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A YEAR ago David Moyes likened a trip to face Manchester City as like taking a knife to a gunfight. The line was from the Untouchables and at times last term with David Silva weaving his magic, City were the Unplayables.

But even though Roberto Mancini’s men have still not lost at home since Everton beat them at the Etihad stadium in 2010, Moyes admits that the task of defeating them on home turf today is not quite as fiercely daunting.

That isn’t to suggest Moyes believes City no longer represent the toughest of tests for any visiting side, but he knows his own team have evolved since that frank assessment in 2011.

“I feel a bit better,” says the Scot who is hoping to close the gap on fourth-placed West Brom by ending City’s remarkable 36-game unbeaten run in East Manchester this afternoon.

“If you think about where we were this time last year and at that time Man City were flying.

“We went into that in a real difficult situation and we put up a really good show, we were unlucky in the end not to take something from it.

“It’s very hard to just say you’re going to attack teams. I watched Chelsea and Man city and they found it hard to attack them because they’re a really good team.”

Moyes deployed Jack Rodwell to man-mark Silva last term and set his stall out to stifle the home side, a shrewd formation that almost worked before a booking limited the Everton midfielder’s remit and City ran out eventual 2-0 winners courtesy of goals from Mario Balotelli and James Milner, who will miss today’s game.

“People who were looking at it would understand where Everton were at that time, and maybe said they’ve tried to go there and get themselves a result – and let’s be fair, for 70, 75 minutes we’d done a job. It needed to be,” says Moyes.

“At that time David Silva was the best player in the Premier League and running every game. Every game I’d seen him play he was outstanding and still is.”

While there has been no love lost in this fixture over recent seasons, particularly since the £22m sale of Joleon Lescott to Mark Hughes’ City in 2009, Moyes knows that cash from that deal – and the £10m sale of Jack Rodwell in the summer – have helped his club progress.

“We have used the monies that we got from them as well as we can, and the club will always be bigger than any player or manager,” he says.

“You lose a player, he wants to leave, then fine, you have to find a solution and fix it. That’s what we’ve had to do.

“It was difficult (selling Rodwell) because he’s a young up and coming England international and I’ve tended not to do that, I’ve tended to hold and keep those players.

But I knew that I probably needed to find something from somewhere and the only solution was possibly Jack. I didn’t see it coming, I didn’t think there was a deal in the offing.

“When it did, I thought maybe it allows us to address one or two others, it allowed me to go and get Kevin Mirallas for example.

“And because of that it gave me the feeling I could be a bit more offensive, a bit more attack minded if we could get another forward who could score us some goals.

“When Joleon left, Everton were in a different place to where we are now.

“I know we had a year we finished fourth, but if you look at Everton today I think there’s more solidity, and Everton look more likely now to be at the top end than they were then.

“So I can understand why the player wanted to go, there was a big project going on at Manchester City but it still was a disappointing one for me.

“I saw Jags and Joleon as being at that time behind Terry and Ferdinand as the next England partnership, and maybe I’m not that far off the mark, where they are now.”

With question marks remaining over the fitness of key players like Kevin Mirallas and now Leighton Baines ahead of today’s showdown, Moyes is glad to be able to call on durable veterans like Leon Osman – who he has deployed in a deeper role in skipper Phil Neville’s absence.

“I used him wee bit deeper the other night because with Phil Neville out of the team he has to take on that role a little bit for us,” he says.

“We’d like to get him a bit nearer the edge of the box a bit more, where he can sort of tricky-dicky a little bit.

“The nature of the game (v Arsenal), we needed him.

“He’s had to take over a bit of that role in the middle of the park, being around and not leaving the middle of the pitch too often and being in position.

“Whereas we’d be quite happy to let him go and have a wander and maybe get around the edge of the box a bit more and nick a goal sometimes.

“I’ve said many times he’s got good football savvy which means that you tell him and he understands and he’ll do it to the best of his ability.”

Another midfielder Moyes will be glad to have at his disposal today is Steven Pienaar, who appeared to have rediscovered top form against the Gunners.

Moyes added: “It was the best he’d played for a long time. I didn’t want to break up the balance of Pienaar and Baines because they’ve been playing so well.

“But because I don’t want to be predictable I will move Steven now and again so people can’t plan for it.

“He’s had four or five games where he’s just been a bit off-colour, it was good to get him back at the level which we know he can play at.”