Poor Martinez attempt to defend McCarthy

Roberto Martinez has made an eve of match attempt to defuse the anger over James McCarthy’s appalling tackle on Dmitri Payet at Upton park declaring the challenge was honest  and not “nasty” as was claimed.

Despite near universal condemnation of the challenge Martinez, made a somewhat poor attempt to defend his player saying: “We’ve moved on from that. It is great to see Dmitri Payet back fit and playing, you don’t want to see players out injured.

“But in the same way, James is an honest footballer, it was nothing malicious and those incidents happen, it happened to us with Tom Cleverley and Eric Dier at Spurs.

“This is the nature of this league, it is a committed league and every ball is a challenge and everyone will fight for the ball but in an honest manner and that is the way I saw it.

“That reaction was maybe down to the frustration of losing an important player, I think, deep down, everyone knew it was an honest challenge to get the ball.

He added: “Payet is one of the creative playmakers and he is an important footballer when they have good, long spells of possession.

“He has outstanding delivery in dead-ball situations but West Ham have pace, they are very dynamic, the new striker has brought a new focal point for them, Antonio is enjoying a good moment of form.

“This team can be resilient when they have to, they can be really tough to beat and really competitive off the ball, but on the ball they can produce dynamic play to hurt you and they have that final pass from Payet. They are a complete team, really.”