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Fulltime Thoughts - Simply not good enough in multiple areas of the pitch. With this squad, the Blues need more players stepping up to win games, didn’t get it today against a disciplined West Ham side.

90+5 - Rondon wins a late, late corner. Godfrey rises highest and his header is wild. Final whistle blows, game over and Everton’s chance to make it four straight league wins at home to start the season is gone.

90+3’ - Deep cross is met by Coleman who tries to nod it back into the box but can’t. Argh, that might be it.

90+2’ - Gray with a shooting chance from a cross on the right, blocked by Zouma!

89’ - Hammers attack and Bowen looks to curl one into the far post, saved brilliantly by Pickford. Corner cleared but Everton can’t retain possession.

86’ - West Ham corner just over Zouma, Keane clears. Ball still pingpongs in the box and Ogbonna tries to stab it at goal and wins another corner. This is not helping.
Rondon clears from the front post, ball comes to Rice and he shoots over. Benrahma coming off for Lanzini now. Hard to see where an Everton goal is going to come from now.

82’ - Everton corner from the right, Godfrey running in late and his volley under pressure is over.
The Blues are leaving a lot of space as they throw everything upfront.

79’ - The visitors are down to ten men as Soucek got an accidental kick in the face from Rondon, he is replaced by Craig Dawson.
Everton make a change now, with Iwobi going off for Anthony Gordon who immediately plays a cross into the box that is cleared.

77’ - Now Everton attack and win a corner on the right. Can the Blues it right back? Corner is cleared and Blues win a throw on the other side. Ball into the box headed up in the air by Iwobi and Fabianski collects.

73’ - Iwobi and Townsend combine to get a cross into the box, Rondon beats Zouma to it but his header has no pace on it and Fabianski collects.
Now Antonio wins a corner off an aerial duel with Pickford, inswinger touched in by Ogbonna, and West Ham lead. Beat Godfrey to it and it’s 1-0 with just over fifteen to play. The England goalie was claiming a foul but there was nothing in it really, and will go down as a Pickford error.

71’ - Antonio on the ground, looks like Keane stomped on his foot inadvertently, and Pickford does the gentlemanly thing and puts the ball out for his to receive medical attention.

68’ - West Ham pressure allows Benrahma to find Antonio in the box, and his shot is blocked well by Keane. Still no changes for either side, three quarters of the game done.

65’ - Benrahma cross into the box, and Keane does well to dissuade Soucek in the air.

62’ - Rondon darts out left and wins a corner. Taken short but cleared, and three Everton players get in each other’s way trying to shoot.
Comes to Iwobi from outside the box and his low volleyed cross-shot goes wide with no one going for it. Rondon needs to make more of those darting runs that DCL often does.

60’ - The matching 4-2-3-1 formations has made for a more open game, Everton are seeing more of the ball but that is giving the Hammers more space too when they do get the ball.

56’ - Another corner, Bowen wins it off Digne. Godfrey clears and Doucoure starts a break, but a misplaced pass from Townsend ends that.

53’ - Digne concedes a needless corner. Taken deep, Pickford palms it wide for another corner on the other side. Taken short, comes to Benrahma for a shot, Pickford collects and starts a counter. Iwobi pressure Johnson and he puts the ball out for a throw.
Coleman gets adventurous and tries a left-footed shot from inside the box, well wide.

52’ - Another lovely move and Townsend’s left-footed cross bends towards the far post.. Rondon gets just a touch on it with a stooping header and it’s wide! So close!!

50’ - Gray finds Digne, lovely cross into the box and Iwobi controls, swivels and shoots! Ogbonna blocks for a corner and that could have gone anywhere.
Poor corner, and it goes all the way back to Pickford.

46’ - No changes for either side and Everton get us underway.
Gray runs down the left and sends a lovely low ball through the six yard box, no one gambled and made a run.

Halftime Thoughts - Everton have simply not done enough to get and hold the ball, and even though they had the better chances in the second half, it was more a product of Rafa’s counterattacking style.

45+1’ - Halftime, still 0-0 at Goodison.

44’ - Townsend fouled level with the box on the right, his freekick is cleared for a throw. Ball lands back in the box and Coleman about to pull the trigger and it’s blocked to go for a corner.
Corner is cleared. One minute of time added on.

42’ - Bowen puts the ball out not sure who was behind him after a Townsend cross into the box. Fabianski retrieves the corner and West Ham set off on a counter, and Antonio shoots from about thirty-plus yards out, and it almost hits the very top row of the stand.

41’ - Mina warming up here, is Benitez thinking of a back-three in the second half to get more bodies in the middle?

38’ - Antonio looks to have shoved Godfrey who concedes a corner on the Everton right. Rondon clears, another corner. Soucek outswinger, Bowen shot blocked, then another shot from inside the box is blocked. Now Fornals beats Coleman and tries to find the far post, wide with Pickford rooted to the spot. Whew.

37’ - Everton have moved into more of a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-4-2 now, with Gray out wide on the left and Iwobi at #10. Immediately Gray has a shooting chance but doesn’t catch it well and it runs to Fabianski.

35’ - Good run from Benrahma through the Everton defence, Bowen shot well-saved by Pickford and Soucek is on hand to smash home! Offside!! Whew.

33’ - Gray controls well again and lets Townsend run down the right, his cross is good, Doucoure gets a head to it but heads down and wide. Blues finally getting some attacking chances here.

31’ - Fornals sliding in late on Townsend and he’s in the book too now.
Better from Iwobi, gets a nice cross into the box from the left, and Fabianski punches away smartly with Rondon lurking. Better spell for the Blues.

28’ - Gray does brilliantly on the right to control and then send in a low cross, and Iwobi completely fluffs his line, missing the ball. Looks like Rondon reaching for the ball might have thrown him off, but from six yards out that is a bad miss.

22’ - Everton get vertical like they have been looking to do and it ends with a Digne cross into the box, but no real chance emerges from this. Better.
Midway through the first half - Everton have held their shape and are doing decently when West Ham have the ball, but need a lot more from their players in the opposing half. West Ham have 80% possession of the ball so far.

20’ - Pickford punches a cross clear with danger lurking, and then a shot inside the box by Bowen is blocked. This pressure seems untenable.

17’ - Finally an attacking move from the Toffees. Coleman breaks down the right, finds Townsend whose cross into the box is over Rondon and ahead of Iwobi.
Now Iwobi finds Digne, good cross into the box is cleared, falls to Doucoure outside the box, shot is wild.

15’ - Rice & Soucek >> Allan & Doucoure so far. Everton unable to put any pressure on West Ham high and they are entering the Blues half very easily.

11’ - First shot from the game is Benrahma getting a boot on a Godfrey clearance, hoofed over.

10’ - Antonio booked for a dive! Felt a bit harsh from the ref Stuart Atwell, Michael Keane was late but didn’t make too much contact and the forward went down outside the box.

9’ - Still all West Ham here as Everton are struggling to control possession.

5’ - Hammers controlling the ball as expected, Everton have had chances to break but the passing has been off.

1’ - Underway at Goodison!

Starting Lineups - Rafa Benitez has predictably gone with Seamus Coleman and Alex Iwobi to come back into the lineup. No Ellis Simms on the bench, with Harry Tyrer in as the third goalie.

Preview

Everton are back in action on Sunday with West Ham coming to visit today, led by David Moyes. The Blues are still without Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but Rafa Benitez has this rag-tag bunch playing coherent football and grinding out results in some cases.

Results went Everton’s way on Saturday, and a win today will see the Blues climb into fourth place, tied with Manchester City on points.

The Hammers sit three points behind the Blues, and are doing well on all three fronts so far this season. Moyes has his squad playing attacking football and are laden with talent in multiple positions, so this should make for an entertaining game today.

Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchday 8

Date and start time: Sunday, October 17th at 6:00 a.m. PT / 9:00 a.m ET / 2:00 p.m. BST

Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 39,572

Weather: 62°F/17°C, cloudy, 13% chance of precipitation, 9 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: NBCSN, Telemundo - United States; Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Main Event - United Kingdom; DAZN - Canada, beIN Sports Premium 1, SuperSport Premier League ROA, SuperSport Maximo 1, RMC Sport 1, Canal+ Sport 3 Afrique, ESPN3 Sur, Star Sports Select HD 1, Star Sports 3 Asia

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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Pickford, Coleman (C), Keane, Godfrey, Digne, Allan, Doucoure, Townsend, Iwobi, Gray, Rondon

Subs: Begovic, Tyrer, Kenny, Holgate, Mina, Gordon, Gbamin, Davies, Dobbin

West Ham

Fabianski, Johnson, Zouma, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice (C), Soucek, Fornals, Benrahma, Bowen, Antonio

Subs: Areola, Baptiste, Dawson, Diop, Masuaku, Ashby, Lanzini, Vlasic, Yarmolenko

Last Meeting

The Blues traded 1-0 wins away from home with West Ham last season, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin getting the winner at London Stadium last season. Everton have won five, drawn two and lost three of the last ten games between the two sides.