Dirty? Roberto Martinez hits back at Arsene Wenger's jibes

ROBERTO MARTINEZ has defended his side against Arsene Wenger's claim they play dirty.

DID YOU EVER? Gerard Defelou celebrating his superb Everton equaliser at Arsenal last Sunday [STUART ROBINSON]

Everton host Fulham today and they are on a roll after beating Manchester United and drawing at league leaders Arsenal on Sunday.

Wenger slammed Everton's supposedly heavy-handed tactics afterwards.
But Martinez said: "I see it as a compliment. We had 63 per cent of the possession in the first half against Arsenal.
"We were very composed in what we were doing and we were in control of the game.


Respect "When a team is top of the league, like Arsenal, with the chance to extend the lead because of the results the previous day, the disappointment was there to be seen. "When you get a team that stops you doing what you want to because of defending, being negative and kicking … well, we never did that.
"We ended up giving away 11 freekicks.

Arsenal gave away 13, so the stats at the end settle any sort of argument on that.
"But I respect Arsene too much and I understand sometimes being caught up in the emotion of the game. We want to be good on the ball, but that doesn't mean we are not going to work hard off it. I was very pleased in the manner we did that."