Win at Hammers revives Everton slim European hopes this afternoon

Well that was certainly needed. After a dismal home defeat to Aston Villa last weekend Everton again won on their travels as they beat West Ham 1-0 at the London Stadium today.

This was an eleventh victory on the road this season for Everton in a remarkable and bizarre contrast to the same side’s almost complete inablility to win at the grand old lady.

Again, just imagine where this team would be if they’d only managed to transfer even a bit of this away form to Goodison Park?

I was fairly confident the Blues might find a way to win this match, given the side’s away form and a very good record against today’s opponents.

But going into this afternoon’s match the game in east London was yet another in a serious of recent fixtures that had the title ‘must win’ hung around them.

Defeat today would have surely been terminal for the Toffees fast disappearing hopes of claiming a European spot next season.

As it is it’s still not clear if the Blues can claim a European place, but the three points secured this afternoon have put Everton back in the hunt, especially after other results this weekend such as Tottenham losing at Leeds.

Carlo Ancelotti reverted to his previously successful sides away and picked a team with three central defenders, as I hoped he would do.

After his terrible match against Villa, Mason Holgate dropped out and both Micheal Keane and Yerry Mina came into the team alongside Ben Godfrey.

Without James Rodriguez again out hurt, Ancelotti went with a three man midfield in front of his backline and Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin up front.

So the team was set up to be solid and hard to break down and then break quickly in a strongly counter-attacking formation.

This is exactly the sort of situation and formation and tactics that Ancelotti has excelled at this season and today’s match was a classic example.

Unsurprisingly the home team had more of the ball and were generally on the front foot but as previous wins away from Goodison Park, the Toffees were comfortable conceding possession.

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However, it was Everton who made the most of the ball when they had it in the first half as Godfrey provided a superb pass through the Hammers defence for Calvert-Lewin to fire home for a first half lead.

The Blues were defending well and resisting West Ham although the home team didn’t often really threaten and seemed short of energy and ideas.

They created one or two chances but weren’t able to manage a single shot on target all afternoon as David Moye’s side came up against a rock-solid Everton defensive effort.

In the second half the Blues held on despite an inevitable push from the home team when West Ham also hit the post, as substitute Josh King had done for the Toffees when he came on.

So yet another strong performance on the road, which has brought three more points and keeps Everton in contention for Europe with a game on hand on some of their rivals.

Win at Hammers revives Everton slim Euro hopes

By Matt Townsend | May 9, 2021

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