Everton vs West Ham – Premier League Match Preview

Dan Tracey November 29, 2017 Leave a comment 2,260 Views

David Moyes returns to very familiar surroundings this evening as he returns to Everton, however he is not the messiah making a return to the vacant Goodison Park hotseat as he comes here in an official capacity on behalf of West Ham.

The former Everton and Manchester United boss makes the trip to Merseyside having got off the mark last weekend and will now look to pick up his first win since taking charge of the Hammers at the start of the international break after the sacking of former Croatia defender Slaven Bilic.

If West Ham are to pick up their first win under Moyes then they are to have to get the better of an Everton team who quite frankly need to be fired up after their woeful display away at Southampton at the weekend. It was a day to forget on the South Coast the Saints marched onto a 4-1 home win.

Bar Gylfi Sigurdsson’s well taken goal from outside the box it really was an abject display from the side that is currently being managed David Unsworth. That result in isolation was bad enough but when you couple it with a 5-1 defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League just three days earlier then there is huge cause for concern.

But it is not just matters on the pitch where the concern is, five weeks have passed since Ronald Koeman was sacked and still they are yet to appoint a manager. Their flirting with Marco Silva has hit a dead end and it seems as if they are lacking a Plan B.

Then again you could argue as to whether or not they had a Plan A in the first place, with each day that passes the name linked with the post changes. When the club does not know what direction to go in when looking at a new manager then the uncertainty can only trickle down onto the pitch.

That is why West Ham did not wait around in the appointment of David Moyes, you could perhaps argue that it was poor form from the Scot to be sharking around for the job before there was even a vacancy something that put even more and somewhat undue pressure on the outgoing Bilic.

But such is the nature of modern day football that is probably comes as no surprise either. Messers Sullivan and Gold have pinned the colours to the mast until the end of the season at least and quite simply the task for Moyes is to keep the club in the Premier League.

The prospect of relegation is bad enough but then the fact that they would be playing EFL Championship games in a 60,000 seater stadium would mean that the London Stadium would be sure to become a white Elephant with fans littered around the ground.

And it was the fans that were arguably man of the match on Friday as West Ham came from a goal down to earn a point. Had Leicester been a bit more ruthless early on when the opportunities presented themselves then it could well have been a different story.

But for all the apparent issues between the fans and the club owners in East London they did at least get behind their manager and more importantly team. It wasn’t enough to act as the 12th man and blow the ball into the net but it was certainly a positive.

One thing that has been a negative for both sides this season has been their defending, Everton and West Ham are conceding at least two goals on average per game. Which if that was to continue until the end of the season is the kind of goals against figure that sees you relegated.

So with two pourous defences on show tonight it does indicate that their should be goals but then again this is also a game that neither team can afford to lose. I reckon this one will be a draw, a result that will probably suit West Ham more than it does Everton.

Here is what social media thinks will happen – you can still vote on the outcome