David Moyes has accepted that Everton's recent defeat to Portsmouth could have ended their chase for a Champions League place. "Losing at Portsmouth may well have made our Champions League qualification difficult with Arsenal winning," he said.

"But we will keep hanging on in there and hopefully try to catch them if we can.

"Those results make it doubly difficult but Arsenal still have Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea to play, that was why I was hoping to stay within four points of them.

"At the moment they are seven ahead so that is quite a gap."

Despite their lead Moyes is adamant that he will continue to push his side in the event of the Gunners slipping up.

"I don't know if I can say it is the final furlong yet because there is quite a way to go with the season going on until the end of May," he added.

"We want that final push if we can and we want the players to carry on doing what they have been doing because they have been very good up to now.

"We want that excitement to remain. The job is to keep it that way, that means getting to a cup final, hanging in there in the league and qualifying for Europe, because for me that is a big thing to do.

"If we can do that we can look back and decide whether it is a positive season or not."