David Moyes has been bullish at times this season about Everton’s prospects of qualifying for Europe and some of his players have echoed his hopes but in his press conference ahead of today’s clash with West Ham, the sulking Scot said he wasn’t going to discuss the issue anymore.
A seemingly transformative triumph over Chelsea had pulled the Blues onto the Londoners’ shoulders and those of neighbours Liverpool but a blown opportunity at Brentford, coupled with a crippling derby defeat served to kill the manager’s mood.
Perhaps that translated to his players because they served up another weak performance at the London Stadium this afternoon, succumbing to two more poorly defended goals, throwing away a point in second-half stoppage time for the second weekend running.
And the identity of West Ham’s goal scorers could have been written before the match even kicked off. Both Tomáš Souček and Callum Wilson have seemingly made it their mission to score against Everton every season and they bagged again this afternoon, the Czech putting Nuno Espirito Santo’s men ahead six minutes after half-time and Wilson rendering Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s sumptuous half-volley redundant by plundering the winner.
Apart from an utterly bizarre decision by VAR Michael Salisbury not to award a penalty for a clear handball by Mateus Fernandes, Everton can have few complaints. Pedestrian and uninspiring in the first period, their abysmal start to the second half was duly punished and though they eventually equalised once the urgency of their plight had lit a fire under their backsides and Moyes had finally been moved to make some positive changes, it was all for nought as they were caught cold again late on.
The headline team selection concerns coming into the game centred around the missing duo of Jarrad Branthwaite and Beto, the former ruled out for the season with another hamstring injury and the latter under the Premier League’s concussion protocol. Both would be sorely missed.
In Beto’s absence, Thierno Barry was handed a rare start and he would rue Souček’s positioning on the goal line that denied him a precious second-half goal but there was little to inspire about the Frenchman’s overall display. And just like last week, Evertonians will wonder whether Branthwaite’s presence in the six-yard box might have prevented the concession of two more soft goals.
Just as concerning were the flat performances of Dwight McNeil, Idrissa Gueye, Iliman Ndiaye and even Dewsbury-Hall before he walloped home the equaliser. On a day when the Toffees needed intensity, tempo and desire, their attacking midfield core was found wanting.
Ndiaye popped up in flashes, his trademark dazzling feet almost forcing an opening late in the first half before he was crowded out. Dewsbury-Hall flattered to deceive on the counter-attack, failing to pick Barry out in a two-on-two after Barry couldn’t connect with an ambitious overhead kick attempt when McNeil delivered a cross behind the striker on an earlier breakaway.
Barry’s low drive from 25 yards was the only time that Mads Hermansen was called upon to make a save before half-time while, at the other end, Souček cleared Jordan Pickford’s crossbar from El Hadji Diouf’s free-kick over, a Fernandes effort was deflected narrowly over and, on the stroke of half-time, Jarrod Bowen flashed the ball across Everton’s six-yard box.
There was an argument for Moyes making a positive change at the halfway stage, such was the lacklustre nature of his outfit’s efforts in the first half, but he was forced into eventually turning to his bench by West Ham scoring the opening goal in the 51st minute.
Quite the opposite of seizing the initiative against a poor opponent, Everton just hadn’t shown up after the interval and they survived a penalty appeal by Tati Castellanos on Pickford after Crysencio Summerville had clipped an inviting cross the back post.
The VAR check confirmed that no spot-kick was warranted but the visitors conceded from the resulting corner anyway. Souček rose unchallenged behind Barry and ahead of James Tarkowski to bullet a header past Pickford who was, as usual, rooted to his goal line.
It took Moyes almost another quarter of an hour to make his first substitutions but they at least the effect of injecting some life into Everton’s performance, with Tim Iroegbunam injecting some badly-needed impetus in midfield as James Garner switched to right back as Jake O’Brien made way and Tyrique George bringing some of the trickery and directness on the flank that had been sorely lacking from McNeil.
Iroegbunam came close to creating an opening for Barry in the 71st minute after being played towards the byline by Gueye but Souček intercepted the ball ahead of Barry in his six-yard box.
Then, three minutes later, after Ndiaye won a corner off Diouf, Barry rose to meet a teasing George cross from the left and looked for all the world to have scored until his header bounced off Souček’s head, onto the bar and over.
While not exactly swarming all over them, Everton at least had West Ham in retreat as the game entered the final 10 minutes and when the away fans bayed for a penalty for handball, it looked as though they’d be handed a way back into the game via the penalty spot.
However, despite Fernandes wrestling with Barry with his arms around the striker and batting the ball behind with his fingers, the VAR deemed it to be “a natural grappling motion” and recommended that play continue.
Undeterred, the Toffees did level matters four minutes later. Vitalii Mykolenko floated a cross in from the Everton left, Tarkowski cushioned a header back into the path of Dewsbury-Hall and he leathered it expertly past Hermansen from around 12 yards out.
That should have been the catalyst for Everton seizing the moment but, instead, they wilted in stoppage time. Bowen won a back-post header against the hapless Mykolenko putting the winner on a platter for substitute Wilson who made no mistake, ramming it home from close range. It was the forward's ninth career goal against the Blues.
George had a late chance to break the Hammers’ hearts but couldn’t get enough curl on a right-footed shot that missed the far post by a couple of feet and that was that.
Since the unwanted three-week hiatus for internationals and the FA Cup after the Chelsea game, Everton haven’t really shown up with any of the intent required from a team hoping to sneak into Europe. One point from a possible nine from Brentford, Liverpool and now West Ham is a poor return and means that the Blues have dropped out of the top half of the table.
The team’s current form isn’t providing many grounds for optimism and they face Manchester City next in a fixture that hasn’t yielded so much as a single point for Everton since Ronald Koeman oversaw that stunning 4-0 victory almost a decade ago.
So by the time they travel to Crystal Palace on 10th May, Moyes’s men could be looking at a run of just one win in six, with their season fizzling out along with their aspirations of playing Continental football next season.