Roberto Martinez has praised Everton's mentality after his side beat Manchester United to win at Old Trafford for the first time since 1992. The Toffee's stunned the defending English champions when Bryan Oviedo popped up with an 86th minute clincher to end United's seven-match unbeaten run in the Premier League. The result leaves David Moyes - who was facing his former side for the first time since replacing Sir Alex Ferguson - and his side ninth in the table and a whopping 12 points adrift of leaders Arsenal. And Martinez credited his side's ability to overcome a mental block having not won here in 21 years. He said:
"Today was more than a football game for us, it was trying to get over a mental block, it's been twenty-odd years since we won at Old Trafford, so you can imagine that it wasn't about the three points or winning, today was about being able to be ourselves, and making sure we push each other to do that, and I couldn't be prouder in that sense."
Everton at times found themselves under pressure against United, with the Red Devils unfortunate not to have scored on a number of occasions, with Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck hitting the woodwork. And Martinez admitted it was by no means a perfect performance from his side, in spite of the victory. He continued:
"The performance was by no means our best performance this season, I think we've played a lot better in the campaign but today, we had a real mentality in the first half when Manchester United created a few chances but we never felt inferior, we always kept doing what we're good at, we created many open chances as well which is always hard to do and, overall, I couldn't be prouder of the mentality of the players."
There's no time to rest on their laurels, with Everton's next Premier League game coming away to Arsenal at the weekend, but based off this performance, they should have nothing to fear. Joseph Dempsey was reporting live from Old Trafford.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
