Everton boss Dave Moyes believes their defeat to Aston Villa in December was a turning point in their season.

"I think the biggest thing is the reaction since the Villa game," Moyes told evertonTV. "We could have gone one way or the other after that, it could have affected us. But the players deserve a lot of credit for the way they've gone about it since then.

"The clean sheets have helped us because there have been some games when we've been really tight - like Manchester City, for example - and we've scored late on to win it. Sometimes you have to do that and it's pleasing we can do that."

The fact the Blues entered the festive season without a recognised striker makes the run all the more impressive and Moyes has been delighted with the way his midfielders have shouldered the scoring burden.

"We've had to (look to midfielders) because we don't have that goalscorer. That's something we're going to have to try to cover as much as we can because if you lose someone like Yakubu - 20 goals a season - it's very difficult to replace that.

"But at the present time we've been getting results and the boys have been chipping in like Ossie (Leon Osman), like Tim Cahill - who is a goalscorer for us anyway - and we've got to hope some of the others, and the defenders, come in with some goals as well."