Silva: Everton are on a fantastic run now

Everton comfortably beat Arsenal yesterday at Goodison Park 1-0, with the Blues spurning a handful of chances to turn the scoreline into a rout.

Speaking after the game, manager Marco Silva was very pleased with the effort from his players.

“I was delighted with everything we did from the first minute of the game.

“We showed desire and fantastic team spirit and deserved the three points.

“We were the best team on the pitch and if we had scored more goals it would have been a fairer reflection of the match.

“With the chances we created, we should have scored more… but we were really solid as a team and controlled most of the game.

“It was a very good afternoon for us, congratulations to our players and fans – the atmosphere in the stadium was fantastic again.

“And the clean sheet was the key for us. We are showing the solidity I really like, even when we are playing as the offensive team I want to see.”

Club Captain Phil Jagielka got the winner after being inserted into the starting lineup, with Michael Keane knocked out by a virus.

“Michael had some problems during the night, a virus. He tried to be ready, started the warm up and he felt a little bit fragile.

“Jags showed how he is prepared to give everything the coach and his teammates need from him. He deserves all the credit and it was great for him to get the winning goal.

”Arsenal reacted in the first 15 minutes after half-time and created some problems for us – but they had no big chances.

“We responded well and created more problems for them and chances to score.

“We are in a fantastic run now… the first three months of the season we had a good run and produced some fantastic moments of football.

”In two months [December and January] the details were making the difference against us. But the long break [Everton had 17 days without a match before facing Cardiff] enabled us to work hard on the training ground and turn the details in our favour.

“Our goalkeeper had calm afternoons against West Ham and Arsenal – that is a fantastic sign for us as a team.”

There was some late drama after the referee flashed a yellow card at Shkodran Mustafi for hauling down Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and it ended with Mesut Ozil throwing a jacket in the technical area and Silva exchanging words with Unai Emery.

“We had that moment during the game, football is emotional in that moment.

“He wants the best for his team, I want the best for my team also. At the end of the match he had a lot of questions, I said to him ‘best of luck in the rest of your matches.”