EVERTON boss Roberto Martinez has sympathy for Cherries due to their crippling injury crisis – but still believes Eddie Howe’s team can cause them problems.

Cherries will be bidding to halt a run of seven Premier League games without a victory when they host the Toffees at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.

“Bournemouth are a team who have been very unfortunate this season,” Martinez told evertontv.

“To get promoted in the manner that they did was very impressive and created a winning mentality and a winning culture.

“They started in the Premier League with a real swagger and a lot of the good things they produced in the Championship, they were starting to produce in the Premier League.

“They got impressive results – none more so than the victory at Upton Park against West Ham – and then they lost two or three very influential players and that made things very difficult.

“But from game to game, they have been very clear in what they do. They are a team with a lot of energy, they work extremely hard as a unit and they are a possession team who control the ball well and want to break teams down.

“Overall, there is the structure of a very strong team and it is just finding their feet in this new league. When you get promoted, you get that.

“We will have to be very much aware of Bournemouth’s strengths, make sure we keep the concentration levels and make sure we can cope with the physicality and energy that they are going to bring.”