Everton 1 – 3 West Ham
Everton threw away another precious lead and ended up coming away completely empty handed as West Ham struck twice in stoppage time to extend the Blues’ winless run to 10 matches and keep them mired in the battle to avoid relegation near the bottom.
Sean Dyche’s men led for six second-half minutes after Beto notched only his second Premier League goal at the second attempt, atoning for failing to score from the penalty spot at the end of the first period by converting James Garner’s cross in the 56th minute, but were pegged back by a Kurt Zouma header off a corner.
Everton, who had their chances to have had the contest won before those calamitous few stoppage-time minutes at the end, probably should have been 2-0 up by that point but Alphonse Areola, turning in a man-of-the-match display, saved from Dwight McNeil at point-blank range and Tomas Soucek later cleared off his goal line before scoring what proved to be the winner at the other end.
Though Dominic Calvert-Lewin has a decent scoring record against the Hammers, his goal drought that stretches all the way back to the last time these two sides met back in October prompted Dyche to start Beto up front and the Portuguese had the better chances to open the scoring in what was a poor first 45 minutes from both teams.
Strong work by Amadou Onana, restored to the starting XI in central midfield, gave him his first sight of goal from 20-odd yards but he drove well off target and he should have done much better with the best chance of the half from open play with 24 minutes gone.
Dwight McNeil threaded him in with perfect ball between two West Ham defenders but, having dug the ball out from under his foot, Beto scuffed a shot that Areola was able to save at close quarters.
He was gifted the opportunity to send Everton into the break a goal up, however, when Zouma was adjudged to have handled the ball in the penalty area and, having been sent to the pitchside monitor by VAR Tony Harrington, referee Craig Pawsonn pointed to the spot.
Unfortunately, Areola went the right way and palmed Beto’s effort from 12 yards out away to safety from West Ham’s point of view.
Everton had been the stronger side in the first half but their attacking failings had repeatedly undermined their efforts to take the lead. That changed early in the second half, though, first when McNeil tested Areola with an excellent half-volley that the keeper parried away and then when Garner and Beto combined to break the deadlock.
The midfielder advanced down the right flank and curled a magnificent cross into the box where Beto managed to guide it home with a thumping header to make it 1-0.
The Toffees under Dyche had made a habit of going ahead and successfully seeing matches out earlier in his tenure but management of games from winning positions has become a challenge of late, and so it proved again today as the hosts allowed the game to open up from that point on.
This match pivoted crucially on a moment in the 59th minute when Jack Harrison collected a pass into the Hammers’ box by McNeil, held it up to cut back on his left foot and chip it into the six-yard box where the Blues’ No.7 simply had to steer a volley either side of the keeper to double the lead.
Areola did well to scramble across his goal, though, and was there to save from McNeil and, after a Mohammed Kudus shot had deflected behind off James Tarkowski’s heel, Everton conceded only their second headed goal of the season and a second from a set-piece in as many weeks.
Zouma easily rose higher than Ben Godfrey to meet James Ward-Prowse’s corner and despatched a glancing header above Garner on the line and into the top corner.
Both sides had chances to retake the lead in normal time, with Areola pushing away another good effort from McNeil, this time a rasping effort from 30 yards out and the Hammers’ keeper doing really well to readjust his feet to bat a deflected Beto shot behind to prevent it spinning into the far corner.
From that corner, Abdoulaye Doucouré almost bundled home at the back post with Areola nowhere but Soucek smuggled it away from the line at the near post while, back at the other end, Everton twice played themselves into trouble by giving the ball away but Lucas Paquetá couldn’t put a header on target in the 65th minute and Jordan Pickford did brilliantly to deny Kudus following Tarkowski’s error.
Doucouré, Everton’s best player on the day, scampered down the left flank with a quarter of an hour to go and centred looking for Calvert-Lewin, now on for Beto, but Areola denied him with a flying one-handed interception and Godfrey slashed the rebound well off target before McNeil played the striker in but Areola was there again to make himself big and make the stop.
Urgently seeking a first win since mid-December, Everton were hoping to press for a winner in five minutes of injury time but ended up being undone in the first added minute. Kudus was afforded too much space down the West Ham left to cut a deep cross back towards Soucek who was afforded time by Vitalii Mykolenko to bring it down smartly before bending an impressive shot around Pickford and into the far side of the goal with the outside of his boot.
Goodison was stunned into silence and it got worse as the Blues pressed desparately for an equaliser in the dying minutes. Frustratingly, Garner failed to beat the first man with a promising situation from a corner and, having been allowed a second bite at it by the referee when he awarded the set-piece to be retaken, repeated the depressing feat with his second delivery.
West Ham surged away on the counter with substitute André Gomes out-numbered in retreat and when Edson Alvarez was played into a one-on-one with Pickford, he deftly lofted it over the keeper to seal the victory for the away side in a rapidly-emptying Goodison Park.
Those Evertonians who remained booed the players off at the final whistle before trudging away in the rain to contemplate more dropped points and the prospect of another fraught run-in to the end of the season.
Dyche will, no doubt, fall back on his lament at the start of the season, pointing at the chances his side had to win the game but which they ultimately squandered. The fact remains, though, that West Ham were poor and while Everton were the dominant side, they were too often frustratingly inept going forward. Ironically, the team that Dyche quipped had forgotten how to win while he was manager at Burnley, is now afflicted with the same dangerous problem under his stewardship at Goodison Park.
Things don’t get any easier next week with a trip to Old Trafford where no Everton side has won in 11 years and unless they can start winning matches, their Premier League fate will continue to hang in the balance.