Everton travelled down to East London for the last ever league visit to Upton Park, a ground where they have a good record at, especially in recent years.
We were unbeaten in our last seven leagues games against the Hammers, which was extended to eight after today’s 1-1 draw. Before the game many believed the Toffees could take all three points away from Slaven Bilic’s men due to the good record but would not have objected to a draw as West Ham have made a good start to the season. So as many people were accepting of a draw before the game would they have the same reaction after the game? Simply, yes.
Neither side really dominated the game as both teams took it in turns to show real promise, usually in short five minutes bursts. At the start of the game West Ham looked rather dangerous especially down their right where tricky winger Victor Moses made the most of young Galloway’s inexperience. The first time Moses exploited this was early on when he beat the 19-year-old and whipped in a cross which was comfortably cleared by Coleman at the back post, but it was a sign of things to come. Regularly Moses got past the youngster and put in multiple dangerous crosses. Hats off at this point for John Stones and Ramiro Funes Mori who marshalled big Andy Carroll brilliantly, limiting him to very few attempts on goal.
Eventually Everton did settle into the game and started to cause problems of their own as Funes Mori had a small appeal for a penalty, which at first glance seemed like nothing but on closer inspection it was visible that the Argentine was caught by Winston Reid who also failed to make contact with the ball but whether the contact warranted a foul was debatable. I would have been very disappointed had we conceded a penalty of the same ilk. The Toffees continued to pressurise, most notably when a quick free kick from Deulofeu found Kone in space to run at the West Ham defence but, with Lukaku in support, the Ivorian couldn’t replicate his goalscoring form of last week; as he sliced his shot wide of the post. Deulofeu was a real menace for West Ham all day as he again caused problems, by getting round Cresswell and drilling the ball across the goal. Adrian nearly made a hash of it as his left foot diverted the ball agonisingly wide of the post.
Next came the goals, firstly West Ham’s. As the Irons attacked they again exploited the right hand side as Galloway was underperforming and not being given any extra support by any of his more experienced team mates. Moses put a cross in which was half cleared as a far as Manuel Lanzini who calmly took a touch and curled a sumptuous shot round the onrushing defenders into the top corner. Poor defending in the lead up to the goal but take nothing away from the finish. Nevertheless Everton were behind and needed to kick into gear a bit more as despite not playing terribly there was still plenty of room for improvement. The improvement did come as Everton stepped up their game and eventually equalised when Dimitri Payet was dispossessed, and Deulofeu played an exquisite defence splitting pass between the two West Ham centre backs. Lukaku was on the end of it and scored his customary goal against West Ham as he rounded Adrian and easily slotted home in a similar fashion to his goal from last weekend.
Everton went in at half time having just equalised and showing promise of a strong second half with a real chance of victory. Shortly after starting the second half Everton were given a helping hand in the endeavours for victory as the enigmatic Payet had to subbed off as he had been unable to shake off a knock picked up after a first half James McCarthy tackle. Everton did take the initiative and began to boss the game, having the majority of possession while occasionally threatening the West Ham goal. However not much materialised for either side, with the closest attempt coming from Lukaku as he got a toe onto a near-post Galloway cross but failed to hit the target as the shot whistled past the post.
In the end neither side will be too disappointed with their respective performances and the point collected. The game did show positive signs for both sides and if the two of the can consistently provide similar performances to today then they will definitely be in the more glamorous part of the table come May.
