The Opposition – West Ham United
It’s been quite a start to life as a Premier League manager for former Blue Slaven Bilic. Three consecutive wins away at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City, scoring seven and conceding just one, is nothing short of remarkable. In fact, it’s title winning away form. But let’s not carried away; losses to two of the promoted sides, as well as failures to beat the other new boys Norwich City and lowly Sunderland suggests the Hammers won’t be lifting the title any time soon.
Nevertheless, they’re as good a West Ham side as there’s been in years. The signing of Dimitri Payet is looking like a snip at £12m, and his ability to get hold of the ball and keep it, relieving pressure on his own team, was fundamental to that run of remarkable away wins, as well as his obvious attacking flair. He’ll undoubtedly pose a significant threat on Saturday.
Considering our vulnerability to crosses, the return to fitness of Andy Carroll should also be cause for concern. Should he play, crosses simply have to be stopped as their source as much as possible.
What the managers say
Roberto Martinez – “Slaven plays in a very different way to the one West Ham used to play. As an ex-Evertonian, we know he is a competitive man. He gained invaluable experience when managing Croatia and his teams are always ready to compete.
“From a psychological point of view, to go to places like Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea and win shows they have a fantastic mentality.
“When you bring in players from abroad it is always a gamble in terms of how long it takes for them to settle in. Last season, West Ham had a couple of players in Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho who had an incredible impact straight away. You can say the same about Dimitri Payet.
“Likewise, Manuel Lanzini has been a very impressive player, and then you have those who know the Premier League inside out, like Victor Moses, who give a level that everyone expects.
“So they have a very good mixture at West Ham and their new signings have come in with a fresh mentality.”
“As we all know as a team, defensively we need to be better. That is not just the back four and the goalkeeper, it’s the whole team. And that is where the work is.
“We want to be perfect in every performance, we want to be an attacking team. But we will never go out with the intention of keeping a clean sheet in the hope of winning a game because we want to try to find a way to score goals and be a good team to watch.”
Slaven Bilic – “Everton played very well against Sunderland, deserved to win the game, so they will be confident and they have the momentum. They were a bit shaky for a home performance, 2-0 up to then being 2-2, but came through it and then dominated, every attack they had looked dangerous.
“Our game against Watford was strange, not for the Premier League, but for us. We weren’t near to our usual levels but overall we look dangerous too, we are scoring quite a lot.
“We lost at Watford, but we know why we lost and we can learn from that and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“Every game is special for different reasons. Everton are a great side, big club with good players. It’s a great test for us and I am looking forward to it, definitely yes.”
Team News
Bryan Oviedo is out for two to three weeks.
Leighton Baines, Muhamed Besic and Tom Cleverley are training normally but this game is likely to come too soon for the trio.
Steven Pienaar and Tony Hibbert are still working their way back, but it will be after the international break before we see them in action again.
Previous Meetings
Upton Park has been a happy hunting ground for Everton in recent seasons. The blues trailed 1-0 in November 2008, but 3 goals in the last 7 minutes secured the 3 points.
Romelu Lukaku scored his first Everton goal as the Toffee’s left it late again in 2013, winning 3-2.
There’s a bit of a recurring theme here…
Expected Starting XI – (4-2-3-1) – Howard; Coleman, Stones, Funes Mori, Galloway; McCarthy, Barry; Deulofeu, Barkley, Kone; Lukaku
