Everton FC boss David Moyes believes Louis Saha has rediscovered goal-scoring “beauty” after strike against Fulham

Oct 26 2011 by Greg O'Keeffe, Liverpool Echo

DAVID Moyes believes Louis Saha has rediscovered his goal-scoring “beauty” after a strike against Fulham that could signal a turnaround in the forward’s season.

The Everton manager hopes that Saha’s late goal on Sunday, his first since March, will coax him back to top form, as he considers restoring the 33-year-old to his starting line-up against Chelsea tonight.

Moyes’ men face Andre Villas-Boas’ wounded side at Goodison on the back of their stormy 1-0 defeat by QPR, and Saha has netted against the Londoners under the Goodison floodlights before – most notably a memorable brace during a Wednesday night victory in February 2010.

Moyes said: “I think it will help him a lot. I don’t know what you’d call a typical Louis goal but it was nearly one. It had that speed off the mark, he knocked it just a yard or two ahead of the defender, took another touch and then finished it.

“It was the sort of goal you expected from him, and had that speed. When he’s in that sort of motion and like that – it’s like a work of art. It’s like a beauty.

“He’s still athletic in those moments and he shows that.”

Moyes insists Chelsea represent a stern challenge, even if they will be without Jose Bosingwa, Didier Drogba and Ashley Cole, who are all suspended.

“I think Chelsea are going into most games playing well and looking as if they can win most of them,” he said. “I thought QPR did well, they got ahead and the sending-offs altered it. But I thought Chelsea played really well with nine men.”

Everton were beaten 3-1 at Chelsea in the league 10 days ago, although Villas-Boas is set to field a considerably altered line-up tonight.

Moyes indicated he would make some adjustments from his team’s 3-1 victory at Fulham at the weekend.

“I’ve no idea if he (Villas-Boas) will make changes or not – I don’t know where on the priority list this cup competition comes for him,” Moyes said. “But there aren’t that many trophies to win and you don’t want to give up any too easily.”

Asked if he saw it as an opportunity to give some of his younger players a run-out, Moyes said: “We have the chance if we want to do that. But we want to try to progress as well. We will be working with roughly the same 18 or 19 players.

“We have got a few knocks and we will just need to assess them beforehand.”

That could mean a chance for 17-year-old Ross Barkley to return to the first-team squad after being omitted since the last Carling Cup outing against West Brom.

“I think Ross deserved to start in the team because of his form in pre-season,” he said. “There’s just been a bit of a dip in him which we’ve seen in training.

“We’ve got to remember this is a 17-year-old boy and we shouldn’t be trying to expect too much too soon from him.

“There’s signs that he’s beginning to edge towards coming back, I’ve seen a couple of things in training in the last few days.”