Everton manager Sam Allardyce has admitted that his entire team "played crap" during their 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Arsenal this evening.

The Toffees conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes to set the tone for a heavy defeat at the Emirates Stadium, with Aaron Ramsey helping himself to a hat-trick in the process.

Allardyce pulled no punches in his post-match assessment of the performance, and he once again laid into his players during his press conference.

"Any tactics and any system you pick is worthless if the players don't play to their best," he told reporters.

"None of our first XI in the first half played anywhere near their best and that is why we were tumbling goals left, right and centre with our pathetic performance.

"None of it was any good. We got better in the second half but far too late... all the team played crap."

Everton have now lost just one of their last nine matches across all competitions.