Roberto Martinez was disappointed with Everton's poor first-half performance during their 3-2 Premier League loss to Aston Villa on Saturday.
Christian Benteke scored twice in the opening 45 minutes to give Villa a two-goal lead, but Everton improved in the second half with Romelu Lukaku and Phil Jagielka getting on the scoresheet.
"In the first half, we were second best. We didn't compete as we normally do - that's not how we've been performing," Martinez told BBC Sport.
"The second half was completely different. We created enough to get something out of the game.
"It was a disappointing to give 45 minutes away. That was not good enough, that's not the level we set for ourselves."
The result saw Everton drop to 11th in the Premier League table.
