GLADYS NIGHT AND DAY VICTORIES
Everton 0 West Ham 1
Everton have beaten West Ham more than any other football team in history. West Ham haven’t beaten Everton away in successive seasons for 90 years. When I read those two stats I conclude, possibly perversely, that this looks like a second successive away win against the chewed up toffees.
West Ham’s home defeat against Brentford a fortnight ago before the international break seemed an unjust conclusion to a decent run of form across three competitions. In the event West Ham put the defeat behind them in the first half an hour at Goodison Park, leading from the front, with the power and guile of Michail Antonio, booked for alleged simulation after ten minutes, and the cut and thrust of Declan Rice, a diamond in midfield. At one stage the Sky stat bar reveals West Ham have enjoyed 82% possession. Previous travelling Hammers’ fans would anticipate an Everton uprising from the revelation of the dominatrix stat, but it doesn’t happen in the first half from the blue shirted scousers, who are currently enjoying a 100% success record at home this season.
Tomas Souček has a goal ruled out by VAR for the second successive away game, this one confirmed on the replay as a late run that didn’t quite beat the offside trap. Seven minutes later Fornals sees his measured curled effort from twenty yards beat the dive of Pickford but also his left hand post, by just a few inches.
Everton make some progress in the second half, but most of their moves break down due to a lack of communication between the players, possibly aggravated by the international break, possibly because they’ve looked pretty shite throughout.
Finally the goal comes. Antonio wins a corner after an aerial challenge with Pickford under the crossbar, the ball pinging off the corner of the upright and away for another set piece opportunity. Bowen’s corner is expertly headed home by Ogbonna, who beats Godfrey on the corner of the six yard box and puts West Ham ahead with just over ten minutes left.
Rondon then accidentally catches Soucek in the face with his boot after passing the fallen Czech. Soucek may not have scored today, but he wears his blood Bonds-like as he did last season. Antonio chases an apparent lost cause in the 80th minute and recovers the ball. He has run himself into the ground throughout the game, and has proved quite the striking force behind this victory. Lanzini gets four minutes of action at the end with Benrahma leaving the field, and at the death Pickford saves superbly from Bowen to keep the deficit down to just one.
Everton’s 100% home record has perished and Hammers re-enter the top six in the Premier League without too much effort expended.
1 Lucasz Fabiański, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 41 Declan Rice (c), 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 31 Ben Johnson, 28 Tomas Souček, 8 Pablo Fornals, 9 Michail Antonio, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 22 Saïd Benrahma
Substitutes: 15 Craig Dawson, 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 10 Manuel Lanzini
Goalscorer: Angelo Ogbonna
