CHEWED UP
Everton 0 West Ham 1
With the notable exceptions of Antonio and Masuaku, West Ham have had a relatively injury-free season, so when Fabianski goes down in the warm up before the game, the deep intake of breath is understandable. This wasn’t in the script.
Moyes has selected a solid attacking formation for the game, with Fornals and Benrahma both starting, but another new starter, Craig Dawson, goes down at the end of a quiet first quarter of an hour under no challenge from an attacker. A second unscheduled injury? Dawson doesn’t move for some time, but after a little trainer attention he is up and walking again. Wacky.
Richarlison is back for Everton and with Calvert-Lewin scoring freely for England and Everton, the danger is pronounced. Even so, chances are few and far between in the first half. The last time Everton started a season this well they were managed by Moyes.
It’s curious that Everton are choosing not to test Randolph out with shots from distance, bearing in mind it’s his first appearance since the 0-1 FA Cup home defeat against West Bromwich Albion last January. Eventually Bernard hits one to test him from a corner, and the Irish international saves well. Phew.
Everton couldn’t have more motivation to win tonight. If they get three points they will go second and extend their winning run to five for the first time since 2014. And still they look tentative early in the second half.
West Ham don’t normally play in boring chanceless matches like this, but they’d grab the point with both hands if it was offered now.
‘Backwards and backwards and sideways,’ says Leon Osman, the BT Sports summariser. Couldn’t have put it better myself. Fifty minutes gone and just a Cresswell shot and Bernard’s effort from the corner to measure.
On the hour Cresswell’s free kick stings the hands of Jason Pickford as he bashes it away for a corner. Fornals then has a free header from Bowen’s perfect cross, but in an effort to get the power needed to beat the keeper he screws the direction and it peters out wide of the post. Then substitute Antonio hits in a far post effort that Pickford saves well. The intensity has evolved in just ten minutes of action, but each time Everton attack, Ogbonna is majestic in defence.
Fornals off for Antonio and Bowen for Yarmolenko. The Ukrainian hit a brace here in one of his first games for West Ham. Why not do it again?
Ten minutes to go and still no breakthrough. And now comes the goal! Soucek’s late run sees him steer the loose ball created from his original powerful effort into the unguarded net. Moyes hasn’t won at Goodison since he was manager here. He started his second managerial stint for the Hammers with a 4-0 win over Bournemouth also on New Year’s Day.
This is another great start to a year for West Ham United with Moyes at the helm. Hopefully by the end of it there will be fans at matches again to appreciate just how right he is for this club.
35 Darren Randolph, 15 Craig Dawson, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Saïd Benrahma, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 18 Pablo Fornals, 22 Sébastien Haller
Substitutes: 31 Michail Antonio, 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 10 Manuel Lanzini
Scorer: 28 Tomas Souček
