Roberto Martinez says his side was not good enough in their performance against the Swans
Roberto Martinez says his side was not good enough in their performance against the Swans
"There's a really disappointing feeling that we couldn't replicate the kind of performance that we've seen in the last three games," said Martinez.
"In many ways we couldn't cope with the demands of the game today and although we can't use it as an excuse it wasn't ideal to have so many players travel around the world in the week on international duty as we prepared for a game that had a real need for three points.
"Swansea took advantage of that and scored two goals in key moments with a clinical touch.
"But, from our point-of-view we weren't anywhere near good enough or close to what we're capable of producing.
"I thought we started the game bright enough inside the first 10-15 minutes; we got on top but started to fade slightly and couldn't find the extra energy needed with so many of our players playing through the week.
"We started well enough in the second half too but goals change games and even the red card shown to Nathan Dyer helped them to get bodies behind the ball and defend the game.
"But even then we played with anxiety and wanted to get the ball forward too quickly, stopping the lines of passing and making the game very difficult.
"So it's been a disappointing day, we'll accept it and be able to prepare a lot better for next week's game against Norwich City - we have to take responsibility for the performance and make amends for the next game.
"It's a real test of character out there and there will be players who can deal with it better than others so we need to help one another in these final eleven games.
"We can't go into these games letting our league position dictate the performance and probably that anxiety got the better of us against Swansea.
"If we don't replicate the kind of levels shown in previous weeks it's going to be very hard to win games and our performance today was not good enough."