YARMED AND DANGEROUS
Winger who twice snubbed Everton gives Hammers Goodison spark
ANDRIY YARMOLENKO sure knows how to rub Everton’s nose in it.
Not content with stringing them along for more than a year with broken promises he would be signing, when he finally did show up at Goodison, it was to deliver a match-winning display against the Blues.
The Ukraine winger scored twice on his full debut, and produced a compelling attacking performance in tandem with Marko Arnautovic to suggest reports of West Ham’s demise under Manuel Pellegrini may just be exaggerated.
Apart from a couple of nervous, disorganised defensive moments, this was certainly not a team that looks like it will get their manager sacked any time soon.
The Hammers were quicker, stronger, more athletic and – crucially – had far more quality in front of goal than Everton.
And it was Yarmolenko who provided so much of that. The Goodison board must have watched with a mixture of envy and disgust.
Twice they thought they had signed him, first after they met with his Ukraine club Kiev in the summer of 2015 to thrash out a fee, and then in January 2016.
On that occasion the winger’s agents came as guests to watch a Capital One Cup semi-final, then reneged on the deal as they engineered a move to Dortmund instead.
He was the difference between the teams, and has already suggested West Ham’s £17.5million investment could be money well spent.
Where Yarmolenko twice produced moments of clinical calm in the box in the first half to score, at the other end Cenk Tosun (below) had far easier chances and twice seemed to blindly panic and fail to score.
In the Premier League, that is costly, and for all West Ham’s defensive frailty, the partnership with Arnautovic in tandem with the exciting skills of Felipe Anderson on the flanks, gives them a dimension the teams at the bottom do not have.
Arnautovic had more involvements in goals than any player bar Mo Salah in the Premier League in the last calendar year, and he showed why on 11 minutes to link play then produce a fine awareness in teeing up Yarmolenko in front of goal.
It was 2-0 – and well deserved – on 31 minutes when Mark Noble won the ball and fed Yarmolenko (right), who shimmied delightfully past two markers before producing a stunning, curling finish to beat Jordan Pickford.
Everton simply do not have that quality in their strike force. Tosun has shown some promise, but did not look like a finisher here, heading tamely at Lukasz Fabianski from barely six yards, then mishitting an easy chance in front of goal.
The Blues were outplayed for long periods, yet were given a lifeline just before half-time, when boss Marco Silva gave Bernard his Everton debut, replacing Morgan Schneiderlin, who had lost his father in the week leading up to the game.
The move worked, with the Brazilian providing a ball in stoppage time that Jonjoe Kenny crossed for Gylfi Sigurdsson to head home.
Everton hopes were cut short by Arnautovic. Despite being surrounded by five defenders, he linked superbly with the energetic Pedro Obiang to find space to finish.
It was no more than West Ham deserved, and belied their four straight defeats coming into the match.
It also gave the Hammers successive victories over Everton for the first time since 1973.
Momentous for Pellegrini then, in more ways than one.