Everton are seventh in the Premier League table with the chance to move above Liverpool into fifth if they can beat Coventry at home. They are also into a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Fleetwood. This has been a promising start for David Moyes.

"When you start to talk about quarter-finals, it sounds good," Moyes tells Sky Sports. "Every Evertonian wants a cup run because we have been so long since we have been near lifting any trophies. My expectations are that I want us to be challenging."

There was not huge optimism at the start of the season when Everton sold Iliman Ndiaye and were unable to make the signings they had hoped for late in the transfer window. "We had a difficult summer," concedes Moyes. But it has been a better autumn.

"I think the players have done a great job in getting ourselves into this position." But how about some credit for the manager too? Everton were at a low ebb when he took over last year, but Moyes has more than stabilised, raising the standards at the club again.

Next month, in his second spell alone, he will become Everton's longest-serving manager since Roberto Martinez - the man who first replaced him over 13 years ago. But there is a bigger landmark that he will reach at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Friday.

It marks 592 games in charge of Everton across two spells, equalling the record of Harry Catterick, the man who twice won the title with the Toffees. For Moyes, it is a source of great pride. "Making that amount of games is quite a big thing," he acknowledges.

"I am really respectful of the managers, Harry Catterick, Howard Kendall, who were here before me. They are names which are spoken wildly about from Evertonians." Moyes, the great survivor of the Premier League era, has his own place in the club's history.

His longevity means that he has faced over 300 different managers in a career that has seen him pit his wits - and win - against everyone from Sir Bobby Robson to Mikel Arteta. Matthias Jaissle, whose Newcastle side he beat on Monday, was just the latest.

"It sounds really strange," he says, when that number is put to him. He namechecks Carlo Ancelotti, Pep [Guardiola] and Jurgen Klopp, Champions League winners one and all. "You could go on and on." But he is aware that not everyone has had such success.

"There are also a lot of them who have not been able to stay the course, get the games and find a way of seeing through what it is like in the Premier League year after year." As Moyes points out, getting to the top is one thing. It takes a range of skills to stay there.

"I see a lot of really good young coaches out there now," he says. "Lots of good ideas. It is whether they are able to transfer their good ideas into good management skills, leadership, all the things that are required behind the scenes at a football club."

Any key principles that have helped him stay a Premier League manager for so long? "I always thought working harder than everybody else would give me a better chance of being successful. I would be at games most nights, watching players on the up."

There is the work ethic. "Because of my upbringing." And there is the passion for the game. "I love football, always have done. Love watching it, going to see it." But the part people can miss about Moyes is that he sees himself as someone who is still learning.

He talks of the "continuous coaching courses year after year even though I have already passed all my badges" and that ongoing desire to know more. "It is about evolving and education yourself differently, seeing what is new and how things are moving," he says.

"We all have our principles, but there are so many changes, brilliant coaches who have changed how it is seen." His coaching staff helps. "In the early days, we did not have the staff, all the people around us." But much of the job remains about man-management.

At 63, Moyes is old enough to be a grandfather to some of the young men he is relying upon to get a result. How does he connect? "You have to find a way to understand them and what they need, how they want to be treated, how you speak to them," he explains.

And that last part has certainly changed. Moyes credits the League Managers' Association for helping him appreciate that. "My adaptation has come through educating myself," he says. "Players are under pressure. They feel it from everywhere."

There is the example of Thierno Barry, who recently released a video of him appearing particularly emotional after a one-on-one training session, his frustrations getting the better of him. The young Moyes would not be facing questions about YouTube diaries.

"That is part of the modern footballer's life. When I started out, it was a sport where you did not show any vulnerability. People would take advantage of it. We are much more open to that. It is accepted. The good thing is Thierno wants to make himself better."

And some things remain the same across the generations, as true now as when Moyes started out at Preston in 1998. "All young players just want to be given an opportunity. I understand what that means to young people. You just need someone to trust you."

Moyes has trusted 19-year-old Harrison Armstrong with nine starts out of nine this season and he still gets a kick out it. "You get as big a thrill when you see your players succeed. Jim Garner got called up for England last year, which I was thrilled about."

He remembers the example of Leon Osman from his first time around at Everton. "I think he was over 30 when he got his first England cap." Now there is the talented England defender Jarred Branthwaite. "If we can get more like that, it will be great."

But the main priority, as ever, remains the football club as a whole. Unlike the majority of his counterparts in the Premier League, Moyes has the job title of manager not head coach. It reflects his role and his vision for Everton, shaping the culture of the club.

"We have a culture of supporters who want to see you work really hard, run really hard, be committed in all games." In that win over Newcastle on Monday, Everton won 64 per cent of their duels, the most by any team in a Premier League game so far this season.

They are the basics that Everton fans demand and they have helped Moyes take the club on an upward trajectory. When he arrived early last year, they were on course for a fourth consecutive finish in the bottom six. He has changed that. But what comes next?

"I have a short-term vision of what I want Everton to be like quickly. How can I get Everton to be competitive in the Premier League? How can I get us to be challenging, even though we're probably a little bit under-resourced?" But there are bigger ambitions too.

Because while Moyes might talk of wanting "to get Everton on a really good solid footing" there is still that sense of unfinished business here. Next year, he could break Arsene Wenger's record for most Premier League games managed. But he wants more.

"I would love to get us back into Europe," says Moyes. But more than that, he thinks of Catterick and Kendall, those who came before him. "I would just like to get the trophies those boys have got," he says, a little wistfully. "But, hopefully, it is not too far away."