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Roberto Martinez has hit back at West Ham United's claims Everton have a weakness defending crosses – but admits his side are still being hampered by lapses at the back.

Hammers striker Michail Antonio, whose goal sparked the Londoners' dramatic 3-2 comeback at Goodison on Saturday, revealed the visitors had pinpointed what they perceived is a vulnerability in the Blues' backline.

West Ham's first two goals originated from balls into the box from out wide , while Dimitri Payet's winner came from a long diagonal into the area headed down by Andy Carroll.

But responding to Antonio's comments, Martinez said: “It's easy to talk, especially when you've won a game.

“When we were 11 against 11, we were the better team and scored the goal to go ahead. Then we had to change things tactically and with 10 men you wouldn't have seen a difference – it was like we had the extra man.

“Then we scored another goal from open play and controlled the game completely and never got done on crosses in that period.

“It's more that we felt we had something to lose. Winning the penalty was a massive high but then missing it was an emotional low, and all of a sudden we gave West Ham momentum that unfortunately they got a big reward from.

“It's not like they bombarded the box. They had two crosses and scored two goals, that's bad defending rather than having a (specific) weakness.

“For the first 78 minutes we were defending extremely well. We scored 14 goals and conceded only two in the previous six games, and in anyone's eyes that a well-balanced team and s good defensive display.”

Everton have now lost seven home Premier League games this season – a figure surpassed only by Crystal Palace and Aston Villa – and Martinez accepts his side are making it too easy for opponents to pilfer Goodison for points.

“We're not seeing opponents beating us easily, it's the opposite,” said the Blues boss.

“We've grown as a team, we've shown we can score goals and defend really really well, but then we go into periods where we can't really defend and we get hurt too easy and concede goals that affect scorelines with extreme ease.

“I felt the last six games we'd found a really consistent level of performance in different competitions, keeping very good clean sheets.

“On Saturday, to be so good for 78 minutes, half of which was with 10 men, and then concede three goals in 12 minutes, it makes no sense.”