FANTASY FOOTBALL!
Payet seals comeback as West Ham eye top four
SLAVEN BILIC could not explain it. Lost in the moment as one of the great comebacks of this extraordinary season had been completed, West Ham’s manager turned on his heels and ran.
Arms outstretched and hands waving, Bilic had a look of giddy disbelief as he disappeared down the tunnel while behind, his staff were celebrating Dimitri Payet’s last-gasp winner. Bilic appeared moments later, this time with his hands clamped on his head.
Seemingly dead and buried in the 77th minute, West Ham unleashed a flurry of blows that left Everton startled and dazed and, by the final whistle, lying on the canvas with their senses scrambled.
This was not a game that Everton, who were reduced to 10 men in the first half after Kevin Mirallas received two stupid bookings, should have lost. Romelu Lukaku had opened the scoring, Aaron Lennon doubled the lead and all was well on Merseyside.
But then Lukaku missed a penalty in the 69th minute – a feeble shot that was comfortably saved by goalkeeper Adrian – and the pendulum swung. Everton froze, West Ham pounced and Michail Antonio, Diafra Sakho and Payet inflicted maximum damage.
‘I didn’t know what to do,’ said Bilic, as he reflected on a victory that keeps West Ham firmly in the hunt for a Champions League place. ‘This is the kind of game that can happen in England but we were the better side from the first minute.’
The more you see this side play, the more you cannot fail to be impressed by Bilic’s work. It helps, of course, having a magician like Payet. Fifteen minutes after the final whistle, a group of about 100 travelling fans were still singing his name, ignoring the pleas of stewards to leave. It is stretching it to say, as the song goes, he “is better than Zidane” but he is worth his weight in gold to this club.
His skills are obvious but what really strikes about Payet is his willingness to work. He could have gone missing when it was 2-0, saved himself for next week’s FA Cup trip to Old Trafford, but there he was chasing lost causes, terrifying Everton and running amok.
The comeback was helped by Bilic’s tactical switch, when he abandoned the idea of playing three central defenders, introduced Andy Carroll and West Ham began pumping balls forward to ask increasing questions of Everton.
‘I’m very pleased of course to come here and get three points at a stadium where we don’t have any record,’ said Bilic, referring to the fact that West Ham’s last win at Goodison Park was in December 2005. ‘To do it like this is unbelievable. I have to praise my players.
‘If Everton had scored that penalty, they would have won the game maybe 3-0 or 4-0. But what I am pleased the most about, apart from three points, is that we never lost our composure, our patience. We didn’t want to force the situations.
‘I said at half-time, “OK, we are one down but we are going to do it”. I told them that we had to be less sexy and more lethal around the box. We knew it was not going to be one-sided match when you have a player like Lukaku.’
Lukaku, bristling with aggression, set the tone for his own display when clattering into Adrian in the fourth minute and, 60 seconds later, the West Ham keeper showed there were no ill-effects when he produced a fine save to tip over James McCarthy’s left-foot volley.
That set the tone. West Ham were quick to fashion a response of their own, when Payet skipped clear of a tackle and ran 30 yards but could not provide a finish to match, dragging his right-foot shot wide of Joel Robles’ goal.
They found themselves behind, however, the next time Everton went forward and it was a fine goal too. When Bryan Oviedo ushered Lukaku forward, he brushed aside Reece Oxford – playing as third centre-back – and swept a wonderful drive into the corner of the Park End net.
Just when things seemed to be running smoothly for West Ham, along comes Lukaku – whose first goal as an Everton player in September 2013 came at Upton Park – to torpedo their ambitions; this was the eighth consecutive game in which he had scored against the Claret and Blues.
How different would things have been had Mirallas stayed on? It is impossible to say but Everton should have been home and dry once the outstanding Lennon had doubled their lead in the 57th minute, after swapping passes with Lukaku. The Belgian’s penalty miss, after Mo Besic had been tripped, was crucial.
First Mark Noble’s inswinging cross was glanced in by Antonio, Sakho secured parity after Everton’s defence crumbled, before the little French maestro put his stamp on a wonderful match.
It left Bilic running away in state of delirium and Martinez wondering where it all went wrong.