Roberto Martinez has heaped praise on Everton’s young contingent after the 4-0 victory over Aston Villa at Goodison Park.
Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku both grabbed a brace and the Belgian striker has now become only the fifth player in Premier League history to score 50 goals before his 23rd birthday.
The win sent the Toffees into seventh place in the Premier League table and Martinez was quick to heap praise on his young squad.
“Probably as a player you develop experience so to have so many young players or inexperienced players, they showed incredible concentration levels. That was very pleasing,” said Martinez.
“I thought as a young team, that we are, the young players showed a fantastic degree of understanding in that respect.”
The boss reserved a lot of the praise for Barkley and defender John Stones, both of whom he said had a refreshing attitude, and said a bright start was crucial for his side following the international break.
“I think we all agree that he [Barkley] is a special talent and a young career as you mention is quite exciting,” added Martinez.
“What I love about Ross is just his passion for the game, it’s very rare. In a new generation of footballers it is very rare to see a player like Ross Barkley or John Stones who are in love with playing the game.
He added: “It is difficult to get back into the rhythm of your game in the first 10-15 minutes of the game and I thought we did that really well.”
“I think today it was the start that we had that allowed us to have that control on the first half, I thing we are getting stronger.”
Martinez, whose side thrashed Sunderland 6-2 in their last home game, added: “I was delighted in the manner we played today – how we carried on the attacking threat from the Sunderland game, but also, more importantly, what we did off the ball and keeping a clean sheet. That was probably the key.
“Two games at home now with 10 goals from open play in quite remarkable – the talent we have we have going forward.
“But then most impressively was the manner in which we kept Aston Villa very quiet today and got a very good clean sheet.”
John Stones, Gerard Deulofeu and the aforementioned duo of Barkley and Lukaku all caught the eye on Saturday, with the quartet seemingly reaching higher levels in their performance.
Everton have a special bunch of young starlets, maybe the best group in the world football.
