 DAVID MOYES today allayed fears Mikel Arteta needs surgery to cure his troublesome groin injury - and also predicted Everton’s best form is yet to come. The Blues stretched their current unbeaten run in the Premier League to a seventh game on Monday evening with a 2-0 win against Manchester City but they achieved that without the influential Arteta. He has returned to Spain again - just as he did two weeks ago when Everton played SK Brann in Bergen - to undergo extensive treatment on an ailment that Arteta says has been bothering him for the last three months. But Moyes expects Arteta to be available for Sunday’s crunch clash with Portsmouth at Goodison Park and hopes a combination of rest and recuperation in between games will see the 25-year-old play his part in the push for the Champions League. “Mikel has been worried about this for a few months and so have we,” said Moyes, who is unsure whether Manuel Fernandes, who limped off in the win at City, will be ready for the weekend. “It’s something we hope will be cured by rest and it’s not a problem that will need surgery. “He will keep getting treatment and have some injections to get him through it. We will just have to see how he is.” If Arteta fails to pass the doctors this weekend, though, Moyes has every faith that the team that started at Eastlands will be good enough to extend Everton’s hot streak and keep them in the top four. That performance made a wider audience sit up and take notice of the kind of football Everton can play but the manager has a feeling that the improvement his players have shown this winter has not come to an end. “We are really pleased with how things are going,” said Moyes. “I think we have come back into form and our confidence is growing again. “I saw bits of it in the away game against Brann when we passed the ball well. “Maybe we didn’t do as well at home – albeit we scored six goals – but against City everything came together. “But I’m hopeful that our best performances are still to arrive. “We certainly need that to be the case.” Meanwhile, the Blues, who have confirmed they have submitted an application for the Intertoto Cup, will be without Lee Carsley for the trip to Sunderland on Sunday, March 9, after he was booked for the fifth time this season against City. Phil Neville and Steven Pienaar, however, do not have to walk a disciplinary tightrope any longer. The pair were on four bookings but a yellow card amnesty means they are now able to continue without worry of a ban. | 
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