West Ham boosted their bid for European qualification as Aaron Cresswell’s brilliant free-kick and Jarrod Bowen’s second-half strike sealed a 2-1 Premier League win over 10-man Everton at the London Stadium.
Bowen scored the winner by stroking the ball into the net in the 58th minute after Michail Antonio had his effort saved, but Everton only had themselves to blame as Alex Iwobi had gifted possession to David Moyes’ side in the build-up.
Earlier, boyhood Liverpool fan Cresswell heaped the misery on their 17th-placed Merseyside rivals in the 32nd minute as he curled the ball into the top right corner to make it 1-0 after Bowen drew a foul from Mason Holgate in a promising position.
Holgate, a late addition to the Everton team after Donny van de Beek’s injury during the warm-up, made it 1-1 after the break with his first league goal of the season although his shot took a big deflection to go past Lukasz Fabianski.
Everton were reduced to 10 men for the third straight league match as skipper Michael Keane was shown his second yellow card for a lunging tackle on Antonio, leaving Frank Lampard’s side facing an even more daunting task for more than 25 minutes.
Victory ensures West Ham going into their Europa League quarter-final first-leg clash against Lyon on Thursday full of confidence.
