Everton boss insists his side went to Stamford Bridge to try and win
Sunday 11 November 2018 17:29, UK
Marco Silva praised the man-of-the-match display of summer signing Yerry Mina as he made his first Everton start against Chelsea.
The Colombia international, who signed from Barcelona in August, made his Premier League debut as a substitute against Brighton last weekend, but replaced Kurt Zouma and played the full 90 minutes at Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.
Mina was named man of the match by Sky Sports as he helped his side to a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge and his manager was full of praise at full-time.
"He did everything I expected," Silva said.
"It was his first official match in maybe three or four months and he showed his quality.
"He is very good on the ball and he is a player who will give us quality on the ball. Even without the ball he did what we planned, our defensive organisation and process.
"I think he did really well."
Marcos Alonso hit the post and Alvaro Morata had a goal ruled out for offside as Chelsea failed to score with any of their 15 shots in the game.
Silva praised the defensive performance of his players, but insisted he set his team up to try to win the match.
He added: "We can grow like we want to grow as a team and we can challenge when we play this type of match.
"We had one goal. We came here to try to win the match.
"We know they are strong and they can create problems and the first half was amazing because we showed everything; organisation, good shape, team spirit, a fantastic attitude and belief in ourselves.
"We knew before the match it would be difficult to play here. We planned to come here to challenge them and I think this is the first time they didn't score one goal in one match this season."
