Hammer horror
Pellegrini is humiliated as Everton find killer touch
EVERTON seem to have found a little rhythm at last and West Ham have rediscovered their knack for being t he most embarrassing attendee at their own house party.
Just when they seemed to have worked this stadium out, they found themselves stumbling around with their collective fly down and cheap red on their shirts.
What a mess this was, a 2-0 home defeat against the side immediately beneath them in the table before the game, the only saving grace being that it wasn’t three, four, five or six. In truth, any of those scorelines were possible, such was the scale of the mismatch. It might have been only the Irons’ first defeat in seven at the ground, but what a way to crumble any notions of this place being a fortress.
Everton, themselves no poster boys for consistency, were excellent. Or so they looked. Maybe they were merely very good and elevated in image by how poor West Ham were, particularly in the first half when they were blown apart and somehow only conceded to Kurt Zouma and Bernard.
What will be encouraging for Marco Silva is that they have seemingly found a way of putting one foot in front of the other. Their issue this season has been the stumbles and miss- steps, the false dawns. They get a win, they go on a streak of lost hope. Over and again. Look at the Newcastle game three weeks back — 2-0 up at the break, beaten 3- 2 at the whistle. Then they beat Chelsea. A weird old team, Everton.
But this win is important because on the back of that Chelsea result they now have consecutive wins for only the second time this season. In the race for seventh — if indeed that is a hype-worthy thing — it bodes well that they have found a way to repeat quality performances. West Ham, by contrast, need to go back to the drawing board. It was alarming that they should concede three in victory against Huddersfield last time out, but Everton were unlikely to be so receptive in response. And so it proved. What made it worse, and no doubt far more frustrating for Manuel Pellegrini, is that the Chilean set his team up for durability. He wanted a little toughness, a sturdy edge, which is why he brought in Pedro Obiang to sit next to Declan Rice in front of the defence after backing the latter to go it alone in the previous two games. If the aim was solidity, then Pellegrini got zero return out of his plan. Time and again Everton charged through in the opening 45 minutes, a period when they created no fewer than nine chances. Very good chances, too, and spaced out across the half.
No great bursts so much as a sustained highlighting of Everton’s dominance against a system that was failing, both in its initial configuration of 4-2-3-1 and the adaptations that put it more like a 4-4-2. Against all shapes, Everton found their way through.
It took only five minutes for Silva’s side to lead, with Gylfi Sigurdsson finding Zouma with a corner and the defender bouncing his header over Aaron Cresswell, who was on the back post. The details will show Rice as the initial marker and that Issa Diop was easily beaten to the header, so not a great look for West Ham. For Sigurdsson, it was a fourth assist to go with 12 goals – one of the more consistent forces in this side.
From there, the great surprise was how it stayed at only 1-0 for the next 28 minutes. In one passage of play Lukasz Fabianski made reaction saves from Dominic CalvertLewin and Sigurdsson and within a moment had made another to stop Lucas Digne. In all, Everton had the extra man on attacks three times in the first 15 minutes alone.
The second goal, shortly after the half hour, was delightful in its speed and execution, with Seamus Coleman exchanging passes with Richarlison before squaring to Bernard who finished from inside the sixyard box. They had other chances through Idrissa Gueye and Richarlison, while West Ham, at their best, saw Manuel Lanzini botch his touch on one opening before Marko Arnautovic scuffed his shot on another. A woeful half.
Pellegrini responded with two attacking changes at half-time and switched to a 4-1-4-1 before hauling off Arnautovic, with boos ringing around as he left. The performance got marginally better, but only because it couldn’t get worse.