Everton suffer a second consecutive home league defeat in what has been an inconsistent start to the 2014-15 campaign.
Everton took an early lead after just 10 minutes through Romelu Lukaku, but individual errors led to Mile Jedinak, Frazier Campbell and Yannick Bolasie finding the net for the Eagles before Leighton Baines’ late penalty.
Martinez’s side now have the worst defensive record in the Premier League having conceded 13 goals in their opening five fixtures – including 11 in three games at Goodison Park – despite their defences having only been breached 39 times last season.
Roberto Martinez: “It was a really strange game. We wanted to be sharp and we had to be bright on the ball because Crystal Palace are always really well defensively set up. I thought we were fantastic and the first 15 or 20 minutes were as good as we’ve played. We were controlling the game and looked fresh and scored a very good goal.
“I felt that at that point we lost a bit of intent and we didn’t have that real drive about us to score that second goal, which was all we needed. Leon Osman had a good chance, if that goes in, it’s game over. Then the penalty is an incredible reward for Crystal Palace. It’s a long ball from Julian Speroni and we have to deal a lot better with it.
“That allowed Crystal Palace to have a lot of belief, and it forces a couple of errors which are very uncharacteristic for us. The character was incredible. We kept fighting and creating chances and probably did enough to get something from the game but it’s very disappointing in the manner we started the game that we couldn’t wrap up the performance with three points.
“Today just shows that this league is ruthless. It’s a 10-month competition and every game is difficult. We were perfect for 15 minutes and we needed that two-goal cushion.”