Everton’s Gueye plays down his starring role on Pogba

Idrissa Gana Gueye had £89m man Paul Pogba under lock and key for the most part on Sunday but the Everton man says it took a team performance to shackle Manchester United to a draw at the death.

Midfielder Gueye harried the Red Devils all day, but it was only after Marouane Fellaini’s needless foul on the Senegalese international that Leighton Baines fired the penalty that secured a draw.

Everton will undoubtedly miss the 27-year-old when he departs with Senegal for the Africa Cup of Nations in January but Gueye is confident of making a similar kind of impact over Christmas.

(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “Paul Pogba is a good player and he gave me problems, but Gareth Barry – and the rest of the team – helped me out.

“No matter if it’s against Pogba or another player, I always enjoy playing with my team.

“Manchester United are a difficult team to play against, but we played well in the second half and that’s why we scored the goal and got one point from the game.

“We liked the intensity of our game in the second half. Looking ahead, that is what we need to do for the whole game.

“We need to keep working hard on the training ground and that will help us to play well on the weekend.”