Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored his 50th Premier League goal in a 1-0 victory against West Ham United on Sunday. This win allows Everton to create some distance between themselves and the relegation zone. Calvert-Lewin found the back of the net in the 51st minute, turning on the edge of the box and firing a low shot that skipped off the wet London Stadium pitch to beat Alphonse Areola, West Ham’s goalkeeper.
With this win, Everton moves up to 15th place in the Premier League table, boasting 10 points from 10 games. They now have a five-point cushion above the drop zone. On the other hand, West Ham finds themselves in ninth place with 14 points, having suffered three consecutive losses in all competitions.
Throughout the game, Everton created better opportunities, while West Ham’s best chances fell to Jarrod Bowen, who unfortunately missed the target on both occasions. Despite giving up possession to the home side, Everton’s solid defense, led by Jarrad Branthwaite at center-back and Amadou Onana in the midfield, prevented West Ham from capitalizing.
West Ham appeared sluggish at times, likely affected by their 2-1 loss against Olympiakos in Greece on Thursday. As a result, they lacked precision in possession and only came to life in the final 20 minutes as they desperately searched for an equalizer.
In the first half, Bowen had a chance to give West Ham the lead after being beautifully set up by Lucas Paqueta, but his shot missed the mark. Jack Harrison squandered a golden opportunity for Everton during a three-on-one break, opting to shoot weakly straight at goalkeeper Alphonse Areola instead of passing to Calvert-Lewin or Abdoulaye Doucoure.
Shortly after, Bowen headed over the crossbar from a free-kick, and just three minutes later, Everton took the lead. Branthwaite won the ball with a crunching tackle, played it forward, and a one-two combination between Harrison and Calvert-Lewin led to the latter turning brilliantly on the edge of the box and firing a low shot into the net.
Despite a superb save by Areola to deny Doucoure, Everton had to defend for the remaining 30 minutes. However, West Ham was unable to break through Everton’s defense and failed to score for the first time this season.
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
