David Moyes: I stand by my Marouane Fellaini decision - Everton latest

Bringing him back against Hull was justified by him heading in the opening goal. But after Mikel Arteta's outstanding free-kick made it 2-0 at half-time, Moyes admitted he agonised over whether to keep Fellaini on.

The decision to do so backfired just two minutes after the break when the 21-year-old picked up the booking that gives him an automatic two-game ban - both against Liverpool.

But Moyes says that the memory of his side surrendering a 2-0 lead to Newcastle at Goodison earlier in the campaign affected his thinking.

He said: "At half-time, the decision was 'do we take him off or do we not?'

"My decision was to stay with it for 10-15 minutes and change it, but the decision didn't go the way we wanted it to go.

"But the important thing was the points. I wasn't thinking ahead to another game when I played the game.

"We were 2-0 up against Newcastle and drew so I wasn't going to put myself in a position whereby we would jeopardise the result."

The offence that prompted Martin Atkinson to brandish the yellow card was for a high foot but he had persistently warned Fellaini throughout the first half over a series of minor fouls.

However, Moyes feels that Hull set out to target the midfielder in an attempt to attract the referee's attention - and he also feel that Atkinson could have handled the situation more sensitively.

He said: "I'm sure the ref knew that Fellaini had nine bookings before the game, don't worry about that.

"Our referees in recent weeks have been very good, but I'm not too sure today.

"And I think the referee should probably have a look at today's. It would be important for them to study the referee's performance.

"There were an awful lot of free-kicks on Fellaini during the game. I don't know if they set out to target him because they just have to win the game.

"He was booked for persistent fouling, so you accept that when he fouls on the touchline, but the others were just when he was competing for the ball.

"In the main, he has been hard done-by. The referee could have given him a warning.

"If he thought it was a free-kick at the start of the second half, but he should have given him a warning.

"The referee was happy for their boy to take the tackle on the touchline, but then he gets booked.

"But considering the challenges that went on during the game, I think the booking was quite petty.

"I don't think anybody was complaining or anything.

"The boy turned around, went for the ball and the lad's head was down and then Felli pokes it away.

"He is disappointed and so are we."

But Moyes accepts that Fellaini, who has only taken 18 games to get to 10 bookings and has the most yellow cards in the Premier League, has to take some responsibility for improving his disciplinary record.

"It was probably an example of the learning process that Fellaini is going through and he will learn," said Moyes.

"It hasn't been today that has got him the suspension, though. He's had bookings in other games. Today is one of the reasons, but he's had other bookings."

Fellaini did, however, get a break from the officials on his goal when he headed in Leighton Baines's cross after being in an offside position when it came in.

"To balance it up, I also think they got our first goal wrong," added Moyes.

"I want to make sure I am saying it both ways."

The manager also revealed that Arteta slammed in his third goal in his last two league games despite being ill ahead of the game.

The Spaniard managed to play 90 minutes before being replaced by Jack Rodwell in injury time.

"He came in at 1pm and he was ill," said Moyes. "We actually decided to put him in the warm-up, to see how he went.

"If he didn't make it, we would have pulled him out. But I made the decision to put him out there. He really wasn't well and if we had got a third goal, I would have taken Mikel off a lot sooner."

Moyes also confirmed that Jospeh Yobo will be back in training this week after being out since he injured his hamstring against Chelsea three weeks ago.