Coleman: Everton Responding To Silva's Demands

Seamus Coleman says Everton are delivering on one of Marco Silva’s primary objectives by toppling a succession of the Premier League’s elite teams.

Everton beat Manchester United 4-0 on Sunday after sending both Chelsea and Arsenal home empty handed from recent visits to Goodison Park.

Silva vowed Everton would remain faithful to his ambitious principles after he was appointed manager last summer.

His team drew the reverse fixture with Chelsea back in November and would have taken points from games at United and Arsenal with a surer touch in front of goal.

Everton and United took 14 shots each at Old Trafford, for example, while the Blues had 10 attempts to Arsenal’s nine in north London.

Defeating Chelsea off the back of a home draw with Liverpool, however, opened the way for Everton to convincingly avenge their loss at Arsenal before swatting aside United with a barnstorming display.

“There is momentum developing and the manager touched on our record against the top teams right back on day one," Coleman told evertontv.

“He said it was one of the things he wanted to change and knew we could change.

“He made a point of it earlier in the season, too [when Everton were coming close against teams in the top six].

“And now we are showing what we are capable of and looking forward to finishing the season strongly.

“It was brilliant against United. We knew in front of our own fans, the way the atmosphere has been, that we could beat them and we did.

“We probably did not expect to win by that margin but we were very comfortable and good value for the three points.”

Coleman has played every minute of Everton’s past eight games and helped his side claim 16 points in that period.

Silva’s team has recorded six clean sheets and scored 14 goals during a run which started with a 3-0 victory at Cardiff City following a 17-day break from action in February.

It is a sequence which has seen Everton climb to seventh and match the 49-point haul they achieved in the whole of 2017-18.

Coleman generated the third loudest cheer of the opening 45 minutes against United when he rattled into a challenge with Romelu Lukaku following goals for Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson.

The Irishman played down his own contribution but was quick to praise the first-half goalscorers – Lucas Digne and Theo Walcott were on target after the break – who are Everton’s joint-top Premier League marksmen this term with 13 apiece.

“Those two lads are very good in front of goal, it is great to see them battling it out and we hope they score a few more before the end of the season,” added Coleman, who captained Everton against United.

“I have been at the Club long enough to know you can get the crowd going with a tackle. Sometimes that is all it takes to get Goodison up – and when the crowd is like that it is a tough place for any team to visit.

“Confidence is high at the minute. The next thing for us is to be consistent and get results even when we don’t play well.

“The manager works really hard on tactics during the week and we played some very good football against United.

“We have to keep fighting and believe in ourselves for the rest of the season.

“We started the season well, then had a sticky spell – but we stuck to our principles and turned around our form. It is always going to take time when a manager is implementing his style but we want to make sure we get that seventh position."