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Everton can maintain momentum at Hammers

By Matt Townsend

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 19: Tom Davies of Everton battles for possession with Sebastien Haller of West Ham United during the Premier League match between Everton FC and West Ham United at Goodison Park on October 19, 2019 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 19: Tom Davies of Everton battles for possession with Sebastien Haller of West Ham United during the Premier League match between Everton FC and West Ham United at Goodison Park on October 19, 2019 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images) /
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Following a decent, if unspectacular, 1-0 win over Brighton at Goodison Park last weekend, Everton have a good chance to maintain the momentum gained as they visit West Ham United on Saturday.

The main reason I say this is because Everton have a superb recent record against the Hammers and so this game represents a good opportunity to take all three points back to Merseyside.

It’s also important for the Toffees to maintain the momentum of that narrow win over the Seagulls. It’s only one game of course since the FA cup horror show at Anfield, but too often in the recent past Everton have won a game or two and then subsided to yet another defeat, so undoing any possible progress made.

Getting that dreadful defeat out of the system was important but it won’t feel nearly so good if the Blues don’t follow it up and fall to defeat at the London Stadium.

And while Carlo Ancelotti has continued the trend of recent Blues managers, establishing a good record at Goodison Park, he needs to show he can consistently break the trend of away day failure that has too often characterised those past regimes.

The 2-1 win at Newcastle United was a good start, and I’m confident that the seasoned Italian will be able to overcome this chronic weakness that the Toffees have suffered from.

Critical to improving their away form, the Blues have also been markedly better defensively since Ancelotti took over and have looked a lot more solid and consistent at the back.

However one of those players who has been reasonably good all season is Yerry Mina. But he is a doubt for the game, as he allegedly suffered a knock in training, Apart from this, Everton have no new injury worries, which is a relief after the recent fitness problems that have plagued them.

West Ham also have a new manager themselves in ex-Blues boss David Moyes, who has returned to the club following a brief stint there during the second half of the 2017-18 season.

The Hammers got a brief boost from his appointment, beating struggling Bournemouth 4-0 in his first game in charge. However they then subsided to defeat at the season’s surprise package, Sheffield United in their next match.

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West Ham are a mediocre team overall but they do have some decent attacking threats, in particular the French striker Sebastien Haller, their top scorer and  Brazilian forward Felipe Anderson.

They will probably be a bit stronger defensively under Moyes, although he’s not had much time to stamp his mark on things yet.

Neither of these teams has exactly set the Premier League on fire this season or are in particularly scintillating form, so I wouldn’t expect a brilliant match on Saturday. Of course that probably means it will be a six goal thriller!

Well maybe so, but the priority is points and let’s just look for a solid enough Toffees effort and a win, however that is achieved, to push the team further up the table.