West Ham 0-0 Everton : Match report

Everton visited West Ham at the London Stadium, with only 4 games left in the Premier League, the Hammers now sit 7 points clear of the relegation zone, thanks to a tough point against the Toffees.

Slaven Bilic dropped Darren Randolph after last week`s nightmare performance at Sunderland. Adrian was welcomed back into the West Ham side, a back 3 of James Collins, Jose Fonte and captain Winston Reid – who was returning after missing the past month due to injury.

Arthur Masuaku and Edimilson Fernandes were today’s wing backs. Havard Nordtveit was given the chance to play in his favourite position, holding midfield, whilst Manuel Lanzini, Cheikhou Kouyate and Andre Ayew were the attacking trio in behind Jonathan Calleri.

Cagey first half

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The name on everyone in the ground’s lips was not a Hammer, but that of Everton striker Romelu Laukaku. This is due to the fact the Belgian has scored 9 times in a row against West Ham. So within 5 minutes a bad throw in back to Adrian was miss kicked by the Spaniard, hearts were in mouths for Hammer’s fans around the ground. Somehow he managed to get up, recover and gather the ball back into his arms before Lukaku made it ten in ten.

After a shaky ten or so minutes, West Ham grew into the game. Left-wing back Masuaku was running his sock off, Lanzini was seeing plenty of the ball and driving forward. First half chances fell to Calleri with a header from close range, and Kouyate had a long distance drive, which narrowly fly past the Toffee’s keeper. Apart from that it was a cautious first half, but the Hammers went in the better side as the half time whistle was blown.

Second Half – Unlucky Not To Score, Solid At The Back

The second half West Ham came out in similar style to the first, positive football and going close from set pieces, but just couldn’t find that killer goal. Calleri was replaced by Diafra Sakho in the 60th min and the returning Frenchman worked hard, as did the whole team. The game phased out and Everton hung on for a point.

With Adrian back in-goal and a back three all over the age of thirty, I must admit I was a little worried when the team sheet was read out, but in fact I was proved massively wrong. Absolutely solid in defence today, Everton didn’t have a single shot on target all game, and were reduced to a couple of long ranged efforts.

Lukaku was kept quiet and hardly had a touch of the ball, in the air the boys and the back won everything, all of them should be proud of the aggression and passion shown today.

MOTM – Masuaku

I questioned why Aaron Cresswell was left out today, and within the first fifteen minutes I found out why. Masuaku had, had his weetabix this morning that’s for sure. The Frenchman was superb down the wing and defensively solid. Going forward he showed great pace and even managed to whip in some quality crosses today so he was my man of the match by a mile.

Problems up Front

Calleri got a start today ahead of Sakho, but the Argentine looked well of the pace. In fact had no pace what so ever, he didn’t really put any pressure on the Everton back line and lost possession of the ball every time it fell to him. I`m not one for saying he’s rubbish drop him, never play him etc, but today he was poor, but he’s young and shouldn’t be slated by the fans. Sakho came on and looked a bit more lively, clearly sort of match fitness, but tried hard and didn’t stop running. Today showed with a natural goalscorer, we would have come away with 3 rather than 1 point.

Promising Signs?

Not the most exciting game, but we improved, especially from the last couple of performances. Showed some passion and fight today, which was pleasing. Some really good passages of play going forward at times, Lanzini ghosts pasts players like they don’t exist sometimes and we need to build a team around him I feel.

Next: How West Ham can deal with Lukaku

I was massively impressed with Nortdveit. Like I said before, the Norwegian was played in his natural position, sitting just in front of the defence, and he played some great diagonal ball’s today, not only that but held play up well, when needed and got stuck in.

A point at this stage of the season, when you’re looking over your shoulder and not completely safe is a good point. Everton are in good form, so all in all I came home happy today, I little frustrated but that’s football.

Next week we face Stoke City away at the bet365 Stadium. This could go either way because Mark Hughes side are very inconsistent, they can be world beaters or very poor, so let’s hope for the latter come Saturday.