Morgan Schneiderlin says Saturday’s rousing performance against Chelsea showed what “Everton is about”.

Midfielder Schneiderlin’s fiery display was integral to his side’s 3-1 victory.

He made six tackles and contested 12 duels, joining Gylfi Sigurdsson in an engine-room partnership which smothered the creative hub of Frank Lampard’s formerly free-scoring team.

Everton’s success brought welcome relief following a week when the Blues dropped into the Premier League's bottom three after defeats at Leicester City and Liverpool

Those results prompted a team meeting which, coupled with the influence of caretaker manager Duncan Ferguson, inspired the weekend’s success and a four-place jump up the table.

“We had to say, ‘Okay, it is a fresh start, we are going to make it hard for any team coming here to Goodison and when we play away’,” Schneiderlin told evertontv.

“That is what Everton is about, it was never easy when I played here [for Southampton and Manchester United].

“And I think Chelsea felt that on Saturday.

“Being in the relegation zone was very hard for us and we needed to take responsibility.

“The captains organised a meeting between the players and a lot of the players expressed their feelings.

“We all took notice of what was said and moved on. We need as a group to be able to say things face to face.

“We are all fighting for the same thing, for better results and to perform well.

“And we did that today.

“We are all proud human beings and don’t want to be in the relegation zone.

“We want to fight for other things.

“And we knew if we fought for each other, if we could say things to each other without being upset, being fair to each other, we would achieve results. That was what we did.”

Schneiderlin, who will celebrate his third anniversary as an Everton player next month, has started nine Premier League games this term.

The 30-year-old was recalled by Ferguson at the weekend after coming off the bench in Everton’s previous two matches following a foot problem.

He confessed the limited turnaround time following last week’s Merseyside derby represented a challenge of body and mind.

But aided by Ferguson’s commands and a surge of support from their fans, Everton summoned an effort which proved too much for Chelsea to resist.

“We know as a team we have the quality, we have been saying this since the first day but we just lacked something,” said Schneiderlin.

“Everything went very quickly [following Ferguson’s appointment as caretaker on Thursday].

“He [Ferguson] had a brief meeting with us [on Friday morning], saying he wanted us to train and work hard and he would talk to us at night in the hotel.

“On Friday night he said some very important things.

“That he wanted commitment and aggression and to see what Everton was about.

“The main thing was to work hard and fight for every ball and that’s what we did.

“It always feels very good when you win a game.

“The past couple of days were hard for us mentally and physically and on Saturday we gave a good shift

“So the result was a good reward for us.”