Roberto Martinez is facing a fight to stop Everton players losing faith in his gung-ho philosophy with the pressure on the Spaniard set to increase if the club are knocked out of the FA Cup.

Martinez’s team sank to their seventh Premier League defeat of the season at Goodison Park against West Ham United and have now conceded more goals at home (26) than any other top-flight club.

Everton are 12th in the Premier League table and face the threat of finishing a season in which they hoped to challenge for European qualification in the bottom half.

That would make holding on to star players Romelu Lukaku, John Stones and Ross Barkley even more difficult, despite investment from new majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.