Cucurella: ‘Everton is one of our most important games of the season’ | News | Official Site

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Cucurella: 'Everton is one of our most important games of the season' | News | Official Site

Marc Cucurella believes today’s match with Everton will be one of our most important games of the season so far.

The Blues head into this game in fifth position, one point and two places above visitors Everton.

We have slipped down the table slightly over the last couple of weeks as following an unbeaten November, we suffered defeat away to Leeds United and drew at Bournemouth, which was then followed by another loss on the road in the Champions League.

The Blues are now eight points below league leaders Arsenal, six off Manchester City in second, five below Aston Villa and one behind Crystal Palace. While below us, just six points separate the Blues with 14th-place Brentford.

And Cucurella said: ‘It is very important [for us to get back to winning ways]. For me, this is one of the most important games of the season because we played really well before the last two weeks and then we have struggled to win these last two weeks.

‘We will be playing at home, we need these three points and we want to stay up there [near the top of the table] again so I think it is a very important game.’

As for our visitors, only Manchester City and Aston Villa (15) have won more points in the last six Premier League games than Everton (13). The Toffees have won four of their last five matches in the competition, keeping a clean sheet in each victory.

And since David Moyes’ first away game back in charge of Everton in January, only Arsenal (30) have won more away Premier League points than Everton (27) and no side has won more away games in that time than the Toffees (eight).

Cucurella said: ‘They are playing really well, they have won a lot of games and they are only having one game a week so they are arriving very fresh.

‘Hopefully we can play a good game, we can arrive focused, we can control the game.

‘We expect them to be very good in transition and they have really good players so hopefully we can control them and win the game.’

One of the players to star for Everton this season is our former midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

The 27-year-old was a key part of the side that lifted the Conference League last season and he featured in five of our seven matches at the Club World Cup.

In total, Dewsbury-Hall made 36 appearances in our colours during his maiden season with us but with only two starts coming in the Premier League, the midfielder swapped London for Merseyside and joined Everton in a permanent deal last summer.

Dewsbury-Hall was a popular member of the squad around Cobham and Cucurella said: ‘I am very happy for him, although hopefully he plays badly against us! But no, I am very happy for him because he is a very good team-mate.

‘Last season he was always with a smile, he is a very good person and he probably didn’t play as much as he [felt he] deserved or what he expected but he always stayed with a smile and when he had minutes, he played really well and tried his best so I am really happy for him.’