Everton close on top four
Hull, Bournemouth earn crucial victories
LONDON, March 11, (RTRS): Everton closed to within five points of the top-four with a convincing defeat of a lacklustre West Bromwich Albion at Goodison Park on Saturday.
Goals shortly before halftime from Kevin Mirallas and Morgan Schneiderlin — his first for the club — put Everton in control and West Brom’s response was negligible.
Romelu Lukaku headed Everton’s third late on to take his league tally for the season to 19, level with Harry Kane at the top of the Premier League scoring charts.
Everton, whose only defeat in 10 league games was last week’s 3-2 reverse at Tottenham Hotspur, remain in seventh spot with 47 points from 28 games. Fourthplaced Liverpool, who host Burnley on Sunday, have 52.
“Our target is to play next season in Europe. We know maybe seventh position will bring it,” Everton manager Ronald Koeman said. “It was an outstanding team performance.
“In the second half, we controlled it. Our defensive organisation from set plays was outstanding.” Everton’s Romelu Lukaku, (center), battles for the ball with West Bromwich Albion’s Allan Nyom (left), and Gareth McAuley during the English Premier League soccer match at Goodison Park,
Liverpool, England, March 11. (AP)
West Ham United’s Cheikhou Kouyate (left), and Bournemouth’s Charlie Daniels battle for the ball during the English Premier League match West Ham against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth, England, March 11. (AP)
In this revamped tactical line-up, the man who has already scored for the Tigers against Manchester United in the League Cup and Liverpool in the league quite changed the complexion of the match.
First, Niasse demonstrated cool skill to beat Fabianski before a sharp close-range finish from fellow substitute Ahmed Elmohamady’s cross effectively sealed the points.
There were a few fingernails being chewed by the home fans in the dying seconds after Swansea defender Mawson headed home from Gylfi Sigurdsson’s free-kick but the win brought huge relief to Hull, who had won just one of their previous six league matches.
Silva made two changes from the defeat by Leicester City with Hernandez and Omar Elabdellaoui brought in for Niasse and Elmohamady.
Bournemouth 3 West Ham United 2 Joshua King scored a hat-trick and missed a penalty as Bournemouth edged a five-goal thriller against West Ham United to ease six points away from relegation danger.
Bournemouth missed two penalties in the first half. King screwed wide in the ninth minute and West Ham went ahead seconds later when Michail Antonio turned smartly and shot past Bournemouth keeper Artur Boruc.
The hosts deservedly levelled through King in the 31st minute before Bournemouth were awarded another penalty when Marc Pugh went down in the area, only for Benik Afobe to have his kick saved by Darren Randolph.
King put Bournemouth ahead from Afobe’s knockdown early in the second half but Ayew struck eight minutes from time.