Aha, Will Unwin’s report is with us.
That means we’re done here, so thanks for your company and comments – sorry I couldn’t use them all – and see you again soo. Peace.
I didn’t expect Arne Slot to say yeah, blame them, but he has just bought two full-backs who aren’t that good at defending – and though Trent Alexander-Arnold isn’t either he gave them much more security in possession than does Jeremie Frimpong, and was a major reason Mohamed Salah was so prolific.
Everton will be disappointed to have given up their lead, but they had to rely on a set-piece for their goal and didn’t create much else; in the last half-hour, West Ham looked likelier winners, though must also find a way of scoring regularly.
FULL TIME: Everton 1-1 West Ham United
A big point for West Ham in Nuno’s first game as manager – they stay second-bottom on four points – while Everton move up to ninth with eight.
90+5 min Andy Hinchcliffe names Summerville player of the match, which is fair enough, though I’d probably have gone for Diouf, without whom Everton would still probably be be ahead.
90+4 min Nuno is satisfied with a point, taking off Paqueta and Fullkrug for Igor and Irving.
90+3 min I’ve been impressed with West Ham’s second-half performance; Diouf and Summerville have the makings of a nasty left flank.
90+2 min Grealish down the line for Dewsbury-Hall, whose cut-back is beyond everyone. A bit of composure there and he might’ve set up a wining goal.
90+1 min We’ll have five additional minutes, which open with Dewsbury-Hall inadvertently catching Walker-Peters; he’s booked and is extremely upset about the situation. He becomes the first player this season to be suspended for accumulated cards.
90 min Grealish picks up possession when the free-kick passes across the box, tees-up Garner who hurtles into a shot, and Areola saves easily enough.
88 min West Ham go again, Bowen crossing and the ball pinging about in the box with Fullkrug hammering o2 into the roof of the net – it’s a brilliant finish. But eventually, Everton clear, and shortly afterwards, Dibling does well to win a free-kick down the right-hand side of the box.
86 min Paqueta and Mykolenko tussle for the ball, Mykolenko on the ground as Paqueta nudges him and getting up while imparting an elbow to the mid-section. Naturally, Paqueta goes down like he’s been tasered, and the Ukrainian is booked.
85 min And here they come again, Bowen finding space down the right and crossing low; again, Fullkrug is inches away from sliding on to the end of it.
84 min Grealish lays back to Dewsbury-Hall, who crosses to no one. But these last few minutes have been a little better for Everton, even if West Ham still look likelier winners.
83 min Garner looks to curl inside the near post and doesn’t get that close.
82 min Areola plays out to Mavrapanos, Dewsbury-Hall mugs him, and does all he can to hurl himself into the area when the inevitable foul comes. Free-kick Everton, near its left corner; Mavropanos is booked.
81 min Another change for Everton, Dibling replacing Ndiaye. I wonder if Moyes thinks the former’s physicality is more likely to stop Diouf than the latter’s.
80 min West Ham win a corner, the headed clearance falls for Diouf – of course it does – and he lamps a shot miles away from anywhere.
78 min West Ham clear a long throw, Garner collects, and gets the right willies when he sees Diouf charging at him, conceding a throw. Nothing comes of it, but the 20-year-old right-back is now the most important player in this game.
77 min Change for West Ham, Summerville – who’s been good and doesn’t look hurt – replaced by Guilherme.
76 min Diouf slides Summerville down the left with a pass of impeccable weight; Pickford waits, then times a perfect sliding tackle to avert the danger.
75 min “Why no updates or live score from the big match between Stirling University and Burnt Island Shipyard?” wonders Ray Wells. I’m not sure it’s possible to find it – i’ve tried and no one will allow us to know.
73 min Everton just can’t control Diouf – he’s too fast and strong to catch, and his crossing is superb. He’s hit more good ones in 20 minutes than Patrick Dorgu has in nearly a year.
72 min West Ham are coming now, Diouf again overlapping, crossing well through the corridor, and when Bowen retrieves the ball, his shot is deflected wide of the near post … for a corner which comes to nowt.
70 min I didn’t see it at the time, but I think Bowen’s finish may have flicked off Keane on its way past Pickford. Either way, it was a decent finish because he made room for the shot and delayed until he was ready. Meantime, Fullkrug runs off Tarkowski who looks to put a hand on him, but the ref sees nothing amiss; if he had, he’d have had a decision to make.
69 min Change for Everton: Barry replaces the ineffective Beto.
67 min Diouf is a serious athlete – when he gets going, he can run through people, and the cross he just hit was his second beauty of the match. I’m looking forward to seeing how he develops, because the raw materials are off the scale.
GOAL! Everton 1-1 West Ham (Bowen 65)
Summerville hooks a pass over his head for Diouf, on halfway, who powers on to it, picking up two defenders with his hands and flinging them into touch before sending over another delicious cross. This time, the ball makes its way to Bowen on the far side, and he stands up Mykolenko, making an angle for the shot, then power-curls into the far side-netting, a third of the way up. West Ham were growing into this, and that’s a very good goal, the first of the Nuno era.
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63 min Kilman is booked for a foul, I didn’t see who on.
62 min Both these teams need to find ways of scoring goals. I’m not sure how either do it on a regular, but hang about! Areola kicks long the ball bounces, and O’Brien’s header back is weak and read by Summerville, who latches on, slips a low shot goalwards … and Pickford saves with a foot. That’s by far the best chance West Ham have had tonight.
61 min “That James Garner is a bit of a maverick,” chortles Rudd Hughes.
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59 min Change for West Ham: Freddie Potts, son of Steve, replaces Magassa.
58 min Inswinger from Dewsbury-Hall which Kilman does really well to head away, facing his own goal; the ball drops into Garner’s stride, but his low shot is saved by Areola easily enough.
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55 min West Ham are barely in this game as an attacking force but, as I type, Diouf arcs a gorgeous ball into the corridor of uncertainty, but Fullkrug, on the slide, can’t quite get studs on it. I wonder if Nuno might try a second striker at some point, because West Ham sticking balls into the box might work better than playing through midfield. Meantime, Garner sticks a decent cross in, which Kilman dives to stick behind.
53 min Everton are pushing hard for a second, a big switch finding Dewsbury-Hall, who moves on to to Grealish down the left. He hits the line, crosses, and wants a penalty for something we couldn’t see, but I think is hands against Mavrapanos; yup, the cross hits the keeper, then hits the defender’s hand, and there’s no way that could be considered a penalty.
52 min Again, though, Eveeton keep West Ham boxed, Grealish drawing men to him before finding Garner, whose shot is straight at Areola.
50 min Nice from Everton, Garner into Ndiaye and on to Grealish, who nips inside Diouf, then flicks with the outside of his foot for Garner, whose shot is blocked and winds up over the touchline for a throw. O’Brien flings long … and West Ham clear.
47 min Magassa is late on Garner, introducing studs to thigh, but with Everton on the attack the ref plays advantage, a low cross comes in, and I think a flick off a defender takes it away from Beto, who was certain he was about to score. Instead, Dewsbury-Hall’s shot is deflected over, the ref goes back to book Magassa, then following the corner, Gueye clatters over the top.
47 min Summerville crosses and Keane heads clear, then Magassa slides into the box seeking Bowen, but puts too much on it.
46 min Off we go again.
Half-time email: “Since some minor MBM flavor beef has shown itself,” says Justin Madson, “I wanted to share: as a neutral who was reading your MBM at the time, I thought your take was refreshingly factual and pragmatic. Too often pundits and commentators are happy to dive in on the CONTROVERSIAL DECISION as an abhorrent affront to the spirit of the game. Arguing about calls in sporting events is as old as time and putting things up on a monitor wont change that. What we can change is how we talk about decisions, because this isn’t fun for anyone.”
Relitigating decisions is what foisted VAR upon us, and the way I tend to look at these things is that no one fell in love with the game because of its decision-making process, so I tend not to care how accurate of effective it is. My own team were robbed at the weekend, but they had a full 90 minutes to render the ref’s error irrelevant and weren’t good enough to, so.
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HALF-TIME: Everton 1-0 West Ham
Everton have played with decent intensity but not that much quality; West Ham with fair intensity and less quality.
45 min We’ll have one additional minute.
45 min It goes shot and Paqueta creates an angle to send Walker-Peters down the line, but his pass is inaccurate and intercepted.
44 min Paqueta robs Gueye but West Ham don’t move the ball quickly enough to exploit the space, going sideways before going forward and eventually winning a free-kick, Magassa doing well to hold off Dewsbury-Hall before falling over.
43 min Ndiaye protects the ball well, then Garner sticks it into touch, falling on his shoulder and feeling it. I think he’ll be fine.
42 min West Ham need to find a way of getting Paqueta on the ball. We’ve barely seem him so far, and without him involved, they look unlikely to create.
40 min Word to the wise: the Dallas Cowboys doc on Netflix is absolutely brilliant. Obviously it’s helps that in American sport, they film everything – they do, for example have footage of Troy Aikman criticising his coach on the sideline – but the desire of all invovled to speak candidly even if it makes them look bad is very helpful.
37 min Summerville has good pausa. He weaves infield, stops, dips outside O’Brien … who can’t resist the foul. He does well not to be booked there, and the free-kick comes to nowt.
36 min “Win, lose or draw tonight (he’s 48 hours into the job) I’m willing to take bets that Forest will regret their decision to sack Nuno in favour of that gobby Australian,” says Jeremy Boyce, “and that the Hammers will finish above Forest this season. That may mean 18th and 19th, with only another of Nuno’s other former employers (Wolves) saving them both from the ultimate embarrassment.”
Yeah, I’d not be surprised either; Forest’s squad is useful for what Nuno wants to do, whereas I’m not certain what Postecoglou wants to do, never mind whether he can do it with those players.
35 min West Ham just can’t defend crosses. Ndiaye stands up Diouf, goes past then crosses, and Dewsbury-Hall should do better than head wide of the far post.
33 min Grealish comes to the ball and Walker-Peters, impatient at how hard it is to get the ball when it’s this expertly protected, leaves a foot in and is booked. Everton need to set Grealish at him whenever they can.
32 min Nice from Grealiosh, who draws en towards him then ushers Dewsbury-Hall outside him; he thunders over a cross and Beto chucks head at it, but can’t quite apply brow to ball.
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31 min There’s noise coming from the away end, including “Sully, you’re a cee” and “sack the board”. Do West Ham have a viable alternative, i.e. someone or some people with the money, desire and expertise to run the club?
30 min O’Brien wins a free-kick off Diouf – I’d like to see that one again – but Everton have a chance to put the ball into the box. West Ham, though, get the ball away, then clear Mykolenko’s long through.
29 min Just after getting booked, Tarkowski committed another foul, on Summerville I think.The ref was right not to send him off – not every infringement is a booking, which is why I think Casemiro was unlucky last weekend. But he won’t be given unlimited leeway.
27 min Grealish draws Magassa in, oozes away, and wears the inevitable lunge. I think the West Ham man got a bit of the ball, which is why there’s no booking.
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25 min Again, West Ham attack down O’Brien’s flank; he gets a foot in, at cost of a throw. So Diouf hurls long but loopy, Kilman craning and extending neck to flick on, and Fullkrug is there, but forced to generate all the pace himself, he can only plop a header into Pickford’s hands.
24 min Fullkrug reads a pass from Gueye, snaffles it, and Tarkowski slides in hard; he’s booked.
22 min “Nice ball from Garner,” writes Robert Hisnay. “Garner, Henderson, McTominay, Elanga, Rashford, Garnacho. Straighten it out Ratcliffe!”
Of those, though only one I’m certain is good for United, and the only one who proved it at United, is Rashford, and Amorim knew he was good enough but couldn’t get on board with other aspects of the package.
20 min Apparently because the goal came immediately following a corner, in the same “phase” it’s the eighth from which West Ham have conceded so far this season.
GOAL! Everton 1-0 West Ham (Keane 18)
With the ball on the edge of the box, West Ham don’t step up and out, so when it goes wide to Garner, he’s got loads of time to come inside and curl in a flat, fast cross that Keane, totally unmarked, can use the pace of to redirect a header high above Areola.
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18 min Everton win a corner down the left – West Ham don’t defend these well – and Areola punches, but the Toffees collect the loose ball…
17 min We said West Ham might target O’Brien and Summerville runs at him, slows, then changes pace to burn past on the outside, cutting back a cross that’s behind Fullkrug … who can’t get any power in his shot.
16 min Dewsbury-Hall collects the ball on the touchline and heads diagonally towards the box, hoping for a shooting lane before playing in Nidaye, outside him; his shot is straight at the keeper.
15 min Ndiaye finds Garner, who teases a cross into the box, asking Beto, loitering beteween centre-backs, to generate power. And he can’t flicking straight at Areola.
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13 min Summerville suddenly stomps on to the gas, veering between two players and into the box. Fullkrug is alongside him, but he continues on his merry way alone, swivelling into a shot that’s blocked at source.
12 min Gueye plays a reverse-pass for Dewsbury-Hall, but Magassa follows him and blocks his attempted cut-back.
11 min Grealish knocks off and moves inside, Walker-Peters following allowing the space for Mykolenko to find Dewsbury-Hall, who wins Everton a throw deep inside the West Ham half. It comes to nothing.
9 min Magassa out to Bowen, who does Mykolenko on the outside and the cross is a good one, but Everton clear it, just about.
7 min Grealish, under pressure, finds Mykolenko, who crosses well, and the ball bounces about in the box before being cleared, then West Ham counter and Bowen makes a mess of his go at putting one into the mixer.
6 min “Just a neutral watching here,” says Samuel Jones, “but how have West Ham got to a stage where their first choice strikers are Fullkrug (32) and Wilson (33)? Is there nobody from the academy that deserves a chance either?”
I’m still waiting for Freddie Sears to make it, and not just to hear his name sung to the end of Sgt Pepper. But though I’m not totally au fait with the West Ham youth sides, it’s generally considered bad form to toss kids into a struggling side, and I think Fullkrug might be a good fit for how Nuno wants to play.
4 min So far, it’s Nuno football from West Ham: they’re sitting back and allowing Everton to play in front of them. Meantime, Gueye, making his 200th appearance for the Toffees, is wearing white tights like he’s the Prince Regent.
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2 min Talking of new grounds and such, one thing I don’t like is safe standing. Don’t get me wrong, I want to watch football in an upright position, but the bars stop the rolling mauls from getting going when celebrating a goal. I’d rather fall over seats with 49 people on top of me than jump up and down on my own.
1 min Away we go!
It’s rare a manager has two spells at the same club, but David Moyes has done that at both of tonight’s teams. He’s not someone I necessarily expected to move with the times, but I was wrong; biggups to him.
Our teams are tunnelled and about to emerge into the new ground for the first time in a Premier League fixture. It’s jumping.
“During the sixties and seventies multi purpose stadiums were all the rage,” advises Mary Waltz. “Saved money, right? Wrong. It ruined the viewing and atmosphere for all the sports it hosted. In the USA it was the forced marriage of American football and baseball and the results were god awful. I fully get the West Ham rage.”
What I also find a problem in American grounds is that there tend not to be seats at pitch-level because in the NFL, teams are so big they take up all that space. I prioritise proximity to the action above quality of view, so always want a lower-tier position.
“Following you on the Villa Fulham MBM,” begins Richard Hirst, I took your word on the penalty call – marginal you said. MARGINAL! Which part of making your body bigger has ceased to apply? And it doesn’t matter that Cash’s back was half-turned, deliberate handball long since did cease to apply. No wonder Marco Silva went ape … for once I’m with him.”
This is the relevant law, with the bit I think is relevant here bolded:
It is an offence if a player:
deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball
touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised”.
I wonder if Nuno will play the kind of football he played at Forest with West Ham. I guess that’s what he does, but at the moment, he doesn’t have the centre-backs for it; i’d not want to invite pressure on Kilman and Mavrapanos, though if Fernandes and Magassa do their job, opponents will be forced to attack down the sides.
My sense is also that in Fullkrug, he sees a player he can use as he did Chris Wood; that’ll have to work because otherwise, it’s hard to see where goals are coming from.
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Email! “You have a point to some extent,” writes Gary Naylor, “but, on my third visit, the new ground feels like home because it’s a distillation of the Liverpool we know. Post-industrial squalor is but a Sheedy free-kick away, industrial history is written into every brick and the shoots of a new Liverpool are poking through. But, watching the sun set over the Wirral, three miles from where I saw that image every day for 18 years, it’s so very ours.
Inside will take a little longer, but not years, months. The stadium is designed for atmosphere and you can taste it on your lips. West Ham fans will be jealous and I don’t blame them - I feel a bit jealous myself and it’s mine!”
I guess clubs in the second generation of modern new-builds have the advantage of seeing where other clubs went wrong. The first time I went to the Emirates, I couldn’t believe how bad it was, but obviously West Ham is another level entirely; there should’ve been a stipulation that whichever club took it had to knock down the athletics stadium and replace it with a football ground. I must say I loved Goodison, but I’m looking forward to seeing the new gaff.
I’ve not seen loads of West Ham this season, but I do quite like the look of El Hadji Malick Diouf. I wonder if we’ll see him and Summerville gang up on Jake O’Brien – I’d certainly be using them to target him.
Seeing as Michael Keane is playing, here’s one of my favourite goals of recent times.
West Ham, meanwhile, will look to play off Fullkrug, with Bowen coming off the flank in support while, down the left, Summerville keeps the width and behind, Paquetá prompts. I don’t think they’re anywhere near as bad as their league position suggests, but i do worry about the centre of their defence – which is why is makes sense to bring Magassa in for Ward-Prowse.
So where is the game? Everton will defend fairly deep – they’ve not much pace in the centre of their defence – and look either for Beto in the channels or Grealish to improvise. West Ham have pace at full-back, so I’d expect Ndiaye to attack the space on the inside, with Dewsbury-Hall hoping for cut-backs to the edge of the box.
I’m interested to see how West Ham’s midfield functions tonight. Obviously it’s only one game, but Magassa and Matheus Fernandes looks a better bet than Fernandes and Ward-Prowse, allowing Lucas Paquetá to concentrate on attacking. I also think Fullkrug makes more sense than Wilson; he’s a reference point at which to aim and, if they can hit him with crosses, he’s a problem for any team.
David Moyes, meanwhile, picks the same team which lost 2-1 at Anfield last weekend.
He says that you can’t do much in two training sessions, so the main point that’s been communicated to the players is effort. James Ward-Prowse, left out of the squad, has had the reasons explained and, Nuno reckons, understands the situation – or at least said he did because what else can you tell your boss? – and Soungoutou Magassa, signed in the summer, has been handed a debut because of his physicality. Finally, he went for Niclas Fullkrug not Callum Wilson because that’s what he thought the team needed – though I guess he also knows that at 33, Wilson is not the future.
We’ll talk about them in a minute, but first, Nuno is speaking to Sky…
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Teams!
Everton (4-3-3): Pickford; O’Brien, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko; Gana, Garner, Dewsbury-Hall; Ndiaye, Beto, Grealish. Subs: Travers, Patterson, McNeil, Barry, Dibling, Coleman, Alcaraz, Aznou, Iroegbunam.
West Ham (4-3-3): Areola; Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Diouf; Magassa, Fernandes, Paqueta; Bowen, Fullkrug, Summerville. Subs: Hermansen, Igor, Wilson, Guilherme, Rodriguez, Scarles, Potts.
Referee: Sam Barrott (Yorkshire)
Preamble
It’s not easy turning a house into a home, but at least, as people, we have options: whack up the LIVE, LOVE LAUGH poster, leave the lid off when making chicken stock and, if all else fails, enjoy a sit-down with the door open.
For football clubs, though, it’s all about the collective memory, which can only come with time and experiences. Leaving Goodison Park must’ve been a serious wrench for Everton fans and, though there’s a fair chance the new ground has better sightlines and stability, going to the match is about being part of something – the game but also a continuum of people and and place – which is now diluted.
It will be a while before new communities are formed and fans feel like they belong – just ask West Ham, whose move from the Boleyn Ground to the London Stadium is one of the biggest downgrades of all time. but nights like tonight are part of that process: opportunities for stuff to happen, both good and bad. Everton have started the season reasonably, Jack Grealish the step-quickener they’ve largely been without over the last few decades, and he’ll fancy himself to do something of note against the Premier League’s second-worst team.
West Ham, though, will be feeling better after replacing Graham Potter with Nuno Espírito Santo, and would like nothing more than to ruin Everton’s evening with a win taking them to within a point of their hosts. The spending and form of Leeds and Sunderland means that this season, potential strugglers can’t simply rely on promoted ones to be worse than them so, though we’re only six games into the season, there’s pressure on both of these teams – and neither can rely on home comforts to get them out of trouble.
Kick-off: 8pm
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