The French forward excelled in the EFL Cup tie with the Hammers, dispatching his two goals in the ruthless fashion United fans became so accustomed to last season. The brace doubled his tally for the campaign and, after netting in two of the three wins over the Toffees in 2015/16, including a dramatic late winner in the FA Cup semi-final, his confidence will be high ahead of the Goodison Park encounter.
Crucially, it’s goals that have been missing from the recent league games, with really positive performances going unrewarded as the Reds recorded four successive home draws in the league. However, our no.11 is hopeful that we will soon see the benefits of squad’s hard work in training.
“Firstly, it felt great to score in the week as I’ve not played that regularly of late,” Martial told MUTV. “It was good to get those two goals as it’s a real confidence boost – hopefully we can take that into the game on Sunday.
“We’ve had a lot of draws recently and have come up against goalkeepers in amazing form,” he continued. “But we’ve worked really hard to improve our efficiency and effectiveness in front of goal and hopefully that will pay off.”
It’s easy to forget that the pacey forward only turns 21 on Monday, all the more impressive given the lofty standards he set in his first season that belied his tender years. He needed no reminding of his winner at Wembley that set the Reds up for silverware last May.
“That was a special game; a semi-final at a massive stadium,” he recalled. “To score a goal at Wembley in a big game is always going to be something else, but it was even more special because it was right at the end of the game in the last minute, so I just had to go and celebrate that moment with the fans.”
That memorable win was one of three over the Merseysiders last year, with arguably the best performance coming in the match at Goodison. It was a display that yielded a result United will be desperate to repeat this weekend.
“What was key in that game was that we started the game really well and put Everton under pressure right from the word go, which then allowed us to play our way and really dictate the game,” he added.
“We managed to score three goals and that was something that gave us a real confidence boost. It was a great victory and hopefully we can repeat it this year.”
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