Yarmolenko puts icing on cake for happy Hammers
“The cake was the three points,” said Manuel Pellegrini in the wake of this desperately needed first victory – and first points – of the season for West Ham United, which came on their manager’s 65th birthday.
If that was the case then the icing was the fact that not only were West Ham so dominant, but that two of their goals were scored by Andriy Yarmolenko on his debut – against a team who had twice attempted to sign the winger.
It was West Ham who eventually got him, securing the 28-year-old for £17.5 million in the summer from Borussia Dortmund after Everton had courted Yarmolenko the previous year, and also in 2015. Indeed, he has been linked to half the Premier League in the past.
Credit Pellegrini for holding him back until now with the manager, despite losing his first four league games, reasoning that he would not use Yarmolenko until he was ready. The forward proved that to devastating effect as he became the first Ukrainian to score in the Premier League in more than 10 years (since Andriy Voronin for Liverpool in May 2008).
And so this was a transformative result. Suddenly West Ham are not just off the bottom of the table but out of the relegation places, while Everton’s solid, unbeaten start can be viewed in a less flattering light. Instead of being undefeated, they have now won just one of their first five league games and there was a smattering of boos at the end inside the already half-empty stadium.
The frustration of manager Marco Silva was clear and not just because of the mistakes made by his team, who were culpable for all three West Ham’s goals. The Portuguese has yet to field his preferred line-up – far from it – with injuries biting hard and the suspension of Richarlison denying him his key player.
Without the Brazilian, Everton were toothless in attack, with Cenk Tosun wasteful. Even though they did not deserve to win, they arguably created better opportunities than West Ham, who were nevertheless led magnificently in attack by Marko Arnautovic and deserved this result. The only concern for West Ham was Arnautovic again having to depart early and feeling the back of his knee.
If he and, more so, Yarmolenko took the headlines, then it was even more thrilling for West Ham that their most impressive performer was also their youngest. Declan Rice was stationed as the holding player in midfield and the 19-yearold dominated.
When Mark Noble was substituted in the second half, he even passed the captain’s armband to Rice before it was then handed to Pablo Zabaleta. Little wonder England manager Gareth Southgate is so keen to lure Rice, more naturally a centre-half, away from the Republic of Ireland.
It was a poor first half from Everton – and was not much better after that – with Silva showing his unhappiness by not even waiting until the break to make a change. On 44 minutes, he introduced winger Bernard for his home debut, taking off the ineffective Morgan Schneiderlin. It was tough for Schneiderlin, whose father died last week, as Silva mentioned in his programme notes, but the game had gone away from Everton and something had to be done.
The switch provided an immediate dividend as Gylfi Sigurdsson powered in a header with the last touch of the half. The ball was played out wide to Jonjoe Kenny on the right, and he stood up a cross which the stand-in captain attacked to beat Lukasz Fabianski.
But it provided false hope. Everton had been carved open as West Ham established a two-goal lead with Kurt Zouma, in particular, guilty.
On 11 minutes, Fabian Balbuena intercepted with Pedro Obiang simply lofting the ball through to Arnautovic, who had held his run. The striker chested the ball down and ran on before unselfishly squaring to Yarmolenko, who sidefooted into the net.
West Ham struck again – although before that Tosun should have equalised, only to steer a tame header straight at Fabianski – and once more Everton were hugely at fault. The ball was not properly cleared by Jordan Pickford and, although Noble was fouled, referee Martin Atkinson played on with possession breaking to Yarmolenko, who was allowed to cut in on his left foot to curl the ball around the Everton goalkeeper.
the second half and there was no rally from Everton, as West Ham restored their two-goal advantage with a brilliantly worked goal. Noble played the ball infield to Obiang, who pushed it on to Arnautovic with the forward returning the ball.
The striker moved into the penalty area and was again picked out by Obiang, sliding his shot low past Pickford. It meant that, since the start of 2018, only Mohamed Salah (23) has had a hand in more Premier League goals than Arnautovic (16 – nine goals, seven assists). Was it game over? Everton substitute Oumar Niasse should have set up a tense finish when he met Lucas Digne’s cross – only to volley powerfully against the crossbar.
But West Ham deserved their win – which meant more than any cake for their manager.