Everton’s Champions League hopes took a major blow this afternoon as they went down 2-0 at Southampton.
Two own goals from Antolin Alcaraz and Seamus Coleman gifted the hosts all 3 points as Everton missed their chance to climb above Arsenal in the race for a top 4 spot, leaving them relying on The Gunners dropping points in order to overtake them.
Everton got off to the worst possible start as Alcaraz headed into his own goal just 53 seconds into the match, and things got worse just after half an hour as Seamus Coleman again put into his own goal to double The Saints’ lead.
Everton manager Roberto Martinez spoke to the media after the match,
“It was a really difficult result to take,” said Martinez. “The reality is to concede two own goals so early in the game made things nearly impossible.
“I did think that the second half we came out with a good attitude and good bravery but we needed that goal.
“When you want to win so much, and you concede two own goals, I felt psychologically we lost a bit of confidence and our normal arrogance in our play.”
Martinez also felt luck wasn’t on his side as he felt they should have won a penalty in the second half when Leon Osman went down in the box under a challenge from Dejan Lovren, with the Everton midfielder being booked for an apparent dive.
“We needed that goal,” Martinez continued. “We had a couple of chances for Lukaku in the second half and for me it was a penalty on Leon Osman.
“There were key moments when we needed that little bit of luck. It could have been a different ending if we had got that goal.”
By Ben Kelly
Follow me on Twitter for more articles! @benkelly_10
https://twitter.com/benkelly_10
