Everton 1 West Ham 3 (three!)
Managed to catch this in the Auld Triangle after making a break-out from supervising the local Play Street day in a high-vis vest. Pellegrini made six changes and we looked much more solid with Rice, Noble and Obiang in front of the back four. Astonishingly the Irons went into the lead after 11 minutes, with Arnie breaking and squaring for Yarmolenko to stroke home. Marko is second only to Mo Salah in goals and assists in 2018.
It got better for Yarmy as we suddenly saw why the Ukranian is worth £17 million. Pickford's poor clearance was picked up by Noble and then Yarmalenko cut inside three defenders to unleash a sumptuous left footer past the Everton keeper. Tosun missed a couple of chances for Everton and it looked like the Hammers would go in two goals up until added time when Sigurdsson outjumped Balbuena to score a rare headed goal. A terrible time to concede.
Still, we got to see David Moyes enthusing about Arnie at half-time on Sky. Everton started off with some attacking intent in the second half as most of us feared the worst. But then the Hammers struck again on the break. Arnautovic played a splendid one two with the excellent Obiang and prodded home first time to spark more choruses of Bubbles from the away fans.
Niasse hit the bar when he should have scored but West Ham looked almost comfortable for the rest of the game. Anderson was an excellent outlet and was again beating players at will, while Rice had a solid game sweeping up in front of the defence. Noble's leadership made a difference and sub Antonio managed to hold the ball up in the corners when required.
If we'd lost this after being two goals up we really would have looked relegation candidates. But instead everyone dug in and it's a really excellent away win. What a 65th birthday present for Manuel Pellegrini. For once we can watch Match of the Day2 without fear.
2 comments:
What a tonic !! the first signs of a team emerging out of the new squad. Rice was impressive just in front of the back 4, Irish English I dont mind his choice but lets keep him West Ham.
Yarmalenko looks a very exciting player with goals in him as well, takes the pressure off Arnie who played like the best of last season. We are off the mark with some difficult games coming up ( i am going to the Chelsea game with my daughter cant wait! ) but there will be much more winnable games after that period, and after Sunday things are a lot less gloomy. COYI
I fancy us to get something from Chelsea now Rob. Rice was excellent and Obiang had a really good game too, allowing the front three to cause all sorts of problems. Defence still looks a little suspect at times but have to get a run going now.
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