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David Moyes enjoyed a fitting Goodison Park farewell as Kevin Mirallas’ brace earned Everton a routine win over West Ham.

The Toffees gave their departing manager an appropriate send-off before he takes over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in July and could have increased the winning margin had it not been for Hammers duo Jussi Jaaskelainen and James Collins.

In his 213th final home match Moyes saw his side start in scintiallting fashion and break the deadlock after only six minutes. It was fitting that three of his most trusted lieutenants were involved as Leighton Baines, Steven Pienaar and Marouane Fellaini combined to set up Mirallas, who guided a firm strike into the bottom corner from just inside the penalty area.

It took some steadfast defending from Collins and Jaaskelainen to deny the home side more goals as they kept out efforts from Fellaini and Victor Anichebe, prior to Kevin Nolan volleying narrowly wide at the other end in a rare attack for Sam Allardyce’s men.

Leon Osman fired wide after the break as Everton kept up their hunt for a second that came on the hour mark when Mirallas latched on to a well weighted pass from Darron Gibson and saw his shot loop in off Collins. Everton were in danger of running away with the game but couldn’t increase their goal tally as the Hammers shut up shop towards the end.

A largely anonymous Andy Carroll almost had the final say when he headed against the post from substitute Joe Cole’s cross but the day, inevitably, belonged to Moyes as he bid an emotional goodbye to the Goodison support.

David Moyes post-match…”There’s always a worry when you’re joining another club, but Everton fans were magnificent for me today. David Unsworth scored the first goal of my reign at Goodison 11 years ago after about 25 seconds. And I’m delighted I finished it off here with a win.”

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Sam Allardyce post-match…”I’m bitterly disappointed. It’s always difficult to play at Goodison Park and David Moyes’s record speaks for itself. I warned the players but they chose to take no notice. It left us with a bad performance.”

Man of the Match…Kevin Mirallas: Never stood still for a second all afternoon and pestered the West Ham back four to the point of tears. His brace also illustrated a cool head in front of goal. 

Flop of the Match…Mohamed Diame: After a season in which Diame has proved himself one of the Premier League’s most uncompromising of midfield enforcers, this limp display was wholly out of character. Deservedly hauled off at the break.

Leeds fans have been discussing the future of Pierre-Michel Lasogga, and it seems like a pretty even split amongst fans.

When Lasogga joined Leeds last summer, it seemed like the club had come as close as possible to replacing Chris Wood.

The German got off to an electrifying start at Elland Road, scoring two and assisting two on his debut, but things quickly turned sour for the big German.

After a thigh injury in November, Lasogga managed just two goals in eight league games on his return.

He did score three games in a row during February, but he hasn’t found the net since then and fans are growing tired of his languid style.

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The 26 year-old is of course only at the club on loan from Hamburg, and fans are debating whether they should make the move permanent.

On one hand, Lasogga clearly knows where the back of the net is, and he is a much better finisher than the likes of Caleb Ekuban and Jay-Roy Grot.

However, the German has been downright lazy in recent months, and there is just no place for that in a league as tough as the Championship.

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Some of the best Twitter reactions can be found below…

Everton youngster Ross Barkley enjoyed a terrific campaign last season and became an instrumental part of the side that narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification. Dubbed as England’s next big thing, there was plenty of hype surrounding the 21-year-old after some assured displays where he was a potent attacking threat scoring some brilliant goals. He looked destined for a very bright future.

Fast forward a year and things aren’t going quite as well for the England midfielder, who along with his team has struggled for form this season. Having failed to hold down a regular starting place in Roberto Martinez’s starting XI, he has scored just twice in 28 appearances. The Toffees have endured an extremely disappointing league campaign and find themselves down in 13th position, closer to the bottom three than the top four.

But despite a lacklustre season at Goodison Park, Barkley continues to be linked with a move away from Merseyside with reports connecting him to both Chelsea and Manchester City in a deal that could be worth a staggering £50million.

How much substance there is to these reports remains to be seen, but you feel if a sizeable bid of this sort of value came in during the summer both the club and player would find it hard to resist.

Yet despite the obvious attraction of a potential move to one of the giants of Premier League football with the prospect of league titles and Champions League football, at this stage in his career Barkley would be making a big mistake.

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At just 21, he still has plenty to do in order to develop into the world class talent that he could become one day. And at this moment in time he has at the best club possible in order to achieve this.

He just needs to look at the numerous examples of players that have shown bags of potential before moves to the likes Chelsea and Manchester City, where they then found their career going backwards as they sat on the bench week in week out. Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Scott Sinclair, Jack Rodwell…the list goes on.

It’s hard to see Barkley being able to force himself into the starting 11 of Chelsea or City for next season, and so when he could be playing regular for his current side, he would be watching from the sidelines at a crucial point in his career.

For now he should ignore any speculation of interest from elsewhere, as hard as it may be. Most importantly he needs to rediscover the form and confidence that he displayed in abundance last season and keep his head down and continue to work hard and improve at a club that will give him the opportunity to do so.

Providing he can do this, there’s no doubt he will get his move to one of the league’s top clubs. But he has to do this when the time is right and he’s performing on a consistent basis.

Quotes from the man himself this week have revealed Barkley feels his best position is as a striker, despite playing the majority of his career in an attacking midfield role. The youngster feels this is where he can have his greatest impact with the freedom to roam around, take players on, have shots and create chances. And having seen Barkley excel in these areas last season you can certainly see where he is coming from.

In light of these quotes, Martinez now has the perfect opportunity to help him realise Everton is where he needs to be to spend the next few seasons playing football. The Spaniard should give Barkley the role in the side he is craving and give him the opportunity to form a partnership with Lukaku in attack. The manager should build his side around the promising duo, giving Barkley the freedom to do what he does best and hopefully this well help Everton challenge for European qualification once again next season.

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By showing faith in Barkley in this way, it would surely help restore his confidence that has clearly been lacking at times this season, and we would then see the best of him on a weekly basis. Playing for his boyhood club in his favourite position regularly would certainly make him happy and allow for the necessary development and experience that he needs to reach the highest level.

However tempting it may be to move on, Barkley has to stay at Everton for at least another season and probably more. It’s the best thing for him in the long run and would be most beneficial to him and his football. Were he to complete a transfer in the coming months, he is in real danger of damaging his career before it has really got going.

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Antolin Alcaraz says everyone at Wigan is focused on staying in the Premier League despite an FA Cup semi-final on the horizon.

Latics head to Wembley on April 13 to face Millwall in the FA Cup semi-finals, but, of far more significance, with Roberto Martinez’s side currently in the bottom three, is Saturday’s visit of Norwich followed by a trip to QPR.

Alcaraz admits the players are looking forward to their Wembley date but is well aware there are some crucial league games to be played before then and everyone is focused on survival.

“We have Wembley to look forward to but for me the most important game is always the next one and that is Norwich City,” the Paraguay international told the Wigan Evening Post.

“We will worry about the FA Cup when it comes around next month.

“For now we must concentrate on the league because there are some important games coming up.

“We have shown in the last few games that we can win games in this league and we must keep that up if we are to move away from the bottom of the table.”

Alcaraz has only just returned to the side after more than six months out with a groin problem and he is looking to make up for lost time.

“My season only really started two weeks ago,” he said. “Everything before that I have forgotten about because it was not so good.

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“Fortunately there is still time for me to make a difference – and I hope that is the case.”

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Anthony Martial’s Manchester United career has had its highs and lows since the attacker’s switch from Monaco in 2015.

The Frenchman is a big favourite within the club’s fanbase, but he is yet to fully convince manager Jose Mourinho.

The forward player is yet to cement a regular spot in the Red Devils team having been restricted to 16 Premier League games.

Martial has made a further 10 outings from the bench in the top flight, and so far this season has netted 11 goals and created seven assists in all competitions.

The lack of game time could become a crucial factor in the Frenchman’s future, with reports emerging that the 22-year-old is heading for the exit door.

According to RMC Sport, Martial has turned down a new contract offered to him at Old Trafford, which could potentially attract interest from other clubs.

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Manchester City fans have been discussing whether the club should make a move for the attacker, despite the fact that he plays for their arch rivals.

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I’ve heard Arsene Wenger make some pretty audacious claims before, such as ‘a returning player is like a new signing’ and ‘once Aaron Ramsey starts scoring, he’ll never stop’, but Arsenal winning this season’s Champions League title? I’m sorry Wenger – and Gunners fans – it’s just not going to happen.

There’s a pattern to the Champions League that doesn’t really get talked about. In the last 17 years, since the gigantic fiscal influence of the tournament first began cementing the position of the world’s top clubs with a seeming permanence, only Chelsea, Liverpool, Porto and Inter Milan have been able to break up the continent’s oligopoly; AC Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester United.

Excluding the former and, more recently, the latter, they make the last eight every year without fail and usually the last four, so with Bayern, Barca and Real Madrid still firmly in the mix and all enjoying relatively good health this season, history suggests club football’s most coveted prize will once again go to one of them.

That may seem presumptuous and admittedly, Arsenal are one of the clubs just outside that bracket – a Porto of 2004, a Liverpool of 2005, a Borussia Dortmund of 2013 – that, on paper at least, have enough quality to conquer the Champions League’s higher powers.

Yet, the north Londoners haven’t surpassed the first knock-out round since 2011 and reached the semi-finals just twice throughout their entire involvement in the Champions League, spanning back to 1999, and there’s an obvious reason for that; compared to Chelsea, Porto or Liverpool, hard-working, well-organised, tactically-adept, pragmatic sides, the Gunners just aren’t purpose-built for European double-leggers.

Recent improvements against the Premier League’s big-boys, a bitter-fought, surprisingly disciplined and industrious 2-0 away with at Manchester City in January and a 2-2 draw at Anfield in December, for example, might initially suggest otherwise.

But after 17 years under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s intrinsic weaknesses are inescapable and well-discussed throughout the continent. Sir Alex Ferguson devoted two whole chapters in his autobiography to the formula of beating Arsenal – congesting the midfield before exploiting the gaps between their full-backs and centre-halves on the counter – and Jose Mourinho’s had their number since 2004, so if the best, and on occasion, the worst, of the Premier League know how to unhinge the Gunners over the course of ninety minutes, Europe’s elite, further aided by two legs to heap humiliation, certainly do.

Arsenal’s Champions League results from earlier in the season say it all; a 2-0 defeat to a Borussia Dortmund side currently fighting for their lives at the bottom of the Bundesliga table and a 3-3 draw, in which they originally held a three-goal lead, to Anderlecht at home. That shock result against the Belgian outfit gave a worrying insight into the naive, arrogant mentality of the Arsenal squad, and although there’s been a renewed sense of balance to their play in recent weeks, the sparing inclusions of overlooked academy product Francis Coquelin is hardly enough to counteract nearly two decades’ worth of self-destructively expansive football that’s ingrained into this Gunners side.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m certain Arsenal will stroll their way past an exceptionally ordinary Monaco outfit this evening and again in Mid-January, breaking their three-year curse of failing to advance to the quarter-finals.

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Combined with the Emirates outfit’s annual habit of coming into form just in time for the business end of their campaign however, I’m concerned it will lead to sensationalised interpretations of where Arsenal are really at right now – and Wenger’s latest declaration of winning the tournament certainly doesn’t help. Few, if any, of the Gunners players would get into Europe’s top sides – in fact, their two leading talents, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, are essential rejects of Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.

There’s often an element of luck involved in the Champions League and prior experience tells us that the best side don’t always win. But fortune in Europe favours those with the resilience, tenacity, patience and organisation to overcome the gulfs in quality. Unfortunately, those are all characteristics Arsenal currently lack.

West Ham United and Newcastle are set to battle it out with Barcelona for the signing of Toulouse defender Aymen Abdennour, according to Talksport

The Tunisian international has been earning rave reviews in the French league this season, interesting a host of top European sides, including Barcelona.

The Catalan giants have already sent their representatives to watch the defender in action as they source a long-term replacement for club legend Carlos Puyol.

But it now looks as though Barcelona won’t have it all their own way as they battle for his signature with Newcastle and West Ham declaring their interest in the defender.

Magpies boss Alan Pardew will fancy his chances of bringing Abdennour to the club having achieved a number of successful Ligue 1 raids over the last couple of seasons, including the signings of influential midfielders Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa.

But Sam Allardyce is also said to be keen on bringing the big Tunisian to the Premier League and the West Ham manager is desperate to provide defensive competition to his backline as he tries to build his defence around New Zealand captain Winston Reid.

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Any move from an English club will of course depend on Barcelona’s involvement as neither side will be able to match a bid from the Spanish side.

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Patrice Evra’s last season was his worst personally and the club’s worst as well; the abomination under David Moyes.

Yet, there is no doubt that he is still held in very high regard among the Old Trafford fanbase and there was genuine excitement in some quarters when he raised the prospect of returning to the club last year.

The left-back, now valued at £900k by Transfermarkt, is currently reunited with Moyes at West Ham United where the pair are now battling relegation.

Despite the intensity of the situation – on and off the pitch – at the London Stadium, Evra has taken some time out to share some cheer over Easter with ill children at nearby Newham Hospital.

Hammers fans might be slightly concerned by the distraction at a time of intense pressure but Man United fans absolutely lapped it up and enjoyed the reminder of what they were missing at their club.

We’ve taken a closer look at the best of the reaction…

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How times change! This time last year Marouane Fellaini was coming to the end of a hugely difficult debut season at Manchester United and looked set to be booted out of Old Trafford.

But in the 12 months that’s followed, the Belgian has reasserted his dominance over United’s midfield and in the process has scored some very important goals for his club.

Fellaini joined United in the summer transfer window last year for a fee of £27.5million in what turned out to be the only signing for the Red Devils. Last season, Fellaini only made 16 appearances without scoring and, according to the Daily Mail, the 27-year-old has confessed that he felt the media had made him a scapegoat for United’s failings under David Moyes.

Understandably, when United went from current Premier League champions to a squad that were putting in disappointing performances and ultimately finished seventh, supporters and the media were going to find people to blame. Those people were Moyes, who lost his job, and Fellaini who was labelled a waste of money.

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After impressing for five seasons while playing under David Moyes at Everton, many speculated that it was perhaps an injury and lack of confidence that was causing the player’s form to dip, and therefore less being less effective for his new club. Now, 18 months since his arrival, Fellaini seems to have regained his previous self-belief and is back to being his typically aggressive self, which is reflected in his more positive performances recently.

Fellaini uses both his strength and tall 6ft 4in frame to his advantage, easily able to overpower the opposition off the ball and winning headers particularly in the box. He can be very dangerous from corners and set-pieces, which he has proven numerous times this season.

At first it seemed that manager Louis van Gaal did not see Fellaini as part of his regular starting XI, but due to several injuries the midfielder got his chance to prove he does in fact deserve his place. Now with only eight games of the season left, Fellaini has found himself starting in big games, such as United’s 3-0 win against Tottenham, in which he scored their opening goal, and their 2-1 victory over long time rivals Liverpool last weekend.

Although he’s used to playing as a midfielder through-out most of his career, Van Gaal has been using him in a more advanced role and this seems to suit the player to a tee. When United need a player to power through or get on the end of a long ball then Fellaini is the man they call on.

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As United enter the international break sitting comfortably in fourth and only two points adrift of second place, the club seem to be on their way to delivering on their promise of Champions League football next season. So despite his tough first year, if Marouane Fellaini can continue bullying the opposition and scoring important goals, then the Old Trafford faithful will forgive his dodgy first 12 months and Fellaini should be a Red Devil for some time to come.

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Everton winger Kevin Mirallas is confident that manager David Moyes will stay at Goodison Park.

The Scot’s future with the Premier League club is in some doubt, with reports emerging that he has postponed contract talks with the Merseysiders’ hierarchy.

Moyes’ deal with the Toffees expires at the end of the season, and he has been linked with a number of roles at other clubs.

Some have suggested that he could be in line to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, while there is also speculation that he may move abroad in a bid to develop his reputation within European football.

But, Mirallas, who moved to the club from Olympiakos over the summer, wants Moyes to stay put:

“Of course I would be keen if he signed, he showed confidence in me by bringing me to club,” he told Sky Sports.

“He has been Everton for many years and is very popular with the fans, chairman and players and I am sure he will sign, I cannot see why he wouldn’t because of those reasons.”

Everton could only manage a 2-2 draw with Oldham in their FA Cup fifth round tie over the weekend, but Mirallas is hopeful that they can lift the trophy at Wembley, and would sacrifice Champions League football to do so:

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“If it was down to me winning a trophy would be great, but Champions League qualification would be fantastic.”

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