

PS I’m officially ready to forgive Moyes for his ‘knife to a gun fight’ line if we get a win tomorrow!

Add Your Thoughts

Only registered users of Evertonia can participate in discussions.

» Log in now

Or Join as Evertonia Member — it takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your thoughts on artices across the site.