Here’s Jacob Steinberg’s report from the London Stadium.
Everton’s win means Manchester United have qualified for the Champions League after their win at Aston Villa today.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 35 | 46 | 80 |
| 2 | Man Utd | 34 | 31 | 70 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 35 | 23 | 64 |
| 4 | Leicester | 35 | 20 | 63 |
| 5 | West Ham | 35 | 10 | 58 |
Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the goalscorer, speaks to Sky Sports.
It was a tough shift. We had a few chance but mainly stayed behind the ball. We deserved the three points in the end. It was determination, hard work, sticking together. That’s got us the three points. We knew we could expose them in behind so we worked on it in training. I’ve just timed the run perfectly and Godfrey has put in a perfect weight of pass, and it was one touch and finish. Allan for man of the match? Not sure how he got that over me but I’ll take it.
Updated
The table suggests West Ham probably have too much to do to reach the top four, barring a Leicester mudslide. Everton can make seventh with a game in hand on moribund Spurs. European football of some sort would thus beckon.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 35 | 46 | 80 |
| 2 | Man Utd | 34 | 31 | 70 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 35 | 23 | 64 |
| 4 | Leicester | 35 | 20 | 63 |
| 5 | West Ham | 35 | 10 | 58 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 34 | 18 | 57 |
| 7 | Tottenham Hotspur | 35 | 20 | 56 |
| 8 | Everton | 34 | 4 | 55 |
| 9 | Leeds | 35 | 0 | 50 |
| 10 | Arsenal | 34 | 9 | 49 |
| 11 | Aston Villa | 34 | 8 | 48 |
| 12 | Wolverhampton | 35 | -12 | 45 |
| 13 | Crystal Palace | 34 | -20 | 41 |
| 14 | Newcastle | 35 | -18 | 39 |
| 15 | Brighton | 35 | -5 | 37 |
| 16 | Southampton | 34 | -20 | 37 |
| 17 | Burnley | 34 | -16 | 36 |
| 18 | Fulham | 34 | -20 | 27 |
| 19 | West Brom | 34 | -34 | 26 |
| 20 | Sheff Utd | 35 | -44 | 17 |
Full-time: West Ham 0-1 Everton
A deserved win from Everton, who played hard and supplied the one moment of quality. Great finish from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, from a fine piece of work from Ben Godfrey, part of a defence that kept tight control of a West Ham team for whom the injuries are piling up.
90+4 min: The ball is swung in, and cleared. Repeatedly so. Everton have been immense in defence. And they see it out to claim three points.
90+3 min: Antonio is angry with the lack of service, and after falling to the ground with no foul on him, takes out his frustrations on his teammates.
90+2 min: West Ham seeking something miraculous at this point; there’s been nothing to suggest they can find a way.
90 min: King and Calvert-Lewin press from the front as Everton try to keep their shape. The ball comes out to the left and Coufal wafts one wide.
Four minutes added on.
89 min: West Ham take their time over a free-kick, and then take it short. Wasteful, to say the very least.
88 min: Everton are sat very very deep. And that’s been successful for them; West Ham have been lacking in creativity.
87 min: West Ham push on when they have offered little in attack for some time now. An Everton second has looked more likely in truth.
86 min: Another Everton change: Sigurdsson off, and on comes Fabian Delph, on to provide the “basics of football”.
85 min: King almost scores with his second touch, his first having played in Calvert-Lewin. At the far post, he nods the ball against the woodwork. West Ham can breathe - for now.
84 min: Everton change: a miffed-looking Richarlison goes off, and Josh King comes on to chase shadows up front.
82 min: Coufal and Coleman exchange some words. Sky TV have to apologise fo “inappropriate lip-reading”. That’s a new one. No hands over mouths there anyway.
81 min: Ten minutes to save Moyesey’s dream? Meanwhile, Calvert-Lewin’s arm smashes into Craig Dawson’s chops. At the other end, West Ham have a corner but that’s cleared.
79 min: Tom Davies tries to take on everyone, and gets robbed. The ball comes to Soucek who heads over. Way over.
77 min: Seamus Coleman, another one who is teetotal, makes a lungbursting run up the other end, and is robbed just at the moment he might have shot. Jesse Lingard goes all the way back to thwart him.
Allan is booked, both for a hack on Bowen and an accumulation of multiple fouls. He’s no Fernandinho.
75 min: Mary Waltz: “How did the Hammers not score? These are the days I regret giving up alcohol. I could use a pint right now to deal with this.”
Meanwhile, Jesse Lingard is given a yellow card for dissent, some choice colourful metaphors having filled the air from Warrington’s finest.
74 min: Yarmolenko is on, and Benrahma is off; that first-half miss is one to rue.
72 min: Everton have a chance to make something of a counter. Richarlison has Calvert-Lewin up in support but he chooses to go on a Denilson - the Betis one, not the Arsenal forgotten man. The latter plays for Sliema Wanderers in the Maltese league, it says here.
70 min: Kev Nolan has the iPad out again, and Yarmolenko is being reminded of his duties at corners. The Ukrainian will be West Ham’s final sub.
69 min: Allan’s tackle from the side on Fornals grants West Ham a free-kick. Lingard takes, but it goes behind the Hammers attacker he was aiming for.
67 min: Lingard buzzes around, trying to make something happen. All he achieves is the concession of a foul.
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66 min: Richarlison drops deep and plays a pass to Sigurdsson who is hacked down by a rather angry-looking Coufal. Anxiety building, shadows falling on the Moyes dream.
64 min: Everton have not had much of the ball in midfield. They’ve been happy to sit back. Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin are isolated up front, and from each other, too.
62 min: During the scramble that followed that glancing of the woodwork, Yerry Mina took a knock and he can no longer continue. On comes Mason Holgate.
61 min: West Ham hit the post! Fornals makes his way past a couple of defenders and slides it to Coufals. His angled drive comes back out and then Bowen can’t get on the end of it. That’s the closest yet.
59 min: Ryan Fredericks is coming on for Cresswell. Once again, Kev Nolan is the guide for set-piece duties. Cresswell limps off, and slowly. On comes Fredericks.
57 min: Cresswell, his Jacob’s perhaps healed but his hamstring looking problematic, is limping. The injuries are piling up for David Moyes.
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55 min: Cresswell, his Jacob’s healed, gets in a fine cross. Some hurried defending and Everton hack behind. Cresswell’s corner is not up to much. The door is being knocked on, but softly so far.
54 min: All West Ham, but not much quality from them. Everton seem quite comfortable.
Updated
52 min: Lingard takes the free-kick. That’s cleared and Fornals’ follow-up is claimed well by Jordan Pickford, sporting lockdown hair as opposed to the Thomas Turgoose suedehead of yore.
51 min: West Ham pressure but that’s released as Cresswell goes down, and looks to have stretched himself. Or is it an impact injury? It may well be a knock to his crown jewels.
50 min: Michail Antonio is penalised for, essentially, being stronger than Seamus Coleman. He’s not happy about the decision.
49 min: Sigurdsson’s cross finds Calvert-Lewin but he can’t put any sense of direction with his header.
47 min: West Ham begin on the front foot. They desperately need a win. Somewhere in the East Midlands, Brendan Rodgers is on a treadmill, breathing deeply and soothed by the music of Kenny G. This match is coming up Brendan at the moment.
46 min: Back away we go at the London Stadium.
Half-time reading here.
Half-time: West Ham 0-1 Everton
That goal from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, carved by Ben Godfrey’s great pass and run forward, was a notable exception to a game not exactly laden with quality. West Ham have looked anxious, and their passing moves in attack are not coming off. Saïd Benrahma though really should have scored that header.
Updated
45+2 min: Lingard does a jump of frustration after his ball to Bowen is misread by his fellow forward, and that’s the end of the half.
45 min: Two minutes are added on, as Coufal tries to shake off what looked a nasty knock to the head. He does so, being made of whatever the Czech for granite is.
44 min: Everton have soaked up some pressure but have been much the more comfortable and dangerous side.
43 min: Looks like it’s all over for Lanzini, and on will come Jarrod Bowen. The injuries are piling up for the Hammers. Kevin Nolan takes Bowen through his set-piece positions before he goes on. Nolan was good at set pieces as a player.
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41 min: Lanzini, who has been quiet, is down with an injury. In the stands, Mark Noble - in mask - sits ahead of Dec Rice, without a mask, and on his phone.
39 min: What a chance! Superb cross from Fornals, and Benrahma has a long time to work out where to aim for. He can’t keep it down. That has to go down as a bad miss.
38 min: He’s been missing for a while now but this is the type of game where West Ham miss Declan Rice who is back in training but still not fit enough to play a part.
36 min: Matt Dony gets in touch “Ah, remember when David Moyes rocked up at West Ham, and said, ‘That’s what I do. I win’? Didn’t we all laugh. Suddenly doesn’t seem quite so funny. As a Liverpool fan, I can’t say I particularly like the ex Everton and Man United manager (although, got to admit, I love Don Carlo), but it is impossible not have a massive respect for him this season. David Moyes, well done, sir. Whatever happens between now and the end of the season, he has played a blinder, and salvaged a reputation that had been circling the drain.”
35 min: Chance for Richarlison and Fabianski make a point-blank save. Everton are cutting through. West Ham looking lax in defence.
33 min: Tom Davies is aghast as he clatters Benrahma in midfield and is penalised. He took the ball but this is not 1995 anymore and Everton’s Dogs of War. Joe Parkinson would have been proud of that.
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32 min: Apologies to the John Brewin in Wiltshire to whom my Twitter link was directed.
30 min: Mina steps across to stop Soucek getting a flick on in from a Cresswell cross. Then the next corner is cleared. Lingard gets the ball at the left-hand side of the box. He seems glory, and goes for goal, whipping it wide. Was a cross a better option? Did he actually mean to put in a cross?
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28 min: At the other end, Sigurdsson has a free-kick chance from around 30 yards out. It’s hit well, and saved well. Everton looking dangerous, and can now play on the break, their favoured approach.
26 min: Hammers chance. Lingard’s lofted ball finds Benrahma, whose shot is beaten behind. A corner results, and then there’s a claim for a penalty. Referee Stuart Attwell waves away any claim; Keane had clattered into Antonio and it was a collision rather than anything else.
25 min: That was class all round from Everton though Craig Dawson must be disappointed to have let Calvert-Lewin get goal side of him.
Goal! West Ham 0-1 Everton (Calvert-Lewin, 24)
Ben Godfrey steps forward, and sees Calvert-Lewin on the charge, and plays him in. Lovely ball, lovely finish.
Updated
21 min: Some West Ham possession at last. But they fail to do much with it and have to avert a break from Calvert-Lewin.
20 min: Lingard surges on to an Antonio pass, only for the ball to be swept away just as he arrives on the scene. Not many glimpses of Lingard so far but he’s creeping into the match.
18 min: Soucek is fouled in midfield, as he tries to send Lingard away. There has been little in the way of the pacy attacks which which West Ham have maintained their top-four push.
16 min: Fabianski climbs highest to claim the latest Everton corner.
15 min: The full-backs are seeing most of the ball here and Digne, of Everton, gets a cros in. Eventually, Richarlison wins a corner.
14 min: It’s a midfield morass but Coufal gets down the right. He loops his cross to the back post. Antonio climbs highest and then collapses to the ground. If anyone was guilty of fouling anyone it was him.
12 min: Richarlison drops deep. Is he wearing tights? Or are both his knees bandaged up? It is a bit cold in East London. The heating is on here, a 45-minute stroll away from the blasted plain of the London Stadium.
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10 min: Richard Hirst gets in touch: “After her stint in the Villa-United game, will Mary Waltz have the stamina to cover the ground for her beloved Everton? Hail Mary.”
Take it away, Mary. “How dare you keep slagging my club Everton....why I am going to......probably sit here and take it. I am not giving up on my boys, we still have 15 points we could snare, but I feel I have been beaten down for so long that expecting the worst seems to be more realistic than raising my hopes and having them crushed.”
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9 min: This is being played at a rather ponderous pace. You would say it’s an end-of-season affair but so much is at stake for West Ham.
7 min: The Everton bombardment subsides when Calvert-Lewin heads it off the top of head and behind. Not much he could do with a ball that had looped behind him.
6 min: Sigurdsson takes the corner, it’s flicked by Keane and headed behind by Dawson. Then Soucek heads behind.
4 min: Cresswell sets off on a jag down the left-hand side. Allan steps over, and is eventually fouled by Lingard in midfield. A set-piece will be launched into the box. Sigurdsson launches it and Diop heads behind.
2 min: David Moyes looks nervous. Though David Moyes often looks nervous, in truth. Brighton, West Brom and Southampton to come for West Ham. On paper - does anyone write on paper anymore? - this is their toughest match of their final four.
1 min: Away we go at the London Stadium.
At West Ham, they have played the same music before the matches for many years. I can’t remember what this one is called but it’s the one with pounding drums, heavy brass, a bit of guitar fretwork and is used often for boxing montages. You know the one.
Carlo Ancelotti speaks to Sky Sports.
This period, this game is very much important because we are not so far off West Ham. We have an opportunity to get close to them. They are really strong on set pieces so we wanted to have more stature, but we aren’t going to change our style. West Ham is playing very well.
David Moyes speaks to Sky Sports.
I look at it good, we’re in a good position. We can go again. We’re in a really good position to finish well this season. Once you get a smell of it and gets in amongst it you want to stay there. We have to win, we know how important it is.
A reminder of the table. It’s not quite in West Ham’s hands, but Leicester are wobbling badly and have the distraction of the FA Cup final. Everton finishing in Evertonian seventh is very much in their hands unless they do an Everton.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 35 | 46 | 80 |
| 2 | Man Utd | 34 | 31 | 70 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 35 | 23 | 64 |
| 4 | Leicester | 35 | 20 | 63 |
| 5 | West Ham | 34 | 11 | 58 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 34 | 18 | 57 |
| 7 | Tottenham Hotspur | 35 | 20 | 56 |
| 8 | Everton | 33 | 3 | 52 |
| 9 | Leeds | 35 | 0 | 50 |
| 10 | Arsenal | 34 | 9 | 49 |
| 11 | Aston Villa | 34 | 8 | 48 |
| 12 | Wolverhampton | 35 | -12 | 45 |
| 13 | Crystal Palace | 34 | -20 | 41 |
| 14 | Newcastle | 35 | -18 | 39 |
| 15 | Brighton | 35 | -5 | 37 |
| 16 | Southampton | 34 | -20 | 37 |
| 17 | Burnley | 34 | -16 | 36 |
| 18 | Fulham | 34 | -20 | 27 |
| 19 | West Brom | 34 | -34 | 26 |
| 20 | Sheff Utd | 35 | -44 | 17 |
Talking of Tom Davies, this is lovely.
Ha my mam & dad bumped into Tom Davies in town today #scouser #gentleman 💙👍#efc @everton pic.twitter.com/aB4Suu7Ycw
— Paul Sung (@Sungy_1878) May 7, 2021
Match officials for today.
Referee: Stuart Attwell
Assistant Referees: Dan Cook and Simon Long
Fourth Official: Craig Pawson
VAR: Darren England
Assistant VAR: Peter Kirkup
West Ham are unchanged from their 2-1 defeat of Burnley last week. Carlo Ancelotti has made three alterations from the Everton team that lost 2-1 to Aston Villa. Michael Keane, Yerry Mina and Tom Davies come in as Mason Holgate, Andre Gomes and Alex Iwobi are named as subs.
The teams are in
West Ham: Fabianski, Cresswell, Coufal, Diop, Dawson, Fornals, Soucek, Benrahma, Lanzini, Lingard, Antonio. Subs: Randolph, Balbuena, Yarmolenko, Bowen, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Johnson, Odubeko, Coventry.
Everton: Pickford, Coleman, Digne, Keane, Mina, Godfrey, Allan, Davies, Sigurdsson, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin. Subs: Olsen, Holgate, Delph, King, Doucoure, Iwobi, Nkounkou, Bernard, Gomes.
Preamble
“The People’s Club” is how David Moyes used on his arrival as Everton manager in 2002. Whether he came up with that himself is lost in the mists of time but for much of the next 11 years - but not all the time - he came to define Everton before setting off for pastures that did not suit him at all. By then, his relationship with Everton fans had cooled; he was no longer seen as such a Messianic figure by time he joined Manchester United, not that joining them helped.
At West Ham, he is at a club that might have a similar sobriquet attached to it; though a lack of fans at the stadium means it is difficult to gauge how much Hammers fans have taken them to their bosoms. They probably ought to embrace him tightly, as he has done a fine job, and come what may he has revived West Ham after a few years of misery since moving to the London Stadium from Upton Park. Leicester’s collapse in confidence has opened up an avenue to the top four.
After Tottenham lost yesterday, Everton can close in on their on traditional seventh place with a win so they have something at stake. Seems a long time since the Moyesiah had them competing on the fringes of the top four.
Kick-off 4.30pm, join me.
