WHUFC vs Everton -- Saturday, January 18th, 2019

West Ham have won just three of the past 23 Premier League meetings, keeping one clean sheet (D6, L14).

West Ham's 63 top-flight defeats in this fixture is a club record against one opponent.

It's a bit like they're out bogey team... but then you could say that about pretty much anyone we play...


Fabianski is an obvious exclusion from the playing squad... New signing of old stuff, Darren Randolph is set to deputise in goal.

Felipe Anderson, Michail Antonio and Arthur Masuaku are doubts. (WTF happened on Christmas Day Michail???)

so all of that bodes well, right?

we'll see how the actual fit players line up in the morning.

Tea made

Cereal poured

Cats fed

Dog drinking

Game underway...

that's a lot to achieve by 7:00am on a saturday

The team kinda picked itself by all accounts...

first corner to West Ham... easily cleared by the Toffees

Randolph goes straight in between the sticks...


Zabaleta -- Diop -- Ogbonna -- Cresswell

Snodgrass -- Rice -- Noble -- Fornals

Lanzini

Haller


I'm guessing that's the formation cos you'd never play Lanzini as a striker.

Subs are:

2 Reid
4 Balbuena
20 Soares Cardoso
25 Martin
26 Masuaku
27 Ajeti
52 Ngakia

Watford drew with Spurs earlier today, which is kinda like a victory for them...

which given our current situation of drawing as well... actually bumps us up a place n the table... one more place is the most we can achieve...

that being said... Everton kinda consider us an ATM for points, so we'll see hoe this plays out...


pretty evenly matched so far


terrible ball through... not really to Haller because he was nowhere near where the ball (from Snoddy I think) actually went...

12 mins elapsed

65-35 possession percentage to Everton after 15 minutes.

Lots of hustle and bustle... zero penetration, but very painful (as they say in all the best John Wick sequels)

some fancy footwork out of the wing by Noble...

an actual cross into the box and Haller puts a header just inches wide of the post...



oooh... old man of the sea, Zabaleta gets a shot inside the box that's deflected out for a corner...

corner goes to the right place but Everton clear easily

we continue to attack but then give the ball away needlessly

]]it almost doesn't matter because a penetrating ball frees Snoddy to run one on one with the keeper and slot the ball home easily from range

of course he was well offside and so it's all just a momentary rise in the heart rate.

he's muscled easily off the ball in this attack - but hopefully we're clawing back some of the possession stats...

ooh Haller gets a chance to shine in front of goal...

takes the ball and sees nothing but glory... and a keeper blocking his way... so he shoots straight at him... natch we get nothing from the ensuing corner.


Whatever happened to all those glorious runs into the box to head the ball into the goal from Ogbonna... this new change in corner tactics is not working out...

'Hammers fans' protest calm and well-behaved'
West Ham 0-0 Everton

Eilidh Barbour
Commentator on Final Score
The West Ham fans' protest was all very calm and well-behaved. The message was to get behind the players but make their views against the board very clear. You could feel the anger the fans have towards the board but it was calm. They called it a static protest.


that's the downside to streaming services for footie... there's no context or coverage outside of the actual game, so you lose all the flavor of things like... a Protest???????


good on yer....

I don't think Randolph has touched the ball yet - which given our goalkeeping stats is probably the best news of the game...

this tweet kinda sums up the entire game so far... "can we maybe do something" - don't know which side the tweet is from but it could easily be either...

Everton are hammering at a packed defense... they get one of their players in the net... but Randolph scoops up the ball and so has his first touch of the game.

now that's more like it... good thing the Diop sale to Chelsea didn't go thru this week...

Free kick from out of the right by Snoddy... it loops in towards goal... Diop gets head to it and the ball is just glanced inside the post beyond the outstretched grasping hand of the diving Pickford...

not even a suggestion of going to VAR...

I guess you could say it was against the run of play as neither team has shown much inclination for scoring...

but with 5 minutes to go in the half... we are a goal to the good.

never worth getting too excited... there's the Everton equalizer...

simple corner... head - head.... goal...

Zabaleta completely ignoring his man and Randolph might never get a clean sheet.

1-1

Haller has this annoying habit of standing stock still in the box and waiting for the ball to hit his head... there's zero movement from him to try and perhaps get to the ball... or at least that's how the final move of the half went...

ay road up... all square at the half... wonder if there'll be any mention of the 'protests'

59-41 possession to Everton

our passing accuracy is down to 78% which is low for us

Upson gets it...


'Poor from West Ham'
West Ham 1-1 Everton

Matt Upson
Former England and West Ham defender on BBC Radio 5 Live
On the Everton equaliser...

Static defending from West Ham on that set-piece. They have gone for zonal marking but then nobody went with the ball and left Dominic Calvert-Lewin on his own. Poor from West Ham.

Here's a little protest update form the Evening Standard....

Giuseppe Muro is at the London Stadium: There was a protest against West Ham co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold outside the London Stadium before the game today. Tomorrow is Sullivan and Gold’s 10-year anniversary at West Ham and fans gathered to voice their frustration at the progress the club has made in that time. The number of protesters was in the hundreds, not thousands, but the group of supporters made their feelings clear with chants of: “Ten years of failure.”

We're back underway... Everton kick off having made what looks like a couple of subs...

as per usual, we change nothing.

oops... only the one substitution Toffee-Wise... Anthony Gordon replaces Bernard - which means nothing to me.

been all Everton so far... that latest attempt on goal was mighty close...

they have another corner...

and go close again...

perhaps Haller should just stand still in the penalty area... he twice tried to move for the ball just now and all he does is fall over or ping around off players like a pinball...

not an impressive look for a striker

the Evening Standard gets it:

"Three early chances for Everton at the start of the second half. First substitute Anthony Gordon shot over when he should have done better, then Theo Walcott had a cross deflated behind and then Tom Davies missed the target from close range. Everton have come out with much more intent, West Ham need to wake up."

Everton are making another subsitution...

ooh la lager... we make a substitution...

fornals comes off

masuaku comes on