You should try to leave personal reasons out of your footballing decisions, but David Moyes does have a personal stake in the next match Manchester United play, which just happens to be against his former team, who are doing quite well without him.
Moyes has to win because Manchester United are 8th in the Premier League, nine points away from Arsenal. They are only two points away from a Champions League spot which they probably will achieve when this season is over, but a club like United can’t raise a white flag this early in the season and look like the only team giving up on the championship, while the gunners are chased by Chelsea, Manchester City and even Liverpool.
Moyes can’t afford not to win because he’s dropped four points over the last two matches. A draw in Tottenham, a team Manchester United failed to beat last season, doesn’t sound like a disaster, but when it comes after a draw against Cardiff, continuing a long streak of unimpressive Premier League performances, it’s easy to see that the three consecutive wins in October-November didn’t really ease off the pressure from Moyes. It was simply put on hold, waiting for the next opportunity to pop up.
But there are also personal reasons for Moyes to win this match, facing Everton and Roberto Martinez. For once, Everton are a team that are a joy to watch. This isn’t exactly Barcelona, Dortmund or Arsenal at their finest, but an improved midfield with James McCarthy and Gareth Barry, while Romelu Lukaku is proving Jose Mourinho wrong with every goal he scores.
David Moyes is credited for some good seasons at Everton and doing a lot without too many funds coming his way. Still, he never made it into the Champions League, and European appearances weren’t something Toffee fans have gotten used to. Martinez at the moment has Everton at 5th, looking like a team that belongs with the very best in the Premier League. Showing that against Moyes, at Old Trafford, will be quite an insult to everything Moyes and his supporters have claimed to achieve with the club, and cast a lot of doubt on the reasoning behind his hiring at Manchester United.