Everton manager Roberto Martinez has admitted that his side were "pedestrian" in their 2-0 defeat at the hands of Arsenal today.
Goals from Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi gave the Gunners three valuable points and condemned the Toffees to their eighth defeat of the season at Goodison Park, their worst home performance in 22 seasons.
Speaking after the game, Martinez insisted that the performance was "a one-off" and accused his players of appearing "fearful" in front of the visitors, who had come into the game off the back of a Champions League defeat in Barcelona.
"Today was a one-off. I don't think we were ourselves in any part of the game and it was frustrating to see such contrasting performances," Martinez told reporters in a post-match press conference.
"Today we had doubt and we were pedestrian. We looked like the team that played on Wednesday and travelled in Europe. Arsenal looked the fresh team.
"I don't think we had one period in the game when we looked like ourselves. Normally we create opportunities. We never did that. We were very slow in our build-up. It looked like a fearful performance."
The result left Everton 12th in the Premier League but with two games in hand on many of their close rivals.
Neil Wilkes
