January. Relegation Battle. Mercenaries in the form of agents running a scouting system that doesn’t exist. Protests to get rid of the owners who are as likely to remove themselves from power as Trump saying he was wrong and stepping down. Just another day in Stratford.
I have often looked at my frequent visits to London with melancholy, wishing I was wealthy enough to have a home there and the means to go back and forth on a whim. But I gotta tell you. Distance is helpful to a degree. I can tune it all out, knowing that the ten years our board have been in charge has brought far more anguish than joy, so I no longer expect any joy whatsoever. Until the day they tape up the last box of their personal belongings and get the hell out, those expectations shall remain.
Oh. We played Everton today. Draw. Not awful
Funny. For the first few minutes of the match I forgot that Carlo Ancelotti was the manager of Everton. It wasn’t until Danny Gabbidon started talking about him that I remembered it. Not that I was one of those people that thought we should have replaced Pellegrini with the highly successful Italian. Nor am I convinced Ancelotti will do particularly well on Merseyside. He might. But like our departed Chilean, he is used to working with top ingredients in his kitchen. West Ham and Everton are similar in terms of quality.
The Hammers started reasonably well, pressing high up the pitch and breaking well when in possession. In the 5th minute, after stripping Davies of the ball, Noble fed the ball in the direction of Snodgrass. The in-form Scot used the help of a deflection to get a shot off from the top of the Everton eighteen yard box but it had no power and was straight as an arrow into the arms of Pickford.
The next 15 minutes or so were a whole lot of nothing, but in the 19th minute the Hammers came alive. First, Noble did very well to get a ball into the box for Haller, whose header went just wide. Moments later Zabaleta had a shot from close range that came off Delph and out for a corner. Then Snodgrass was sent in alone but it was flagged for offside. In the midst of all that, Noble made not one but two very bad passes that could have ended very badly for West Ham had it not been for timely defending by Ogbonna.
West Ham should have taken the lead in the 25th minute when Noble sent Haller in with a rolled pass after a giveaway by Digne. But Pickford made himself nice and wide, kept those legs closed, and kept our record signing off the scoresheet. A minute later Lanzini broke down the left and tried to find Haller in the box, but a vital touch by Digne averted possible disaster for the visitors.
Everton had their first chance of the half in the 32nd minute when, after working the ball around the West Ham box Digne sent a looping pass over the West Ham defense towards Walcott. Had the former England international gotten better contact, the ball would likely have seen the back of the net instead of the yellow of Randolph’s shirt.
In the 39th minute, Lanzini drew a foul from Delph on the left side of the Everton box. Snodgrass stepped up and made yet another excellent delivery into the box, and Diop was there to direct it past Pickford.
West Ham 1
Everton 0
The lead was short lived, three minutes to be exact. Everton won a corner after some pressing by Walcott. The corner from Digne got a glance from Holgate, and was then headed past Randolph by Calvert-Lewin.
West Ham 1
Everton 1
In the final seconds of the first half, West Ham came very close to a second goal when Zabaleta did well to chase a ball down at the end line and float a cross to Fornals. The young Spaniard headed the ball into the ground and towards goal, and it took a very fine save by Pickford to keep the score deadlocked before halftime.
Halftime
West Ham 1
Everton 1
Everton started the second half well, and were a bit unlucky not to take the lead. First, Walcott sent a cross into the box that Randolph reached out to clear with a punch. It didn’t make it past Gordon, but his effort went over the bar. Moments later, it was Walcott again who found Calvert-Lewin at the near post but he didn’t have room to do anything and the ball went out for a goal kick. Seconds later Digne curled a good corner kick into the area. West Ham couldn’t deal with it, and the ball went to Davies on the bounce. Lucky for West Ham Davies put his attempt wide of the target.
The home side tried to work their way into the second half and won a corner in the 56th minute. The set piece was met by Pickford and punched clear. I wish there was more to say about that bit of action, but there wasn’t. Everton stayed on the front foot, dominated the midfield, and West Ham were on the ropes.
Speaking of the midfield, I’m going to use this little platform of mine to weigh in on the Gedson Fernandes fiasco. And yes, it was a fiasco of mismanagement. I don’t care that some say we were played by agents, the deal wasn’t our to lose. It was. If we had an actual football management structure in place as opposed to a real estate mogul using eat-what-we-kill agents running the ship, the player would have been ours. I have no idea if he would have been a good signing from an on the pitch perspective. If anything, a bottom feeder like West Ham likely needs a Joe Allen more than a 21 year old from Portugal. We patch the leak, we don’t replace the roof. But the kid was public in his desire to join us. If we had moved quickly, it would have been done. The papers reported that it was the 40 million pound OPTION that stood in our way. The words alone tell you it’s nonsense. We could have said NO after the 18 months. Or we could have leveraged our option against others that might have wanted him. We would have had a semblance of control. In my opinion, this was another example of Sullivan entering the fray for appearance sake, never having the intention or moxie to pull it off. Perhaps he’s not even as good a businessman as some might think, because this one was handed to him on a plate.
Back to the match.
Masuaku replaced Fornals in the 60th minute. That made me nervous. Fornals has been our best midfielder by some margin lately. Masuaku did win a corner a minute after entering the game, but the delivery was truly dreadful and Everton cleared with ease. A few minutes later it was Everton that won a corner off of Zabaleta, but Mina’s header was no issue for Randolph.
West Ham won a corner in the 70th minute from a deflected shot by Snodgrass that almost went over Pickford, but the England numero uno got a hand to it and pushed it behind the net. West Ham then won a couple of free kicks near the 80 minute mark, but on both occasions the delivery from Snodgrass wasn’t good enough and Everton were able to clear the area. With ten minutes to go I was ready to just hold the point close and not let it go.
Until proven 100% otherwise I refuse to completely give up on Ajeti, much like Fornals before him. When he came on, he showed grit and determination. Not to mention a bit of the dark arts when he leaned back into Holgate. VAR checked for a possible a red card, and it was determined that Holgate made more of the incident than was actually there.
Everton won a late free kick in added time when Zabaleta welcomed Gordon to The Premier League with an experienced shoulder to halt a run. The ball eventually came to Davies, but his shot was blocked over for a corner by Masuaku. West Ham handled the ensuing set piece and that was that.
Final Score
West Ham 1
Everton 1
When you are a club mired in yet another Race Towards Relegation, with absolutely no coherent plan and virtually no support staff to help avoid that, that old adage we hated under Sam is unfortunately true. Respect The Point. That’s where we are. That’s where we will be under the Sullivan, Gold, and Brady. We have a decade worth of evidence that makes that point abundantly clear. I don’t know if a billion pounds in the transfer market would make that much of a difference with such ineptitude at the top.
I’m beginning to embrace the horror we are in because there isn’t any choice.