YARMED AND DANGEROUS
Pellegrini gets birthday victory thanks to double from Andriy
MANUEL PELLEGRINI may have just hit retirement age but his West Ham side ensured he won’t have any need for his pension – just yet.
Andriy Yarmolenko’s first-half double followed by a second-half strike from Marko Arnautovic made sure Gylfi Sigurdsson’s header for Everton counted for little as the Hammers got their first points of the season to climb off the bottom of the table.
After four defeats from their opening four Premier League games, many were starting to question whether Hammers boss Pellegrini should be calling for his pipe and slippers.
But West Ham avoided losing their first five league games for the first time in their history.
And they did it by scoring one more in this 90 minutes than they had managed in all their four previous league games combined.
All in all a perfect gift to their manager on his 65th birthday.
Marco Silva and his Everton men, meanwhile, were left to contemplate their first defeat of the campaign. But more worryingly they have only won one of their first five league games as they continue to adapt to their new manager’s playing style.
Injuries haven’t helped with two summer signings – Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes – yet to even pull on a blue shirt, while star striker Richarlison was suspended.
Concern
But the fact they are now just three points above West Ham, who until yesterday had endured a shocking start to the season, is a concern.
The Hammers are up and running thanks to just their third win against the Toffees in their last 21 Premier League attempts.
It didn’t take long to get going either, with just 11 minutes on the clock when Yarmolenko fired past
Jordan Pickford on his first start for the club.
Pedro Obiang fed the ball to Arnautovic who unselfishly slid it across for the Ukrainian to get his first goal for the club following his £17.5m summer move from Borussia Dortmund.
It’s not the first time the Ukrainian has given Everton the run around.
He scored in Dynamo Kiev’s 5-2 Europa League destruction of the Toffees back in 2015 – and just under a year later his agent was at Goodison Park as Everton tried, and failed, to sign the winger.
Here he was yesterday showing what they missed out on as he got a second soon after Cenk Tosun had wasted a good chance at the other end for the hosts.
Mark Noble intercepted a sloppy pass and the ball fell to Yarmolenko, who then cut inside before curling home for a wonderful goal.
Silva took off Morgan Schneiderlin just before the break. The Everton manager revealed before kick-off that the France midfielder’s father had recently passed away.
The Everton boss insisted afterwards that Schneiderlin had been in the right frame of mind to play.
But his substitution worked as debut boy Bernard was involved in the build-up before Jonjoe Kenny crossed for Sigurdsson to power in a superb header on the stroke of half-time. But Everton’s hopes of getting something out of the game looked slim just after the hour mark when Arnautovic got his third of the season.
The Austrian played two passes with Obiang before finding the net and he has now been involved in 16 goals in 2018, nine goals and seven assists, a total second only to Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
Everton tried to get back into the game but substitute Oumar Niasse rattling the bar with a volley was as close as they got.
A birthday win for Pellegrini – but the party could be a brief one with unbeaten Chelsea up next.