Everton travel to arguably the third biggest claret and blue side in the country, who are somehow still bigger than Everton. You know some of them are still fuming we got Ancelotti and they didn’t? Anyway…
I don’t like Everton losing, however, I can’t stand losing to West Ham. As a club, they are ok, decent following and put emphasis on football over a business (until you get to the boardroom, of course.) The problem lies in the self-entitled portion of the fanbase that thinks they are bigger, better and meaner than we are and be arsed losing to David Moyes, the most underwhelming manager in the league. I’d genuinely have Koeman back over that pessimistic prick.
Rant over.
Last time out seen Everton get back to winning ways with a ‘professional’ performance against Brighton. I say it like that because for large portions of the game we were in control, worth our lead and deserved to run away with it. Until Graham Potter showed some of the tactical nous that’ll ensure he will be a Premier League manager for the foreseeable future – it just didn’t pay off this time. The substitutions he made opened the game up and made his side more competitive. That coupled with the fact Everton can’t play at any sort of intensity for longer than an hour.
Bernard, the little beauty, ran the show.
West Ham played last Friday, losing 1-0 to Sheffield United and falling foul (HA, get it?) to VAR at the death of the game.
Looking at the probable teams, it seems West Ham may be having some injury issues:
Jack Wilshere (obviously), Fredericks, Fabianski (yes, again), Yarmolenko, Antonio (maybe), Anderson (maybe) and Masusaku
That means we will see Zabaleta on the right, Randolph in goal and the rest thrown in somewhere.
Looking at their team, they’ll be safe, no doubt. I’m not particularly worried about their ability to cause us damage, but they do have good players in Haller, Fornals, Diop and Gedson Fernandes… oh
I’m not sure what the fuss is with Declan Rice still but I want to make it perfectly clear that any dominating performance against this current Everton midfield isn’t difficult.
Everton are potentially nearing the end of their injury nightmare. Gomes, Gbamin, and Iwobi are all back training in some form. We will see Iwobi first, maybe next week. We are still around a month off of seeing Gbamin and we all seen the pictures flying around yesterday of Gomes in the Finch Farm gym which should put him straight into the XI.
Unfortunately, it looks as though Mina may have to miss out this week due to a knock he picked up. This means Keane will be starting to all but ensure that the match between West Ham and Everton will be a comedy, as well as a drama.
Our XI almost picks itself these days.
Pickford in goal, meh
Back four will probably consist of Sidibe, Keane, Holgate and Digne and I’d expect to see the full backs quite high up here.
Right midfield will be Walcott – literally because he is the only one
Centre of the park will be Delph (less of three evils) and Davies
Left will be that little magician
Up front the dynamic duo who are really starting to impress: Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison.
Everton are yet to sign anyone, still and it’s the hope that kills us.
Everything seems a bit meh until you realise Carlo Ancelotti is the Everton manager
West Ham 0-2 Everton
