Roberto Martinez refuses to get carried away with Everton form



The Toffees host their Merseyside rivals on Sunday after their impressive fightback saw them win 3-2 at West Brom on Monday after falling two goals behind

Romelu Lukaku's brace and Arouna Kone's strike at The Hawthorns sealed their comeback to lift Everton to fifth in the Barclays Premier League and above Liverpool.

They have beaten champions Chelsea at Goodison Park this season and are unbeaten in six games in all competitions, having only lost to Manchester City so far, but after their Hawthorns heroics Martinez insisted it will count for nothing on Sunday.

"Our performance against Chelsea set the standards of what we want to achieve at home but as you can imagine the derby is completely different, it doesn't matter if you go into it with momentum or not," he said.

"The derby in itself brings that extra emotion and extra meaning to the game

We're happy we won but not because it's going to give us momentum into the derby, we're happy because when you are the last game in the week it's a real opportunity to show that in the table

Those three points were extra significant to us."

Martinez also refused to condemn James McCarthy after the midfielder was booked for diving in the area in the second half.

McCarthy had burst into the box and went down with Craig Gardner closing in but replays showed there was no contact

" In that situation James is trying his best to get into a goal-scoring position and maybe he was expecting contact," said Martinez

"I don't encourage my players to do that but sometimes mistakes happen as a player

"The referee saw it and he handled it very well

Sometimes you are expecting something and you gamble and it happens

I don't give it any more importance than that."

Saido Berahino and Craig Dawson had given the Baggies a 2-0 lead after 54 minutes but Lukaku struck back instantly after Dawson's header before Everton scored twice in the final 15 minutes

It was Berahino's second goal since his strike threat this month, after West Brom rejected bids from Tottenham, but boss Tony Pulis is now concerned with injuries to defenders Gareth McAuley (calf) and his replacement Jonas Olsson (groin)

Pulis said: "I don't think it helped we lost Gareth on Sunday and Jonas has come in and got injured 15 minutes into the game

We lost our two 'No.5s' in the game

Olsson looks like he's done his groin, which is a worry, and with him and McAuley out we are struggling really."

Source : PA

Source: PA