SIX weeks. That was all it took to convince David Moyes that Everton could challenge at the right end of the Premier League table this season.

Having seen pre-season promise evaporate swiftly in recent campaigns, this year was always supposed to be different. It has been.

Victory over Manchester United on the opening weekend of the season set the tone. Everton set off fast, and have maintained that form for the bulk of the campaign. Not once have they been outside the Premier League’s top seven.

It is not the top seven, however, that is on Moyes’ mind right now. His side head to Arsenal this evening looking to put themselves right into the mix for a top-four finish, and with it a Champions League place.

Moyes has never tasted victory at the Emirates, or even Highbury before that, as a manager, but this time the stakes are high.

A win would move them to within a point of the third-placed Gunners, and level with both Chelsea and Tottenham, who play on Wednesday. It would also confirm his early-season suspicions that Everton were contenders, not pretenders, this time around.

“I think with the way we played in the first six or eight weeks of the season, I thought we could be near the top four,” Moyes says.

“And if Everton did have a chance of making the Champions League, then it could change an awful lot of things for us as a football club. It nearly did in 2005 when we qualified and played Villarreal, of course.

“But I’m loath to talk it up and think that way, because it is such a difficult game for us. Our record has not been good at the Emirates and we go there as big underdogs.

“If we won, then maybe I would start thinking of how big a game it was for Everton.”

Moyes’ tone could be mistaken for pessimism. Perhaps that would be understandable. The Blues’ record away to the Premier League’s big boys is not great, after all.

The Emirates remains a bogey ground, but Everton must also visit Liverpool and Chelsea before the season’s end. They have never won at either under Moyes. That, according to the manager, will have to change if they are to hit the top four.

“If we are to get into the Champions League, then we are going to have to win one of those big away games,” he says. “I’ve said that to the players.

“In fact, realistically we might need to win more than one. We are trying to break new ground in a lot of ways.

“But we’ve done well this season. We came out of January not too bad, but the teams around us had done so well. Even though I thought we had played quite well and got some good results, we were still just struggling to hang onto them.

“And then obviously we didn’t have a particularly good February, so it started to look as though it was unlikely. But the form in the last month or two has kept us going, and we’ve had some big results.

“It’s a sign that we are trying to keep progressing. Are we realistically challengers for the Champions League? Probably not.

“But we are in with an outside chance. With a month to go, we have a possibility, and a couple of big games could get us in there.”

Tonight, though, promises to be a sizeable task. Moyes says he was unaware of Arsenal’s weekend struggles, which saw them require three goals in the final five minutes to secure a 3-1 at home to Norwich City, but he is well aware of the talent which lies within Arsene Wenger’s side. The Gunners have won seven of their last eight games.

“They’re playing well,” Moyes admits. “But they are coming up against an in-form team themselves, so they have to deal with that.

“Is there more pressure on Arsenal? I don’t think so. But they have got a game at home. Arsenal are a team who have been in the Champions League for so many years running. It’s an incredible record.

“But their supporters want more than just qualifying for the Champions League, they want to win it, or to win the league.

“Our expectations, not too long ago, were that we’d maybe finish in the top 10. Now the fans want more than top 10, they want Europe.

“If we win this one, we’ll be right in there with an opportunity. If we lose, then probably that chance of making the top four has gone. That’s what we’re working with.”

It promises to be a night of intrigue in North London. The stakes are high, but so is Everton’s confidence.