Joel Ward believes Crystal Palace were 'punished' at Goodison Park on Saturday.
Everton ran out comfortable 3-0 winners thanks to goals from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Anthony Taylor and Dwight McNeil.
It was a humbling defeat for the Eagles, who were unbeaten in their previous three games in the league and defeat saw them leapfrogged by the Toffees.
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Speaking to the club's official website after the final whistle, Ward said the team will look back at the game and 'regroup' in order to improve going forward.
“I don’t think we performed to where we want to be,” he said after the game. “When you look at the performance the other night, [today] wasn’t quite that level.
“We got punished for that but there are lessons to be learned and we can put it right in the next game.
“Obviously we didn’t move the ball as well as we could have. We didn’t control the game like we have in previous games. We’ll analyse it, we’ll look at it and we’ll regroup.
“That’s the unique thing about this club: we have such great cohesion in the dressing room so we want to bounce back and put things right in the next game.”
Ward added that he and his team-mates were not at their best on Saturday afternoon, falling well below the standards set at the club.
But the 32-year-old told the Palace players to remember what they have achieved in their past few games.
“There was an element of frustration because we knew that we were below par today,” Ward said. “I think we as a group set our standards and have our expectations of how we go about our business, and today it wasn’t quite working for us.
“As much as today hurts, and rightly so because it should hurt, we have to put things right, go again and not forget where and what we have done previous to this game.”
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