Monday 1 December 2014 08:20, UK
Everton manager Roberto Martinez believes his side were denied a clear penalty as they lost 2-1 at Tottenham on Sunday.
The ball appeared to strike Federico Fazio’s hand off Romelu Lukaku’s header inside the Spurs penalty area in stoppage time in the Premier League clash at White Hart Lane, but referee Michael Oliver chose not to award a spot-kick.
Kevin Mirallas’ stunning opener gave the visitors an early lead but goals from Christian Eriksen and Roberto Soldado turned things around before half time and the hosts held on for victory.
Martinez admitted he was pleased with his players’ performance but believes the officials should have spotted the handball.
“The arm was not in a natural position, and you feel it’s a day that none of the breaks you need at times went in our favour to get a positive result,” he said. “I thought the performance was good enough.
“It’s a split decision and you understand that the referee needs to be in the perfect position to spot that. But clearly when you see that Romelu’s got a header and the ball just stops, obviously there’s been contact.
I could see from my position that it was handball – I didn’t know if [the arm] was in a natural position or not, but obviously in the replay you can see it’s not in a natural position.
Once we scored the first goal, I thought for five, 10 minutes we couldn’t impose ourselves and take the game away from Spurs
“It should have been spotted because he should have a clear view of where the contact was.”
The defeat ends Everton’s run of five Premier League games without defeat and means Spurs leapfrog the Toffees in the table.
Despite the result, Martinez was trying to take the positives from what he believes was an energetic performance from his side apart from the spell after they took the lead.
“It’s one of those performances where it’s really difficult to take the result at the end,” he added. “I think it was a very harsh result because we performed really well.
“Remember, we are away from home, we’re facing a team with a lot of individual quality, but once we scored the first goal – which is the hardest moment in the game – I thought for five, 10 minutes we couldn’t impose ourselves and take the game away from Spurs.
“Obviously the result is what matters, but the performance today should have reflected a different scoreline if we could have had better control once the first goal went in.
Both sides registered victories in the Europa League on Thursday, but while Spurs were at home Everton had to travel to Germany to face Wolfsburg.
Martinez refused to say their travel had an impact on the result, however, and praised his side’s work rate.
“I don’t want to say that is a reason,” he sadi. “Obviously in a tight game small margins are going to be important, but I think it’s a great learning curve from our point of view because we need to learn to deal with those demands.
“But overall I couldn’t be happier with the energy we showed in our performance.”
