Everton protect their unbeaten streak against West Ham but the shine has come off in recent weeks

Jake O’Brien rose high to meet a fantastic half-volley from Idrissa Gana Gueye to find the back of the net against West Ham after minute 90 and extend Everton’s unbeaten run in the Premier League to nine, their longest since Ronald Koeman was in charge of the club in 2017.

However, the match at Goodison Park - one of five remaining before the fans say goodbye to the hallowed ground - had little of note besides the goal as much of the shine off Toffees’ free-scoring form is starting to wear out.

Against West Ham in the David Moyes derby, Everton’s game can be best described with the word sterile. Not enough meaningful chances were created for the forwards to feed on and the balls and crosses into the box were more often rushed than well-planned and executed. The display this afternoon was actually symptomatic of the Blues’ recent struggles to create and convert and with Everton missing depth in the forward-line due to a spate of injuries, maybe fatigue is catching up to the players. 

The dip in form can be traced back to the last time that the Blues were in action on home soil where they let a two-goal lead slip against a poor Manchester United outfit that had been ripe for the taking. Beto and Abdoulaye Docoure’s one-two strike just at the edge of the half-hour mark seemingly had the game wrapped up but instead of going for the knockout punch, the hosts opted to sit deep and invited United into their own box, resulting in goals from Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte.

Everton followed that game up with a trip to the Gtech Community Stadium to take on Brentford where striker Beto drew the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Guinea-Bissau international, who had scored five goals in four successive games before that fixture, had left his scoring boots at home.

Beto was guilty of squandering three gilt-edged opportunities on the night and couldn’t even find the target from 1v1 situations against the opposition keeper. Everton had to rely on O’Brien to level proceedings after going down in that game as well.

The Toffees’ striker also lacked his killer instinct in front of goal against Wolves and it was from this game onwards that Everton started to struggle to replicate their chance-creating tendencies from previous fixtures. 

Of course, not having an electrifying attacker like Iliman Ndiaye, who's out with a ligament injury, hurts the side massively and Moyes has spoken extensively about the need for his wingers Jack Harrison and Jesper Lindstrom to step up.

"We can get all the statistics now and we can talk about it. [Harrison and Jesper Lindstrom] are both attacking players, I think both of them have done well but yeah, I need goals from them, I need assists from them. They both need to improve. They’ve done a really good job in recent weeks but there's parts of the game we want them to improve on,” Moyes said in the press conference before the Wolves game.

Harrison and Lindstrom both combined to score the only goal for Everton in that 1-1 draw to respond to their manager but that moment being the first goal contribution of the season for either player suggests that consistency isn’t quite on the menu yet.

Another conundrum that Moyes has yet to solve is to nail down the number 10 role. Despite winter signing Charly Alcaraz beginning life at Merseyside on a positive note, he has mostly featured in a secondary role as the coach has persisted with Doucoure. 

“That’s a tough decision, but I'm pleased to [have] it. And actually, it's changed probably from times gone by, but we're having to use more substitutes. I have to say, I think Doucs has played well; played well against Manchester United, got a goal. He's been steady, knows the club, knows what's expected. So, we're sort of putting Charlie in when we think, maybe, the times are right. He wants to play, he's determined to play, and I think when he's played, he's played well,” Moyes said to the press.

Against West Ham today, he started both of them but the experiment didn’t quite work because it was Doucoure who occupied the central zones of the pitch with Alcaraz being forced to play off the flank instead.

Alcaraz got into the game more once Doucoure was taken off after 68 minutes and played the lovely lofted ball that led to Idrissa Gana Gueye’s assist for the equaliser. The Argentine midfielder could use more protagonism in the middle of the park as he continues to impress with his nifty footwork and burst of pace.

The silver lining for the Toffees here is the fact that despite their shortcomings and struggles, a ‘never say die’ attitude has been drilled into the side, evident from the unbeaten streak that they have been on. This is the same side that could’ve gotten dragged into a relegation battle before Moyes’ arrival and despite minimal investment in the winter transfer window and a series of injuries, they continue to pick up points in the league.

At the end of the day, there’s a titanic sense of pride and comfort associated with that as the Toffees build towards a promising summer at the Bramley-Moore Dock.

 

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