Season › 2013-14 › News Martinez braced for City reaction Lyndon Lloyd , 3 October, 0comments | Jump to most recent Roberto Martinez has stressed that his Everton side will need to be "perfect in many ways" on Saturday if they are to beat Manchester City when the two sides face off at the Eithad Stadium. The deposed Champions have been stung by back-to-back defeats following their demolition of Manchester United a fortnight ago but Martinez does not expect City to be reeling from their recent setbacks against Aston Villa and Bayern Munich in the past week. Indeed, he believes they will respond in the manner of a top side and the Blues need to be prepared for that. “We have to remember that Manchester City are a top, top football club," the Spaniard told reporters at his pre-match press conference this morning. "When you are a top football club you know how to move from result to result and competition to competition without carrying any sort of damage with you. “You feel like they will want to respond and get back to winning ways so that's why we will need to be perfect in many ways. We need to be prepared for a real reaction from Manchester City.” The Blues come into the game sitting higher than Manuel Pellegrini's highly-fancied side in the Premier League table but Martinez is not getting carried away at such an early stage of the campaign. “[T]o speak about perceptions and achievements is early because we are only six games into the season," he said. "That would be foolish. "I thought the first half performance against Newcastle was exceptional and in many ways is what we want for 90 minutes, and that's our target. “We need to maintain the standards, maintain the level of performances and do it over the 38 games in the season.” Everton will be without Gareth Barry who is forced to sit out due to being ineligible to face his parent club and Kevin Mirallas is a doubt after twisting his ankle against Newcastle on Monday. Darron Gibson and Steven Pienaar, meanwhile, are also fitness concerns as they recuperate from knee and hamstring injuries respectively. Gibson played against Fulham in the League Cup 10 days ago but is still not regarded as 100%. Quotes or other material sourced from evertonfc.com About these ads © ToffeeWeb