It is one of the most atmospheric venues in the country, a stadium that can generate a noise like no other: it is old-fashioned and far from perfect but it is Goodison Park, home of Everton FC.

This should be a place where the flow of points is heavy, given the way the stands tower over a tight pitch and how the local fans, on the best days, make it feel they are involved in games.

At the beginning of a campaign, it is not unreasonable to expect Everton to win a minimum of 12 of their 19 home assignments.

James McCarthy, Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley look dejected after Alex Iwobi made it 2-0 to Arsenal

There were loud boos at Goodison Park following their eighth home Premier League defeat of the season

The theory is good but the reality is alarmingly different. Everton have been lamentable at Goodison and the reason a season that promised so much is ending in frustration can be traced to the appalling numbers next to their name in the home column of the Premier League table.

Since August, Roberto Martinez has seen Everton win four times in the league. Those victories came against a Chelsea team on the brink of implosion, the worse Aston Villa side in living memory and Sunderland and Newcastle, whose displays here showed why the spectre of relegation haunts them.

That is bad but it gets worse. From 16 games, they have taken 16 of the 48 points that have been available.

For a team that is being spearheaded by one of best strikers in Europe and has a raft of young talent, the haul is simply unacceptable.

Once again, there were boos from the Gwladys Street at the final whistle, a consequence of growing frustrations. Though Everton may yet head into the summer clutching a piece of silverware, you cannot escape this has been season in which an opportunity has been lost.

Arsenal's Alex Iwobi celebrates scoring their second goal of the game in front of the Everton fans

Everton fans are fully aware that this has been season in which an opportunity has been lost

'Of course there is frustration,' Romelu Lukaku said in the build-up to Arsenal's visit. 'As a player, you always want the best. You see how we have performed sometimes and yet you go home scratching your head thinking: 'How did that happen?'

I look around the dressing room and wonder 'how the hell are we in this position?' The simple games we need to win – we draw or we lose. The difficult games when we need to win, we win. Where's the logic in that?'

Here, then, was another one of those 'difficult games' but this time the result was logical. Everton, at times, were made to look second rate by Arsenal and they never looked like recovering from the moment Danny Welbeck sashayed onto Alexis Sanchez's pass and waltzed around Joel Robles.

Martinez said it was 'difficult to explain' how Everton had gone from trampling all over Chelsea in the FA Cup seven days earlier to looking heavy-legged and jittery against an Arsenal team that should have been vulnerable following their elimination from two competitions in the past week.

For a team being spearheaded by one of best strikers in Europe, Lukaku, their haul is simply unacceptable

Roberto Martinez was downbeat following the result as he admitted that his team did not look like themselves

Evertonians, however, do not want explanations. They want to come to Goodison Park to see a team in Royal Blue run and press and work themselves to a standstill: they want to see the best squad the club has assembled in more than decade getting proper results.

Something, somewhere is clearly wrong. It doesn't add up that a team can only lose one match on its travels in the Barclays Premier League but be so vulnerable and naïve at home. Put it another way: had they doubled their current home points haul, Everton would be in the title race.

'We did not look like ourselves,' Martinez, whose side missed the experience of the suspended Gareth Barry, said. 'We were slow, we never saw clarity and we never anticipated anything. It looked like a feeble display. We showed what we can do seven days ago and that's why it is so hard to take.'

Those last six words strike a chord: it is so hard to take. Evertonians have felt that at Goodison all season. That feeling cannot continue.