Oviedo: ‘We were distracted by Wembley’

Bryan Oviedo admitted that the prospect of a League Cup Final distracted Everton from their Premier League form, according to the Belfast Telegraph.

Everton played Manchester City in the semi-final over two legs and after a good performance in the home leg, beating City 2-1, they eventually lost 4-3 on aggregate after suffering a controversial 3-1 loss in the away leg.

Oviedo said:

The Capital One Cup maybe was a little distraction from the Premier League for us.

The Toffees defender added that the defeat to City was hard to take and that the whole team were massively disappointed not to be in the final against Merseyside rivals Liverpool.

The Blues have suffered late equalising and winning goals this season and their victory over Newcastle last night was their first win at home since November and only their second clean sheet in the league at home all season.

However, Oviedo explained that the team are now fully concentrated on the Premier League and FA Cup, which they are now into the fifth round of after a comfortable 3-0 win against League Two outfit Carlisle United.

 We need to make a winning team. I think the team looked strong (against Newcastle) and we need to continue like that because the next games are very important for us.

Everton remain in eleventh place, eleven points off the relegation zone, which some may say is below where they should be considering the players they have and the winning positions they have put themselves in.

Everton face Stoke at the weekend, hoping that the Newcastle win will be a springboard towards better things come the end of the season.