Match Report

Anyone with any knowledge of Everton’s history in the Premier League era would have been hard-pressed to script this one better.

A team, with four successive defeats to start the season with just two goals to their name thus far, desperately seeking their first League victory under a new manager.

Starting for them in his first Premier League game: Andriy Yarmolenko, the subject of arguably the most tortuous on-off, “will he? Won’t he?” Everton transfer saga of the past decade. If ever a player was nailed on to score in these circumstances, it was the mercurial Ukrainian.

And score he did, twice in a first half that stunned an expectant Goodison Park and effectively won the game for the Hammers before half-time; although Marko Arnautovic, another player of unpredictable output, made certain of the points with a goal just past the hour mark to quell a potential revival from the home side made possible by Gylfi Sigurdsson’s header in first-half stoppage time.

On the back of their terrible start to the season, West Ham had been ridiculed for “doing an Everton” based on their expensive summer recruitment which saw the arrival of half a team’s worth of new names for a significant outlay. There were high hopes, therefore, that Marco Silva and his men would be able to capitalise on a lack of confidence in the Hammers’ ranks and the soft centre they had exhibited under Manuel Pellegrini prior to today that had seen them concede 11 goals before today.

Instead, however, Everton came up against Pellegrini’s talented attack at the very moment it clicked into place and it was the Blues’ defence that collapsed while their midfield went AWOL and their own forward line failed to deliver on a number of chances that might have secured a very different outcome. The Hammers’ stars turned up; the Toffees’ were found badly wanting.

The early signs of the first 10 minutes had been good, with Everton showing intensity and a willingness to get forward. In what would prove to be a rare piece of incisive attacking play from Idrissa Gueye, the Senegal international threaded the ball into the box for Dominic Calvert-Lewin but he couldn’t gather it in as Lukas Fabianski advanced to close him down.

When the next attack broke down, however, as Tosun was dispossessed in the West Ham half, Pedro Obiang exchanged passes with Arnautovic before sending the Austrian clear into the box with a ball over the top of Everton’s static defence and he knocked it square to the advancing Yarmolenko to convert from eight yards out. It was the visitors’ first genuine attack of the game and it was a depressingly simple and easy goal.

Everton’s belief was knocked out of them and, having started well enough, they soon found themselves unable to move the ball with any effectiveness. With no-one consistently showing for the ball, there was an over-reliance on angled balls to the flanks — either the holding midfielders or the centre-halves would get as far as the centre circle but then stop in the faced of amassed claret shirts.

Yet, when they were able to get the ball wide to the fullbacks, they did occasionally find some joy. Lucas Digne, one of perhaps just two players to emerge from the debacle with any credit, skipped forward and served up a gilt-edge chance for Tosun from one such move with a lovely cross but the Turk could only guide a cushioned header straight at the goalkeeper.

Any momentum Everton tried to establish was killed just past the hour mark, though, with Jordan Pickford’s inexplicable giveaway from a routine situation. Presumably aiming a pass to Digne in midfield, the England international’s distribution was seized upon by Mark Noble. He got the ball to Yarmolenko under a desperate challenge from the French defender and the Hammers winger did the rest. Cutting inside from the right side of the penalty area, he evaded both the retreating Digne and Kurt Zouma before curling an unstoppable shot to Pickford’s right.

Fabianski had to be alive to Walcott’s cross-cum-shot on the volley shortly afterwards and Tosun scuffed a great chance at the keeper after he’d intercepted the ball outside the Hammers’ box and it looked as though Everton would be heading into the break 2-0 down.

Their best interplay of the game and a superb cross from Jonjoe Kenny served up a lifeline in first-half stoppage time, however. Bernard, the other performer on the day who struck a light for a more positive future after coming on for the off-colour Morgan Schneiderlin, was involved in a move strung across the visitors’ box that ended with Sigurdsson burying Kenny’s cross with an impressive header to make it 2-1.

If that goal represented a potential catalyst for a second-half revival, it proved to be something of a false dawn because the Blues never really took the game by the scruff of the neck after half-time.

In Felipe Anderson, a player who had offered premature signs this season that he might be a £40m flop, West Ham had someone who exhibited calm, intelligent passing and some dazzling movement. If he lacked the more silky elements to his game that Anderson possessed, Everton still looked to Sigurdsson, their own £40m+ acquisition as the nominal No 10, to be the creative or passing engine behind the front two but, his goal aside, he was something of a letdown.

In the absence of the injured Seamus Coleman, the Icelandic international became the fifth player to wear the captain’s armband this season but he appeared to be weighed down by the responsibility. And for those who doubted Sigurdsson’s suitability to that No 10 role, there was at least the consolation that Everton had paid £45m for a dead-ball specialist... but there, too, the former Tottenham and Swansea man disappointed, striking two direct free-kicks into the defensive wall and failing to cause the visitors any undue concern with his corners.

And Everton remained disconcertingly open at the back at times. When Obiang collected the ball 15 yards outside the area with just Arnautovic ahead of him, there should have been almost nothing on for the Spaniard. But he wasn’t tracked as he glided past Gueye and Digne to collect the Austrian’s layoff just inside the 18-yard line where he squared it and Arnautovic, also untracked by Holgate, slid in to steer the ball home to restore West Ham’s two-goal cushion. Once again, all too easy.

Everton’s bid to make a game of it ultimately foundered on poor execution. Crosses routinely found West Ham heads, passes were slightly under-weighted or overhit and Walcott was more susceptible than most to a poor touch, wasting one tempting chance to find blue shirts in the middle by delivering the ball straight into the keeper’s arms.

There were other more glaring examples — Tosun found himself all alone after the ball had bounced to him off a defender but blasted over with just Fabianski to beat — while substitute Oumar Niasse was perhaps merely unfortunate that his side-foot volley off another terrific Digne delivery smacked off the face of the crossbar and away with six minutes to go.

Overall, though, this was very much a story of contrasting individual stories and, for Everton, it throws up a slew of questions about just how strong Silva’s team actually is and whether the system favoured up to this point — not to mention the personnel within it — has any future.

The preference for deploying two holding midfielders by successive Blues managers has often been an uncomfortable one, especially at home, and the limitations of the system were laid bare by two players badly off their game today.

Gueye was a welcome returnee to the starting XI after missing the draw against Huddersfield but he had an utterly dreadful first 45 minutes, littered with stray passes and poor decision-making. He struggled alongside Schneiderlin who elected to play despite the death of his father but battled through 43 sub-par minutes himself before being withdrawn in favour of Bernard.

Up front, Tosun’s profligacy cast further doubt on his long-term viability as the leader of Everton’s attack and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, for all his industry and spirit, still looks below the level required as well. The same could be said of Niasse but the jury has already delivered the verdict that, overall, he just isn’t good enough.

Then there are the more senior members of the team in the form of Walcott and Sigurdsson but they weren’t the only ones to fall well short of expectation. And while Everton were frustrating going forward in a manner that would probably have precluded a victory, the game was essentially lost by shambolic defending at the other end.

Perhaps two of the most important players to the equation were watching from the stands. Richarlison, serving the final game of a three-match ban (one that looks somewhat ridiculous when weighed against the inadequate yellow card that Arthur Masuaku was awarded for a high boot to Walcott’s head), was a massive miss for Everton.

With Bernard showing flashes of a player who looked wasted on the flank and who could be worth a try in the No 10 role, the arguments in favour of playing Richarlison as the central striker (with Digne perhaps pushed into left midfield) were strengthened today.

The debut of Yerry Mina, meanwhile, can’t come soon enough – even if will only marginally improve the Blues at centre-half. Poor Holgate, cruelly exposed by a midfield that just melted away in front of him at times, had an afternoon to forget, while Zouma won’t want to relive much of his second Premier League start either.

The presence of those two new signings won’t begin to address Everton’s issues, though, because this performance shone a harsh light on problems all over the pitch. It’s far too soon to be overly concerned — disappointed, yes — but Silva clearly has plenty of work ahead of him with a difficult assignment at The Emirates next on the fixture list.

Lyndon Lloyd

Matchday Updates

Everton self-destruct with two horrible goals given away in a shockingly awful first-half display against the bottom side to gift them their first win of the season, with those soft goals coming from previous Everton target, Yarmolenko.

Bernard and Lookman are on the bench with Walcott, Sigurdsson, Calvert-Lewin, and Tosun as the attacking force. Gylfi Sigurdsson is the captain today.

Jack Wilshere was not involved for West Ham after rolling his ankle. Pellegrini made six changes for this game. Yarmolenko, previously a serious Everton target, made his first start for them after signing in the summer.

In his programme notes, Marco Silva says: “It's our job to find different solutions. We have to plan with the players we have that are fit for the match.

“We made a good start, but we could have taken more points as well. Our last game wasn't the best performance, but the attitude was right. We have to play a little bit faster and create more chances to score.

“They [West Ham] are a strong team, a lot of quality. Everything is new for them: new process, new coach, we have to play at our best level to win the match.”

Everton started with forward intent, Digne firing high and wide. But some silly head tennis allowed West Ham to respond. Some quick movement almost put Digne in but it was defended well.

Walcott did well to create a cross and the move won a corner but, when it came to Gueye, he mis-kicked it poorly. However the game was being played almost all in West Ham's half, a brilliant ball launched from deep almost controlled by Calvert-Lewin, but not quite.

But from a simple turnover – the ball bouncing off Tosun's shins — West Ham broke, Arnautovic burst forward between Zouma and Holgate, crossed to Yarmelenko, and a simple painful goal was given up on 11 minutes. That would totally change the tenor of the game.

Walcott controlled a brilliant crossfield ball but put his delivery too close to Fabianksi. As soon as there was a loose Everton pass, West Ham again broke at tremendous speed. Schneiderlin gave up a free-kick, Diop poked the delivery straight at Pickford when swung in, getting in front of the entire defensive blue line.

A poor pull-back by Calvert-Lewin led to a very unnecessary booking for the Everton forward. Another really sloppy turnover and Arnoutovic was off; it needed a fine covering tackle from Holgate, Everton totally rattled.

Idrissa Gueye was having a horrible game, wasting an easy forward ball, slightly overhitting what could have been a good pass to Digne... Everton's quick passing was simply not working.

Arnoutovic tried to fool Atkinson claiming Holgate fouled him in the Everton area but no punishment given out. Everton tried to play forward down the right but Walcott ran into a cul-de-sac.

A fine move and cross by Digne, a pinpoint ball onto Tosun's head, put straight at Fabianski, terrible chance missed. Gueye then totally wasted the attack with an awful shot 10 yards wide.

Calvert-Lewin let a brilliant ball from deep by Digne just bounce off his head, no effort to control it, and another opportunity lost. Schneiderlin, so sloppy, just gave the ball away to his marker, and Pickford needed to come out quickly to snuff out more unforced danger.

An unbelievable spell of play, Pickford playing an awful ball out, Gueye dispossessed, tried to foul Noble, and Yarmelenko gets forward, curling in a brilliant shot to beat a dismal Pickford all hands down. Absolutely atrocious football from Everton.

An attack down the left saw the ball ping around in front of Fabianski but it came to nothing.

Walcott put in a brilliant first-time cross-shot that required palming over by Fabianski and Sigurdsson's delivery on the corner was good but defended out. Tosun then got a gift but looked so laboured and scuffed his shot at Fabianski rather than passing to Walcott or Calvert-Lewin who had supported his forward run.

A clumsy challenge by Masuaku saw a high kick on the back of Walcott's head in the corner of the West Ham area, but only a yellow and not a red or a penalty. A low shot from the free kick was sent straight at Fabianski.

Fine play and another brilliant cross from Digne were not supported, and another easy giveaway saw West Ham slice through a non-existent midfield, Kenny fouling. Yarmolenko delivered the free kick directly to Pickford. Schneiderlin was strangely replaced by Barnard just 3 minutes before the break, perhaps the Frenchman suffering after losing his father during the week.

Another absolutely brilliant cross from Digne, not converted, but the recycling finally came to Kenny who picked out Sigurdsson near the penalty spot and the Icelander coolly powered home a delicious header into the top corner, for some redemption after a truly frightening first half from Marco Silva's injury-hit side.

West Ham kicked off the second half. An Everton move down the left looked promising but Keeny's cross was not well targetted. Walcott then went down after getting caught by Rice. From a free-kick after Holgate was penalized, Obiang fired wide; Yarmolenko was booked for dragging back Bernard.

West Ham got a free-kick, Bernard was blocked off by Zabaleta for another card. Kenny did well to run Masuaku behind for a goal kick as West Ham still offered something. At the other end, Sigurdsson seemed to be barged down by Obiang but nothing given by Atkinson.

Everton won a corner that Sigurdsson delivered very well, but a defender got to it first and it was off to the races again for The Hammers, but this time the move was stalled. Another really exquisite cross in from Kenny was not attacked.

It was end to end at this point, Digne very cool in heading a cross back to Pickford under an extreme threat behind him. Everton were crossing in from both sides now, but West Ham were defending effectively as the crowd got a little noisy again.

But West Ham sliced into the Everton area, Arnoutaovic slotting past Pickford, with Holgate, Zouma and Keeny all seemingly unaware of the danger. Astounding.

Tosun was fouled for a dangerous free-kick off the left corner of the West Ham penalty box. Sigurdsson territory, but Arnoutovic went down and limped off to be replaced by Antonio, before he drove poorly into the wall, Digne firing the rebound well wide. A total waste of a vital set-piece.

Calvert-Lewin advanced well enough but lost momentum and got surrounded, Tosun (offside) lashing over. Walcott looked to deliver a better cross, but straight to Fabianski. Walcott controlled a Pickford hoof brilliantly but Tosun's control was very poor, and Silva decided it was time for Niasse with 20-odd minutes left, to replace Tosun, who had failed to score for a fifth successive game.

Niasse got into space but his pass to Walcott was atrocious. Time wasting by West Ham at a throw-in aggrieved the depressed Goodison crowd as the ball was fired wide.

Niasse got wide but put his cross too close to Fabianski. Walcott was pulled back, Sanchez getting a yellow card. Another chance for the set-piece maestro, Sigurdsson to show his mettle... straight into the wall. Lookman was the final change, replacing Walcott.

Holgate's ball forward to Niasse was too difficult to control, with Everton struggling to create real chances, while West Ham came forward with shots that needed blocking. Sigurdsson tried to make space and won a corner, but nothing came from it except a surge upfield by the Hammers that needed Kenny's interception on Anderson's final ball.

Kenny delivered another brilliant cross that Fabiaskin came out to tip away from Niasse. Everton kept pushing forward Niasse seems to have a chance, then another brilliant cross in from Digne smashed onto the bar by Niasse.

But the fundamental quality of Everton's play was really not good enough to pull back the two-goal deficit, with West Ham showing more interest in coming forward and forcing a corner, teasing Everton to reclaim the ball as the clock ticked down to a horrific scoreline for the Goodison faithful, who had already been leaving in droves.

Snodgrass swept Bernard's feet away from him for a yellow. Digne put in a fair cross from the free-kick but Zouma was static for the header. West Ham easily played out the final minutes in complete control over a totally demoralized Everton side.

Scorers: Sigurdsson (45+2'); Yarmolenko (11', 31'), Arnaoutovic (61')

Everton: Pickford, Kenny, Holgate, Zouma, Digne, Gueye, Schneiderlin (43' Bernard [Y:90+4']), Walcott (76'Lookman), Sigurdsson {c}, Calvert-Lewin [Y:18'], Tosun (69' Niasse).
Subs not Used: Stekelenburg, Baines, Davies, Dowell.

West Ham United: Fabianski; Zabaleta [Y:53'], Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku [Y:39']; Noble (71' Sanchez [Y:75']), Rice, Obiang; Yarmolenko [Y:50'] (82' Snodgrass [Y:91']), Arnautovic (64' Antonio), Felipe Anderson.
Subs not Used: Adrian, Ogbonna, Lucas Perez, Cresswell.

Attendance: 39,161

Michael Kenrick

Match Preview

Everton are back at Goodison Park following the first international break of the new season to resume their Premier League campaign against West Ham United.

The fortnight interval has enabled Idrissa Gueye, Theo Walcott and Bernard to shake off their respective injuries, while the knock that Dominic Calvert-Lewin sustained in the week playing for England U21s has cleared up but Seamus Coleman was added to the injury list with a stress fracture in his foot.

That means that where Marco Silva was always likely to make changes to the team that started against Huddersfield, the manager will have to make at least one unwanted alternation to his line-up to replace the Irish fullback, almost certainly with Jonjoe Kenny.

With Phil Jagielka and Michael Keane ruled out with injury and Yerry Mina unlikely to be deemed ready having only started training with the first team during the week, the central defensive pairing of Mason Holgate and Kurt Zouma picks itself. That leaves a decision over whether to start Lucas DIgne or Leighton Baines, although the Frenchman's contribution to the last two matches should have been enough to earn him a third successive start.

Gueye's return will likely see him reunited with Morgan Schneiderlin in central midfield and Tom Davies drop back to the bench. Then it's just a question of whether Silva continues with Calvert-Lewin up front with Cenk Tosun, or hands a start to Ademola Lookman or Bernard wide on the left.

For their part, West Ham arrive at Goodison Park having made an awful start to the season despite splashing out tens of millions of pounds on new players over the summer. Just as was the case at Everton last year, the Hammers' new signings have struggled to gel and they have conceded a hatful of goals, scored only two of their own on the way to four straight defeats.

They will perhaps travel to the northwest this weekend low on confidence but knowing that they can kickstart their campaign under new boss Manuel Pellegrini if they can, at least, emulate Huddersfield and frustrate the Blues while looking to exploit the defensive vulnerabilities that have prevented Silva making a perfect start to his Goodison tenure.

If there is one team that Everton have enjoyed facing in the Premier League era, it's West Ham — not least last November when they romped to a 4-0 win — and if Silva can get his team up for it and firing on more cylinders than they were able to ignite two weeks ago, they should prove too strong for the Hammers whose own soft centre in midfield and defence is an obvious weak area.

Kick-off: 4pm, Sunday 16 September, 2018
Referee: Andre Marriner
Last Time: Everton 4-0 West Ham United

Predicted Line-up: Pickford, Kenny, Holgate, Zouma, Digne, Schneiderlin, Gueye, Sigurdsson, Walcott, Calvert-Lewin, Tosun

Lyndon Lloyd

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