Everton’s David Moyes heaps praise on “best team” Arsenal | OneFootball

David Moyes has praised Arsenal as probably the best team in England and hit back against criticisms of Mikel Arteta’s team’s playing style.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, David Moyes generally seemed pretty confident about Everton’s recent form, but he admitted they’ll face one of the top teams in England on Saturday.

“We’ve got a bit of confidence, we’ve been playing well in the last few games, so we can only go and try against who are probably the best team in the country at the moment,” Moyes said.

In spite of that praise, it was put to Moyes that Arsenal have only been successful because of their set-pieces and physicality, and he had a strong response to that claim.

Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

“Well, what’s up with any of those things?” Moyes responded. “You’re making it sound as if that’s a problem, because they’re good at set-pieces, and they’re a strong, physical side. I don’t see any problem with any of that, it’s part of the game.

“I would hate to be going to football matches all the time and seeing football played the one way. I want teams to play different styles, I want them to play different ways.

“We’ve got some unbelievable managers, Mikel is one of them, who have come into this country and shown us what they can do, but maybe they can’t really stay with it and do it all the time. So you can bring something in, but you’ve got to have something which is going to work.

“Mikel’s been able to evolve his team and move it on, and he’s certainly got a very good team at the moment.”

Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

Everton have won their last two games on the bounce, just like Brighton did before facing Arsenal. That obviously gives the team some confidence ahead of the game, and they’ll also feel they weren’t too far off a result in the reverse fixture earlier this season.

It was only a Viktor Gyokeres penalty that saw the Gunners leaving Everton’s new ground with a 1-0 win, and it could well be another tight game between the two sides on Saturday.

Arsenal won’t be helped by having played an intense Champions League fixture against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday, whilst Everton haven’t had a match for 11 days now.

The away side should come into the contest fresher, and the Gunners will have to hope the momentum from their regular games cancels that out.