Everton manager Ronald Koeman is unhappy with opposing manager Jose Mourinho following comments that the Toffees should be challenging for the top four.

Koeman watched his side succumb to a 4-0 defeat following goals from Antonio Valencia, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial. This means that Everton drop into the relegation zone on the back of four straight defeats without scoring a goal and Mourinho feels that a side that spent £140m on transfers in the summer should be competing for a Champions League spot.

Post Match Comments

After the game, Koeman was clearly annoyed at 'The Special Ones' comments about his team saying "I read the United programme and my colleague told me about Everton spending £140m and so they need to go for the top four.

If there’s anybody in this room and outside and sees this as something realistic for us, please comment. Be realistic. I’m not happy how we started the season, but please be a bit realistic about Everton. We need time, but it’s difficult in football.”

Despite the flurry of transfer activity on Merseyside this summer the former Barcelona defender obviously feels that it is unrealistic for people to be expecting such lofty aspirations from his team. A seventh-placed finish in Koeman's first season led to a return to Europa League football for the Toffees which led to a heavy spending spree from the owners but saw his players struggle to contend with title contenders Manchester United on Sunday.

The 54-year-old felt his side started off slowly against United and fell behind after four minutes courtesy of Valencia's stunning strike and faced an uphill battle from there.

However, despite the scoreline, Koeman insisted he felt there were signs of improvements and the result could have been much different if either Wayne Rooney or Gylfi Sigurdsson took the chances that came their way.

"We had a difficult start in the game, but we grew in the game and we grew in confidence and not many teams will get those two big chances that we had after halftime that we got today.

Of course Manchester United may be the created more than us, but we had a 1v1 twice against De Gea but we did everything to score a goal but we didn't."

Problems for Everton

The Toffees were handed a difficult start to the campaign having to face four of last season's top six, after an active summer there were high expectations placed on Everton and it may be too soon to judge.

The heavy recruitment programme that saw the arrival of nine players at Goodison Park, to deal with the constraints of domestic and European football this term.

Despite the new arrivals they have struggled to replace last season top goalscorer Romelu Lukaku, who has found his feet in Manchester, with five goals in his first five league games. The returning Rooney has scored their only two goals in the league against Stoke and Manchester City and Sandro Ramirez has struggled to adapt following his move from Malaga.

A Carabao Cup tie is up next for Everton as they face Sunderland on Wednesday, before a must-win home match against fellow strugglers Bournemouth on Saturday as Koeman and his side look to get their season back on track.