'It's not Everton's time' - Frank Lampard makes stark admission after Crystal Palace defeat

Frank Lampard has opened up on the challenge facing him as Everton manager as he described the work that the side will do over the course of the international break.

The Blues were comfortably beaten 4-0 by Crystal Palace in the quarter-final of the FA Cup at Selhurst Park on Sunday. Goals from Marc Guehi, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Wilfried Zaha and Will Hughes were enough to send Patrick Vieira's side to Wembley - where they will face Chelsea in the semi-final.

Following the match, Lampard admitted that perhaps it wasn't the right time for his side at this point. And the boss reiterated that the priority is Premier League survival, although that didn't affect his thinking before this cup match.

He remarked: "Maybe it's not Everton's time, it's not my time as an Everton manager to be there at Wembley. Crystal Palace have been together for a while, with the manager since the start of the season, invested in really important areas of their squad and their team which they needed to do from last year.

"It's their time, and it's not ours. The job's to stay up, that's the reality of it. If you offer any Evertonian did they want to win today and get to Wembley or to stay up, we all know what the answer is.

"It's not that clear-cut, I know that. And that's not me getting out that that was anywhere near the message because the players just performed at 70% throughout the whole game. 70%.

"That's not good enough and the reality is that's the league. We've got 11 fights left."

Everton had started the match well against Crystal Palace and looked to apply some pressure in the opening stages. However, they quickly fell off the boil after the hosts took the lead and couldn't recover from that position.

Lampard has admitted that the issue