Calvert-Lewin's brilliance the difference for Dyche's road warriors

West Ham 0 - 1 Everton

Since their rather routine 2-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United in April, Everton have played 11 games away from home in all competitions and lost just twice. For a team that was so abject on its travels under Rafael Benitez and Frank Lampard, the Blues have started to become a much more difficult visiting opponent now that Sean Dyche is charge.

Everton have only lost five games on the road under Dyche since he took over at the end of January. Two of those were at Anfield and there was one at each Old Trafford, the Emirates and Villa Park; so while the home form is still well short of where it needs to be, travelling away from Goodison Park is no longer the misery fest for the club’s long-suffering fans that it once was.

Today, the Toffees took on a West Ham side that had scored in every Premier League match this season and in every home game since the turn of the year. Dyche and his men left with a clean sheet and three hard-earned but deserved points delivered by an excellent striker’s goal by Dominic Calvert-Lewin, his 50th in the Premier League.

It goes without saying that the Blues are an entirely different proposition when their No.9 is leading the line and doing so fully fit. On another day, Calvert-Lewin might have had an assist from a terrific knock-on in the second half and, had Jack Harrison not made a mess of a glorious three-on-one situation in the first period, he might have had more than one goal on day.

As it was, just the one goal was enough and that was thanks to a committed, obdurate display, under-pinned by the resilience of a back four that has the imperious Jarrad Branthwaite and rock-solid James Tarkowski at its heart and another superb all-round game by the ever-improving Amadou Onana.

Once again the Belgian was preferred to Idrissa Gueye in the more defensive role in central midfield and, again, he delivered on both sides of the ball, throwing in important challenges in front of his own box in one moment and then striding forward with purpose and ease in another. One slide-rule pass for Calvert-Lewin that ended with the striker thumping an effort off the underside of the crossbar was only marginally called back for offside.

There were plaudits, too, for Nathan Patterson, a more than able deputy for the suspended Ashley Young, and Vitalii Mykolenko on the other side of defence, while Jordan Pickford — of course! — stood tall when he was needed in the closing stages to ensure a clean sheet. And if the two wide men, Harrison and Dwight McNeil, didn’t quite live up to expectations on the day, both played their part in a really important win.

As might have been predicted given their superior form and position in the table, David Moyes’s Hammers started the better despite tenacious pressing by Everton in the early going once the tributes to Bill Kenwright and Sir Bobby Charlton had ushered in the kick-off.

But it wasn’t until midway through the first half that Moyes’s side first threatened Pickford’s goal when Lucas Paquetá's dink over Patterson gave him space to deliver a dangerous cross and Jarrod Bowen missed in uncharacteristic fashion at the back post .

Two minutes later, though, the visitors should have gone ahead themselves when Paquetà gave the ball away in his own half and Harrison, Calvert-Lewin and Doucouré surged forward in a three-on-one situation against Nayef Aguerd but the on-loan winger made a mess of the chance and ended up shooting meekly at Alphonse Areola.

Tarkowski had a header blocked at the back post off a deep McNeil corner and Harrison ballooned an effort high and wide from the edge of the box while McNeil and Onana were also off target with headers in the closing stages of the first half.

Everton had kept the likes of Bowen, Michail Antonio and Mohammed Kudus quiet in the first 45 minutes but it initially appeared as though Moyes had fired his troops up for the start of the second period.

Bowen had an early shot blocked and a couple of minutes later, after Patterson had been adjudged by referee Stuart Attwell to have committed a foul, Bowen stole in ahead of the static Doucouré but, thankfully, his header flew over the crossbar.

Three minutes after that, it was 1-0 to the Toffees. Branthwaite did well to muscle ahead of Antonio to win the ball 10 yards inside the opposition half and fed it to Calvert-Lewin. He exchanged passes with Harrison and despite the attentions of Kurt Zouma and Aguerd, he took a smart touch wide of the latter and drilled it into the corner of Areola's goal from just inside the box.

Bowen slammed a volley over after Mykolenko's awkward header and dropped to him inside Everton's penalty area and Edson Alvarez skied an effort into the stands before Doucouré came close to doubling' the Blues' lead.

This time, the French-born midfielder was put into the clear by Calvert-Lewin's towering knock-on but though he took it early, Areola did well to palm Doucouré's skidding shot wide of his left-hand post with an hour gone.

The home crowd at the London Stadium were becoming increasingly restless as the half wore in but it was Everton who were keeping the opposing keeper the busier as McNeil forced Areola into tipping a rising effort over and Calvert-Lewin smacked a shot off the underside of the bar from Onana's slide-rule pass, although the offside flag would have negated any goal.

Somewhat predictably, Everton, with some players visibly tiring, dug in for the final 15 minutes and dared West Ham to break them down but Pickford and his defence proved to be unbeatable, with the keeper even making a brilliant point-blank block to deny Kudus even though an offside decision would stop play afterwards in that instance as well.

Alvarez was well off target again from distance in the 85th minute, Pickford helped a cross-cum-shot from Aguerd behind a couple of minutes later and, after Calvert-Lewin had just failed to find Harrison in the box at the other end, Pickford made his last telling intervention. Paquetá's cross picked out the substitute Saïd Benrahma but England's No.1 was equal to his volley, parrying it away to safety.

Bit by bit, Dyche is establishing a foundation with this Everton team and with Brighton and Manchester United to come at Goodison either side of a trip back to London to face Crystal Palace, it’s going to be interesting to see where the team is by the end of November ahead of a daunting-looking December programme.

Regardless of potential forward progress, though, with the possibility of a points deduction hanging over their heads, every point is going to be vital. Depending on how the independent commission into Everton’s alleged profitability and sustainability breach rules in the coming weeks, the three picked up today could prove to be very important.

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