That’s your lot for today. Here is Will’s report again for good measure:
Over in the WSL, it’s Liverpool v Chelsea, and Sarah Rendell has all the latest right here:
Bye!
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Below are some links to the wealth of football content we’ve published today:
On Sky Sports Moyes is asked for his views on West Ham’s display: “Not very good. We got a bit better after they scored. The first half was a poor game all round, really.
“We had a game on Thursday, you have to take that into consideration ... we’ve brought in new players and we’re trying to find out about them.
“It was mainly the players I know about, they’re the ones who let me down today, with some poor play overall. We’ve been showing signs of getting ‘back to it’ but I didn’t think we did today.
“We just couldn’t put two or three passes together ... when we got anything in the final third it was nearly always the wrong decision. But I’ve got to say in the last 20 minutes we had chances to, at worst, get an equaliser so I think if you really analyse the end of it, we’ve probably missed a few big chances.”
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Will Unwin’s report!
Lampard has a chat with Sky Sports: “Well it’s important, and it has to be real. And the reality here [at Goodison Park] is we’ve worked really hard this season and probably deserved a bit more in certain games. And our fans are amazing, they’ve taken to the team, and I think they feel what we’re trying to do. It’s not always easy, it’s the Premier League, you are going to be tested in so many ways … we had to hold on, and to fight, and dig in. We showed a lot of different parts of our game today in different ways, and we’ll get better, for sure … no, it’s important to celebrate. When you play a team of the level of West Ham you’re looking for that win. We’re unbeaten in a while, but we weren’t getting the win, but we fought for it.
“This team has to be a reflection of the fans. I think we’re not unique like that. But I think the passion of the fans and how they feel about the team means that they demand things, and they better see them … and we’ve got players now who can deliver that, characters in the team with strength … We want to build from the back and through the spine of the team because that’s where we struggled a bit last year. And we’ve done that with personnel, and work, and trying to improve. And hopefully our football can get even better. There were some lovely passages of play, especially building into the goal, but different parts of the game. We’ll get better with that stuff … But, yep, I think the fans will hopefully be happy. We all understand, no one’s getting carried away, but at the moment there’s a decent feeling around the place. We’ve got a long way to go but that’s why the feeling is so good at the end.
“We brought Neal in for that reason [goals]. He’s a Premier League goalscorer, proven … and in the Championship lots of goals … Neal shows you why he’s a striker of that level … his first touch, how close he keeps it to himself, and how quickly he gets his shot away, is the reason that hits the back of the net and the keeper doesn’t sniff it. That’s what goalscorers do.”
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Everton’s Alex Iwobi has a chat with Sky Sports: “We’ve been playing very well, the performances have been good, it’s just about getting the results. It’s a great way to go into the international break with this result.”
Iwobi is asked about the goal-creating pass and gives a nicely deadpan answer: “I’m glad you remember …
“Anything I can do to create chances for my teammates … and I trust my players to hit the back of the net, and he was able to do that.
Maupay is there too: “It [the goal] means a lot. I’m very happy. But the win is the main thing for us. As Alex said, we’ve been playing well, and it was just a matter of time. So I’m happy for the win, happy for my goal, and hopefully we can build on it.
“Always the key is the first touch. If the first touch is good you can have an easier finish … Great pass from Alex, good first touch, and good goal. I’m just happy for the team. It’s been coming.”
“This is what the Everton’s season will be like,” writes the long-suffering Mary Waltz. “Sweating out points like a like a depression-era farmer trying to make a profit. Struggle, Struggle.”
Good times!
The match got better after half-time, too, but it could scarcely have got worse. “A lot of huff and puff” was the way Martin Tyler described the first half. Rubbish, I call it.
West Ham, Forest and Leicester make up the bottom three.
That felt like a big day for Everton and Frank Lampard. It was a significant test. And they passed. Defensively Everton were good, and in the second half, their midfielders and attackers came to the party. Gray was bright throughout, in fairness, constantly causing problems from the hosts’ left wing, and Iwobi came to life in central midfield after the break. A big win for Lampard – hats off to him.
West Ham on the other hand were not great, and Declan Rice was quiet in midfield, in fact almost anonymous. Plus points? Antonio showed some good touches and created a few things here and there. But overall they failed to convince.
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Full-time! Everton 1-0 West Ham
It’s over! Lampard doesn’t look sure if the final whistle has gone. But it sure has. He shakes hands with Moyes. Everton have their first win of the season. Lampard has his arm around Maupay, the match winner, and they both beam with delight.
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94 min: Scamacca and Gueye jump for a header in midfield. Scamacca appears to lead with an elbow and Gueye goes down in a heap. Tarkowski is incensed by the challenge and there is pushing and shoving. Scamacca is booked. McNeil was booked moments before. But closer and closer to the final whistle for Everton …
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93 min: West Ham get a corner. It pinballs around the six-yard box momentarily but Everton eventually clear.
92 min: West Ham have it near the left corner flag as they attack. Cornet tries a backheel but it’s nabbed by Everton who play it around and then burst out on the counterattack. Doucoure is advancing into space and has loads of options – he tries quite an ambitious switch of play from right to left but gets it completely wrong and it cannons off an opposition defender.
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90 min: Bowen goes down injured for West Ham. Lampard, sporting a black suit, directs affairs from the touchline. Moyes has his hands plunged into his pockets nearby. Everton have five minutes to hold on for their first, precious three points of the season.
90 min: Five minutes will be added on.
88 min: Everton’s centre-backs get in a muddle after Bowen flicks a ball on. Suddenly it looks like Cornet is one-on-one but Patterson does brilliantly to get a little touch on the ball as his opponent is shaping to shoot. As a result, Cornet runs out of angle in which to get an effort on goal away. Nervous moments for Everton but they survive. Maupay comes off, Rondon comes on.
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86 min: Iwobi – another player who has been excellent in the second half – belts a shot goalwards. It’s saved.
85 min: Moyes’s face was indeed a picture of disappointment. He is entitled to expect more quality from Behrahma, there.
David Moyes face when West Ham take a corner *into the side netting* was A+ meme fodder. Titled "DISAPPOINTMENT" or something.
— rjp (@zimpenfish) September 18, 2022
83 min: West Ham have the ball in the final third. A cross is aimed at Scamacca at the far post. He can’t control it and it bounces out. However, West Ham win the ball back immediately in midfield thanks to Declan Rice, and he feeds the onrushing Cornet, who belts a powerful shot which is flying into the top corner … Begovic beats it out for a corner. Benrahma fluffs the corner completely and Moyes grimaces in disgust on the touchline.
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81 min: Gray was excellent today. Quite a big call to take him off, in fact, what with attack being the best form of defence and all that.
79 min: Doucoure is coming on for Everton. Onana is down receiving treatment on what looks like a knock to his right thigh. But it’s Gray that is taken off and the former Watford midfield general, Doucoure, joins the action after recovering from a hamstring knock he sustained last month.
76 min: Gray, again, punches holes in the West Ham defence. He skips into the area and is upended up Kehrer. There are shouts for a penalty but it’s a good challenge, the German defender wins the ball fair and square while taking a little bit of the man along with it.
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75 min: Lampard does turn to his bench. Dwight McNeil comes on for Gordon.
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74 min: What an effort by Benrahma. Soucek gets a foot in in midfield, an excellent tackle on Gueye, and Benrahma has space to take the ball towards the box, before unleashing a curling shot towards the far post, which thwacks off the woodwork and out! Begovic was a mere spectator there. It was a cheap way for Gueye to lose the ball in a dangerous area and Lampard will be having words after the home defence was left completely out of position as a result.
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73 min: Is Lampard going to call on his bench? You’d have thought so. Moyes has made three changes.
71 min: West Ham are pushing a bit harder now. This is a significant test for Everton, having got the goal, can they close out the win?
70 min: Some applause for the late Queen.
67 min: West Ham build an attack into the Everton half. Cornet gets a touch and then it’s with Cresswell, whose attempted cross is blocked out for a corner.
Soucek meets the corner at the near post and glances it goalwards (or nearly goalwards) but it bounces out after Mykolenko at the far post ducks under it. That looked like a goal kick but West Ham get another corner. Nothing comes of that anyway.
Now, here comes Gianluca Scamacca, West Ham’s summer signing from Sassuolo. Could he nab a point for the Hammers?
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63 min: The Everton winger Gray with a beautiful bit of work on the left now, ghosting past Coufal and stroking a dangerous ball that flashes across the six-yard box. No one can get on the end of it.
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62 min: Everton stalwart Mary Waltz is satisfied with the goal: “Quality pass into the box. Beautiful first touch, no hesitation, confident shot and goal. That is what we mean by quality. Messi, Ronaldo? No. But basic skill, yes.”
61 min: Cornet and Benrahma come on for West Ham. Fornals and Paqueta go off.
59 min: Iwobi again is the man hurting this West Ham defence. He is released down the left and sprints on to the ball, bending a good low cross around the back-tracking defenders. It’s a two-on-one – but Gordon is caught offside.
Now West Ham, enlivened by conceding a goal, stream down to the other end and Bowen has a shot blocked. We’ve got a ball game!
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56 min: Everton are suitably buoyed by the goal. Gray attacks again, then they win a corner. The crowd is up, the players are up. It looked a nailed on 0-0 in the first half, but Everton have been far better since half-time, attacking with real intent and fluency. Fair play to Lampard because whatever he said at half-time did the trick.
A really good finish by Maupay, who instantly controls the ball on the edge of the box, turns, and belts a right-footed finish low into the corner after the ball bounces up perfectly for him to hit (thanks to his silky touch).
Iwobi also deserves a ton of credit for the way he created it: he picked out Gray on the touchline, took the ball back from his teammate, and then picked out Maupay with a crisp and accurate pass.
That was a lovely injection of pace and, yes, quality from Iwobi, and it got the finish it deserved from Maupay. His first goal for Everton.
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GOAL! Everton 1-0 West Ham (Maupay 53)
It’s there! It’s a goal!
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51 min: Antonio goes down injured for a bit. He is OK.
50 min: West Ham have had eight corners. Everton have had four. Defences are on top.
48 min: Bowen drills a shot over the crossbar, first-time, after (I think) Soucek crosses.
At the other end, Iwobi sends a good pacy pass to Gray, who cuts in from the left wing, jinks away from his marker and bends a good on-target shot that Fabianski gathers.
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46 min: Mykolenko makes inroads on the Everton left. He slides a good ball across looking for Gray who has made a run to the near post. Zouma does well to cut the cross out and concede a corner.
That was defending of quality from Zouma, and there was quality on the ball from Mykolenko too.
Second half kick-off!
Let’s go! YES!
Kári Tulinius adds: “American sports journalists Jon Bois and Alex Rubinstein once made the point in a video about baseball player Steve Jeltz, who was just about good enough to play in the Major League, but was outclassed by nearly everyone else there, that it’s a harsh fate to be the worst of the best, forever held up to a near impossible standard. At least they are handsomely remunerated.”
Yes. Poor Everton and West Ham!
“Watching the game on holiday in Tunisia,” writes Christian. “One of the pundits almost fell asleep during the half time analysis. I know how he feels. Come on West Ham, I’m missing the beach for this dross!!!”
Half-time reading:
Half-time! Everton 0-0 West Ham
That was almost performance art. Twenty people ran around at top speed, in theory attempting to place the spherical object in the net, yet never once remotely threatening to succeed in their aim.
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43 min: West Ham win a corner as we approach half time. The ball is worked back to Cresswell and Everton completely fail to close him down. Cresswell thinks about shooting but then bends a ball in for Zouma, who meets it with a glancing header, which goes straight into the gloves of Begovic.
42 min: I sort of see what you mean, Adrian, these people are clearly capable footballers, but isn’t that the point? In view of their training, and the vetting, and all the resources available to them, shouldn’t we be seeing a little more composure, skill and … what’s the word … quality?
41 min: An email arrives from Adrian Goldman:
“‘A real lack of quality’
“I’ve always been a little bit puzzled by this phrase - the people we are talking about are very well paid, went through extensive vetting processes - more than the current PM! - and each and every one of them is a member of the top 0.01-0.1% of all current football players on the planet.* (No, none of them are Lionel Messi). But I think the idea that they aren’t, indeed, very, very good at what they do is more than a little bit demeaning and unfair.”
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38 min: Everton attack. Maupay and Gordon link up, the former trying to play a low pass to his teammate. Everton win a corner. Nothing comes of it.
Maybe we could and should have predicted that Lampard v Moyes would be high-tempo but short on attacking quality?
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37 min: What’s going on? Not much. Antonio again uses his considerable presence to control the ball with his back to goal, on halfway, and launches another West Ham attack. The Hammers thread together a few passes. It ends when Paqueta launches a cross towards Antonio, but Begovic claims the ball.
33 min: More like it from Everton. Iwobi advances from midfield and feeds Maupay, before the ball is worked to Gray, popping up on the home team’s left wing. Gray fires a good cross to the far post. But the defending from West Ham is solid.
32 min: David Moyes is wearing a nice charcoal grey sweater.
“There’s a real lack of quality,” says Carragher on Sky Sports of the football on show, and you know what, he’s spot on again.
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30 mins: This is, at least, not as dour as Villa v Saints from the other night. But it isn’t very good.
Someone needs to put their foot on it.
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28 min: Again with his back to goal, Antonio uses his body to turn beyond Coady, who is touch-tight. Coady knows he’s been beaten and hacks Antonio to the floor instead of letting him run. Coady is booked. Lampard appears to be appealing for something from the ref while Coady committed that cynical foul. No idea what.
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26 min: West Ham win another corner. Paqueta climbs high to meet it with a header and manages to crank his neck back sufficiently to send the ball in the vague direction of the goal. Begovic catches it easily.
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25 min: Demarai Gray is “the one attacking player who’s had a few good moments,” opines Carragher on Sky Sports. “It hasn’t really happened for any of the attacking players on the pitch, just yet.”
He’s right!
22 min: While I was checking my emails, West Ham won a few corners. Everton repelled the danger. This is like a lunchtime secondary-school playground encounter. Lots of running and shouting but not much cutting edge … On the plus side none of the players are trying to eat their cheese rolls while trying to compete in midfield.
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21 min: An email landed from Mary Waltz before kick-off!
“Rooting for Everton for a decade and always had hopes for European play but usually had to settle for mid-table mediocrity. Last year was brutal and all I care about it somehow reaching the 40s in points and safety from relegation hell. I am waiting for the return of DCL the way some wait for the return of the world before Trump. Desperate and far from confident.”
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19 min: It remains a breathless, high-tempo game. Both teams want this win, but neither are displaying a huge amount in the way of quality on the ball.
17 min: Antonio does well to bring the ball under control for West Ham near halfway, with his back to goal. He turns and embarks on a diagonal run into the danger zone … he tries to pick out Paqueta by cutting the ball across to the right but it’s intercepted.
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15 min: Fornals makes a forward run for West Ham. He is crowded out. Gray gets on the ball for Everton and strides into space in the Hammers’ half. West Ham are looking to defend pretty deep, allowing Everton space, and then trying to hit on the break. Gray tries to float a creative pass out right but he overhits it and it’s out for a throw-in.
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Villa have beaten Man City 4-3 in the WSL:
13 min: Gueye fouls West Ham’s Bowen in the centre of midfield, although not fast enough to stop Bowen firing a good-looking ball out to the West Ham left wing. Bowen needs treatment after the contact by Gueye, and gets back on his feet gingerly. He is OK to continue.
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10 min: This is lively stuff. Everton pour forward again. They win one corner, then Gray is fouled by Paqueta outside the box on the Everton right. Gray gets up to take the set-piece and floats it to the far post. Onana can’t get over his header and sends it wide and high. The noise from the fans is deafening. Both teams are going for it.
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8 min: Big chance for West Ham! Bowen easily beats Mykolenko to the byline on the right and cuts a cross back looking for Antonio. Coady, the last line of defence, does very well to block the ball and knock it out for a corner back past the near post. Antonio would have had an open goal and a tap-in, because Begovic has been taken out of the game completely by the low ball pinged across by Bowen. Very poor from Mykolenko, he was beaten far too easily, but very good from Coady.
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7 min: Maupay gets on the ball in an advanced central area and slides a ball to Iwobi … Iwobi cannot control it and it goes out for a goal kick.
5 min: As Jamie Carragher points out on commentary for Sky Sports, if there is a positive result either way in this fixture, the loser will find themselves stuck in the bottom three during the international break. Everton are currently 17th and West Ham are 18th.
Patterson bends a deep cross in from the Everton right: Fabianski claims it comfortably.
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2 min: A pretty high-tempo start but not much in the way of quality just yet. Paqueta lays off a decent ball to the left wing but Everton snuff out the danger. Everton stream forward, but Fornals does well to win a 50-50 ball near halfway, and then hares into space … West Ham win a corner.
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First half kick-off!
West Ham get the game going. Can Everton win and inflict West Ham’s 1000th league defeat?
The ceremonials are out of the way. Let’s play some football! Or certainly watch some.
It’s time for a minute’s silence in memory of Queen Elizabeth II. There are some boos audible and they come from the home fans, reports Will Unwin.
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The fearsome atmospheres that were created to help fire Everton to safety at the end of last season have been replaced. Goodison Park is subdued due to the state of the team; they have failed to win a league game this season, their main striker is yet to feature and Jordan Pickford is out injured. The fans are here in hope currently, rather than expectation.
David Moyes has a quick chat about his new players: “The problem is the amount of games ... it’s finding time [in training] to work with them.”
Lampard speaks to Sky Sports, firstly about Idrissa Gueye in midfield: “He gives us experience and quality ... [James] Garner comes in [on the bench], a young player, with a lot of potential.
“We’re playing pretty well ... we’re competing very well ... can we do it again against a very good team, and get that win which will give us confidence going into the break?”
Will Unwin is our man on the scene at Goodison Park, and he reports that it has stopped raining. Good news. The surface will be nice and greasy, which will perfectly suit the fluent attacking game we are going to see from both sides.
In the WSL, Sarah Rendell is live-blogging a thriller here: Aston Villa and Man City are drawing 3-3 with about just under 20 minutes to play”
Arsenal are top of the league with 18 points from seven matches heading into the international break. They will next be in action in the Premier League against Tottenham, on Saturday 1 October, so that should be a spicy one.
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Cardiff have announced the departure of manager Steve Morison in the wake of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Huddersfield. Morison, who took over on a permanent basis in November last year, leaves with the club 18th in the Championship.
Arsenal have just brought on Ethan Nwaneri … he is 15 years old. FIFTEEN! And he thus becomes the youngest ever Premier League player.
“The Arsenal” are beating Brentford 3-0.
Andy Hunter wrote that at the back end of last week, of course, long before the team was announced, and there is still no sign of Dominic Calvert-Lewin today. We are probably unlikely to see a glut of goals this afternoon, but let’s not give up hope.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s status as Harry Kane’s understudy looked secure in the England hierarchy 14 months ago, when he replaced the captain in the Euro 2020 quarter-final win over Ukraine. He has not played for the country since, and this week saw Brentford’s in-form Ivan Toney named in Gareth Southgate’s squad for England’s final internationals before the World Cup. Qatar now appears a distant hope for the 25-year-old, who has been restricted to just 18 appearances for Everton since winning his last cap due to toe, thigh and knee injuries. Frank Lampard has been desperate for Calvert-Lewin’s presence all season and, despite signing Neal Maupay, claimed the centre-forward’s return diminished the need to add another striker in the transfer window. Goals remain a serious problem for a team without a Premier League win this season but, having resumed training during the enforced break, Calvert-Lewin should soon have opportunity to repay his manager’s faith and perhaps send a late message to Southgate.
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Gary Naylor, meanwhile, thinks I’m being harsh on Lamps. As I said, I think the jury is still out. Lampard clearly had a big say in the successful battle against relegation, but that begs the question if he could and should have made it safe before that?
You make it sound like Lampard was a bystander in last season's escape @LukeMcLaughlin. He was the leading figure in galvanising the club and our fans. He has now bought wisely and stared down Chelsea over Gordon.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) September 18, 2022
The time to judge is May not September, even if we lose today.
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Jon reckons it’s going to be a draw.
@LukeMcLaughlin I think this game has a draw written all over it, two teams who really haven’t got going yet this season #EvertonWestHam
— @SocialMediaJon1 (@socialmediajon1) September 18, 2022
I can confidently tell you what the score will be before the game even starts: 0-0.
For the avoidance of doubt, the kick-off time is 2.15pm and not 2.30pm, as may have previously been advertised on this blog.
The teams
Everton: Begovic, Patterson, Coady, Tarkowski, Mykolenko, Gueye, Onana, Iwobi, Gray, Maupay, Gordon. Substitutes: Keane, McNeil, Doucoure, Coleman, Davies, Ruben Vinagre, Rondon, Jakupovic, Garner.
West Ham: Fabianski, Kehrer, Zouma, Cresswell, Coufal, Soucek, Rice, Fornals, Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Antonio. Substitutes: Scamacca, Lanzini, Downes, Areola, Cornet, Dawson, Ogbonna, Benrahma, Emerson Palmieri.
Referee: Michael Oliver (England)
Idrissa Gueye makes his first start for Everton since returning from Paris Saint Germain over the summer. The injured goalie Jordan Pickford is replaced by Asmir Begovic. Abdoulaye Doucouré is recovering from a hamstring injury and is deemed fit enough for a place on the bench but there is no Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the squad as he continues his recovery from a knee injury.
For West Ham, Lucas Paqueta makes his first start. Gianluca Scamacca drops to the bench following his goal against Silkeborg in the midweek win in the Europa Conference League. Lukasz Fabianski, Jarrod Bowen, Kurt Zouma, Pablo Fornals are all back into the starting lineup after being rested in midweek.
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Preamble
Is Frank Lampard a top-level football manager? The jury is still out but this season – and therefore to a certain extent this afternoon’s match against West Ham – should provide the answer.
David Moyes, who spent more than 11 years managing at Goodison Park, returns to face his former employers today. His long tenure at Everton divided opinion among fans: some felt he was a highly effective operator for a club of Everton’s stature, while others believed he was overly conservative and prevented the club from achieving their potential.
Moyes’s career since he departed has neither confirmed nor disproved those opposing views. Was he out of his depth at Manchester United or was he on a hiding to nothing at what has become a deeply dysfunctional club? Has he over-achieved at West Ham, or should they have sustained last season’s push for the top four?
Is Lampard destined for a similarly mixed, Moyesian career? Following a narrow escape from an unthinkable relegation last campaign, Lampard is still searching for a first Premier League victory in the 2022-23 season. If he is going to prove he belongs as a manager at this level, Everton should really be dispatching the likes of West Ham, where he began his playing career, at home. Team news and more will be coming right up.
Kick-off: 2.15pm
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