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Wednesday 6 February 2019 07:45, UK
Marco Silva insists Everton are determined to beat Manchester City on Wednesday even if it helps Merseyside rivals Liverpool in the Premier League title race.
City will return to the top of the table if they beat the Toffees at Goodison Park, after Liverpool were held to a 1-1 draw by West Ham on Monday night.
Silva insists he is not concerned with the title race and his only focus is on returning to winning ways with Everton, after Saturday's disappointing 3-1 defeat to Wolves.
"What I want really and what my feeling is, is not this title race," said Silva. "It is not for us to look to that fight.
"We know what our fight is. For sure our fans, what they want tomorrow is our team winning the game. That is the most important thing.
"You are talking about one title and at this moment not just two teams are fighting, I think more than two teams are fighting for the title.
"There are many, many games to play and nothing will be decided in our game against City. We have to look to ourselves, what is our aim for the match?
"We have to do everything we can, it will be tough. The other fight is not for us to think about."
Idrissa Gana Gueye has been passed fit to face City after missing Everton's last two matches with a groin injury, but the midweek game has come too soon for injured trio Yerry Mina, Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka.
"Just Gana will be okay for the match," said Silva. "All the others are not in condition to be part of the squad for tomorrow.
"Let's see if Mina can start with us in the next few days. Let's see if he will be able to play in the next match, but for tomorrow no."
Everton have won just three of their last 12 Premier League matches and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Sky Bet Championship side Millwall last month.
However, club owner Farhad Moshiri has given his public backing to Silva and insists the Portuguese is building for the "long term" at Goodison Park.
Speaking about the support from Moshiri, Silva said: "It is something that I've felt from the first day that I joined the club.
"In this job it is normal [to face scrutiny]. When you are winning games in a row it is normal that the things people say about you are good.
"When the results are not what we expect, it is normal this type of situation. This is nothing new in the club if you look at the last three seasons at Everton it is something you hear almost every month.
"I am here now in the present, I'm here to talk about the present. The confidence he showed in me, we are always in contact.
"I know his feelings. I know our project. When he spoke the young players, of course you cannot win matches with just young players, we took a decision at the beginning of the season for some of them to be in our squad.
"When I changed three players in the last match, I changed with one 20 years old and the other two 21 years old. Maybe this is not a normal thing in the past for a club like Everton.
"But it is a decision we took as a club when we didn't attack the market in January. We took the decision together."
