Moyes back on familiar ground with improving Sunderland

LONDON ( Reuters) - After numerous games at Liverpool as a visiting manager with Everton and Manchester United, David Moyes returns for the first time in charge of Sunderland on Saturday, knowing just what a hard task he faces.

The north-east club have not won at Anfield since 1983, although they have drawn their last two matches there and have enjoyed successive victories this month to lift them off the bottom of the Premier League table.

"All I can say is we won last week against Hull City, so we go into the game after a couple of good victories," Moyes told a news conference on Friday.

"It's not easy to get back-to-back wins when you're at the bottom, so the players are in good spirits," he added.

"They've always had really good teams, Liverpool. We’ve been competitive away from home and close to winning games," Moyes added.

"We will go there and make it difficult for Liverpool. Anybody who plays against Liverpool has to park the double-decker bus, but we also have two centre forwards scoring goals."

Strikes Victor Anichebe and Jermain Defoe have each scored three times in the last three games.

Midfielder Steven Pienaar, who played under Moyes at Everton, is back from suspension but Senegalese defender Papy Djilobodji is banned after being sent off against Hull.

(Reporting by Steve Tongue, editing by Ed Osmond)