Saturday 15 August 2015 17:22, UK
Everton manager Roberto Martinez was proud of his side's comprehensive win at Southampton, saying the 3-0 scoreline was a fair reflection of their superiority at St Mary's.
It looked a big ask for the visitors to secure their first Premier League win of the campaign on the south coast, yet they bossed Ronald Koeman's men from the outset.
Romelu Lukaku toyed with the Saints back line in the first half and netted twice, meeting fine balls from Arouna Kone and Ross Barkley with the finishes they deserved.
The latter stylishly wrapped up a 3-0 win late on in front of England manager Roy Hodgson, adding gloss to a scoreline Martinez felt was justified.
"A good day at the office - I think that's a very good way to put it," the Spaniard said. "I think the difficulty of the game, if you look through the years, we've found it very tough to come here.
"We've come here and for 20 minutes we were out of the game. I thought today the most important aspect was to start the game like we finished it against Watford.
"The first half we didn't have any intensity and the reaction was magnificent.
"I thought the performance today, from the first second when Tim Howard makes a very good save, as a team was outstanding in every department of our performance.
"You're looking at the scoreline and probably in some away games the scorelines can be a little bit deceptive or they don't show the real truth.
"I think that was the real truth today. We were very superior, we defended extremely well in the manner that we had to.
"The intensity was incredible. The way we work as a team was very pleasing, then on the counter-attack we looked unplayable. Then when we had the ball, we controlled the game really, really well and we took the three goals.
"Maybe we should've taken another chance, maybe we should have got a red card to [Matt] Targett really early in the game.
"I think it shows you many, many moments that we were superior and that really pleases you."
It was quite the answer to last weekend's frustrating home draw with newly promoted Watford and the banner flown overhead at St Mary's, which saw some disgruntled fans calling for chairman Bill Kenwright and the board to leave.
"I just heard about it," Martinez said. "I never saw it but what I saw today was a day to celebrate at Everton.
"There were nearly 4,000 away fans, who started the tone of our performance.
"I will never shy away: we are a big club, we've got a big history and an incredible expectation.
"We need to be together, we need to help each other and we need to push in the same direction because that makes a difference.
"But as a manager and as football players we understand that, we embrace those expectations and the way to get everyone excited and happy is performing in the manner we did on the pitch.
"The chairman is an incredible Evertonian, who has done a fantastic job over the years. Only he knows the effort he had to put in for the football club."
