Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium ahead of Everton's game with Chelsea
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: David Moyes the head coach / manager of Everton during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on March 14, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
David Moyes during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on March 14, 2026 in London, England(Image: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
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We’ve just gone from facing Mikel Arteta’s dark arts with Arsenal and I felt for the most part we held our own and switched on, refusing to be bullied by them and showing our strength and qualities. Now our next opponents Chelsea, with their new head coach Liam Rosenior, are trying all their little tricks to try and get into the mindset of the opposition before games with their huddle.
They’ve got world-class players but in our performance against Chelsea away, I don’t think they hurt us that much. Ultimately, they displayed that quality at the right times, though.
Against Chelsea, we’ve got to think about that Arsenal performance and how we’ve got that monkey off our backs at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Let’s dust ourselves down and have the confidence to take them game to the visitors.
They’re going for Champions League football themselves, but as the defeat at home to Newcastle United shows, they’re not unstoppable.
I thought Iliman Ndiaye and Dwight McNeil were both fantastic against Arsenal, but they’re doing a lot of running in the wrong areas where they’re not going to hurt the opposition, so hopefully they can get further forward next time around to get something out of the game.
We’ve got some top teams coming up but we’ve shown we can hold our own against the Premier League leaders. Hopefully that gives us the confidence to be a bit braver.
The talk about Europe is great. If we don’t make it then it’s not the end of the world, we didn’t expect to be in that conversation and just to be in contention is a fantastic achievement.
There are great battles that we want to be part of, but can we just be a bit braver to try and win football games? If you want to achieve things over the next few years then you’ve got to be brave at times and take gambles.
Getting into Europe is going to be difficult but it’s reachable and it’s great to have that target in mind. We probably thought it was just going to be a safe season, wondering whether we’d be finishing around 13-15th again and get ready for the year after.
David Moyes has already spoken about the difficulties of bringing players to the football club last summer and in January, but being in Europe would give us a massive advantage when it comes to that.
It’s a huge target for him and his coaching staff as if he wants to attract the players he’s probably spoken to in the past. European football would probably give him that big tick bonus that the majority of players want to be a part of.