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Everton manager Marco Silva admitted his side were 'too nervous' during their 1-0 defeat to Leicester City on New Year's Day.

Jamie Vardy's seventh Premier League goal of the season 13 minutes into the second half at Goodison Park was enough to secure the win for the visitors, inflicting the Toffees' fifth league defeat in their last eight games in the process.

It was a performance that displeased Silva after the game, with the Everton manager describing his side's display as 'poor' and branding the result 'disappointing'.

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Speaking post-match, as quoted by Sky Sports, he said: "It was a disappointing result and a poor performance to be honest. We always have to be honest and we have to look clearly at the game and analyse the match calmly and to pass the feedback back to our boys.

"It was poor from the first minute and we knew before the match what they came here to do. In the first half, we were in control and every time we had the ball and wanted to start something, we were too nervous without reason.

"For the goal, we conceded a counter-attack with Jamie Vardy with a normal ball that is normal to control because we didn't handle the normal pressure in a normal football game this afternoon. We will find the reasons for that but it was a poor performance from our squad today."

While the defeat still sees Everton remain tenth, results later in the week could see Silva's side slip into the bottom half of the Premier League table.

The Toffees are currently on a poor run of results, winning just one of their last eight games in the league since the defeat to Liverpool on December 2, although Silva refused to blame either the result at Anfield or the manner of the defeat for their bad form.

He added: "It doesn't make sense if you can link one thing with the other because that is one game and we had a fantastic run up until that moment when we played in the derby.

"It is impossible to link what we did today to what happened in that game. I know the results after that wasn't what we wanted and what we worked to achieve but I don't link one thing with the other."