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Disjointed Blues have to settle for a point

Lyndon Lloyd Saturday, 18 January, 2020 0comments  |  Jump to most recent
West Ham United 1 - 1 Everton

Dominic Calvert-Lewin provided a quick reply for Everton after West Ham had taken a 40th-minute lead

Everton toiled their way through an error-strewn and frustrating encounter against West Ham and had to be content with a draw at the London Stadium.

A poor game between two teams struggling to do the basics at times came to life at the end of the first half with a goal for each side in the space of four minutes and a terrific save from Jordan Pickford but it did not have the effect of sparking a better second half.

Deprived initially of Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson and Michael Keane on the day because of injury, Carlo Ancelotti had to make changes to the team that beat Brighton last week, and he brought Yerry Mina, Moise Kean and Fabian Delph came into the side.

The Blues took a long time to get going, however, spending most of the first 15 minutes playing keep-ball in their own half. Struggling to get past the Hammers' high press, they survived the odd scare as Robert Snodgrass shot straight at Pickford after five minutes and Sébastien Haller headed a couple of inches wide.

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The England goalkeeper came to the rescue midway through the first half when Lucas Digne was caught in possession and Mark Noble played Haller in and Pickford adjusted his feet brilliantly to prevent the striker from firing between through his legs.

Digne might have had an assist at the other end in the 32nd minute but Theo Walcott scuffed his shot at the back post while Haller headed over for the hosts before an ill-advised foul by Delph on Manuel Lanzini set up West Ham for the opening goal.

Snodgrass whipped in the resulting free-kick and Issa Diop guided a header past Pickford and into the far corner of the goal.

Everton hit back just four minutes later, though, after winning a corner on their right in the 44th minute. Digne's delivery might have taken the merest of deflections at the near post before it was met by Dominic Calvert-Lewin and he cushioned a header into the empty side of the goal to make it 1-1.

The visitors almost found themselves a goal down again heading into the break when they allowed West Ham to get down their left side too easily where Pablo Zabaleta centred and Pablo Fornals looked odds-on to score before Pickford pulled off a miracle reaction save to bat it behind.

Ancelotti responded to what had been a pretty poor first-half display by substituting Bernard at the start of the second period and introducing teenage attacking midfielder Anthony Gordon and the Toffees had a couple of chances shortly after the break.

First Walcott's low cross was palmed out by Darren Randolph but Gordon lashed it over and then Delph played Walcott in with an excellent pass but the winger fired it too hard at Calvert-Lewin and the striker was blocked off at the near post.

Pickford then a couple of moments to forget, flapping at a high cross and having to be rescued by Holgate and then almost falling over his goal-line following a fairly routine catch but he did better when Snodgrass's deflected shot threatened to loop inside the far post and the keeper finger-tipped it behind.

Walcott had been withdrawn in favour of Djibril SIdibé by that point and the ineffective Moise Kean was later replaced by Oumar Niasse but the Senegalese's introduction had little effect on Everton's mis-firing attack.

Tom Davies would have the last chance of the game when an injury-time corner came back out to him and his drive was deflected over but the match otherwise petered out to an even conclusion.

 

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