Everton boss Roberto Martinez believes that striker Romelu Lukaku has proved his love for the club after netting a hat-trick in their 4-1 win over Young Boys in the Europa League.
The Belgian's commitment to the Blues was called into question after he expressed his desire to play for a "top club", but the Spaniard insists that those remarks were taken out of context.
"It's never an issue. Rom was delighted to commit himself to Everton," Sky Sports News quotes Martinez as saying. "He loves playing for Everton, and I think he showed that today."
"A footballer needs to be measured by the way he talks on the pitch. Sometimes a microphone can be put in front of you and people then dissect everything you say and highlight a word or line which is not appropriate.
"There has been a lot written about that - there was a conversation taken a little bit out of context after the Chelsea game. It was clearly someone looking for a headline about if Rom wanted to perform in order to come back to Chelsea, and his answer probably didn't reflect what he meant."
Seamus Coleman was also on target for Everton in the first leg of the last-32 tie, after Lukaku's first goal of the evening cancelled out Guillaume Hoarau's opener for the Swiss side.
Mark Langshaw
