Moyes pins hopes on a City ‘off night’

Moyes’ side have an excellent record against City, particularly at home, having lost just one of the last 13 Barclays Premier League meetings between the sides at Goodison Park. Yet Moyes feels City’s dramatic recent rise renders a lot of those statistics as irrelevant and is hoping the league leaders’ difficult January continues.

City still hold a three-point lead at the top of the table but have gone out of both domestic cup competitions since the turn of the year and been without some key players.

Moyes said: “I think all sides will go through periods of difficulty during a season and Man City are probably just in a bit of that at the moment. They have lost a couple of boys to the African Nations Cup and there have been a couple of disciplinary things which they see haven’t gone their way. It can upset the rhythm at a club.

“Let’s hope it is upset because we are going to have to hopefully catch them on an off night and us play very well.

“Over the years we have always had quite a good record against them. The difference is they have improved, and they have improved from last season.

“We are coming up against a far better Manchester City side than even we played last year.

“I think Barcelona might be a better squad but I don’t know if there is a more expensive squad. It has been accumulated very quickly and to be fair to Manchester City, they have done a good job, they have done it really well.

“They have got themselves a team which is going close to winning the Premier League.”