Mata: Martial Is Special

Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata declared Anthony Martial has all the talents to succeed at Old Trafford after the Frenchman’s goal earned the Reds a 1-0 win over Everton.

Martial struck his 13th goal of the season seven minutes into the second half on Sunday, latching onto Tim Fosu-Mensah's cross to bundle the ball past Joel Robles in the Everton goal.

The 20-year-old’s winner meant United were the first club to pass the sizeable landmark of notching a thousand home goals in the Premier League and Mata feels Martial is a "special" player.

“Since day one that I have trained with him, I have felt that this guy has something special," Mata told MUTV of his talented team-mate.

“He has everything to succeed in football at this club. He is quick, has goals, he can beat players one on one and he understands football.

“I enjoy playing with him because we understand each other and we are very happy with him. He is having a fantastic season and hopefully he scores many more goals.”

On the goal itself, Mata felt it was a fantastic team move and, after the Toffees fashioned a few chances to equalise, he was pleased to pick up the three points.

“It was a great switch pass and I just tried to get the ball from the side of the pitch,” he continued. “After that, Timothy [Fosu-Mensah] and Marcus [Rashford] did great and obviously Anthony is very dangerous in the box. It was very good team play and luckily it was a goal.

“They had chances; they are a good team and they play good football, but in the end one goal was enough and we are very happy today.”

Following the win, United now have the best clean sheet record in the Premier League this season with 15 and Mata believes that is a credit to the Reds’ back-line.

“The defensive line did a great job and that is credit to the key players we have and the keepers we have,” he said. “David [De Gea] is doing fantastic and when Sergio [Romero] played, he did fantastic too. We are very happy with our defenders and in the second half in particular we played good football and we created chances to win today.”

Mata picked out 18-year-old defender Fosu-Mensah for particular praise following his impressive second-half display after replacing Marcos Rojo at half-time.

“He is a very useful addition. With the injury of Daley Blind, he had to play centre-back in the last minutes and he did it very well,“ Mata added.

“He is good on the ball, he is quick and he dares to play in front of this crowd. We are very happy with him and all the youngsters and it speaks very well about the players in the academy and that the manager believes in them.”