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Five minutes after half time, the West Ham fans in the lower level of the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand felt safe enough to address the Everton fans in the next section of the London Stadium and serenade them.
‘You’re going to cry in a minute,’ they sang. The Everton fans stared back blankly, listlessly. Mourn? And the rest. Crying and screaming and howling and cursing and wailing over what’s happening in your club and what’s yet to come.
What Everton would give to be the kind of ‘happy flower club’ Pep Guardiola dismissively called Manchester City last week. Everton do not have a single happy flower, not a single touch of colour.
Jarrod Bowen opened the scoring after 34 minutes when he netted a brace against Everton.
Bowen then grabbed his second of the match seven minutes later to make it 2-0 on Saturday.
West Ham have recorded back-to-back home wins over Everton for the first time since 1986
Both managers are under heavy pressure, but it is Frank Lampard’s side that lost once again.
Swept into further trouble by this 2-0 defeat to their relegation rivals, stuck firmly in the bottom three, they are a great team suffocated by thistles and nettles, lost in the undergrowth of their mediocrity and self-loathing.
They deserved nothing from this game and got nothing. At the end of a match dubbed El Sackico because the jobs of both coaches were in danger, it is to be hoped that the result will be a turning point for David Moyes at West Ham because he is a great coach who has done a great job. at the club since he rejoined and that he will ensure a recovery if given the opportunity.
But the reality of a tangled situation largely beyond his control is that this defeat leaves Frank Lampard hanging on to his Everton job by a frayed thread about to snap.
This was the unhappiest of returns to the club where he began his playing career.
They have now presided over 11 defeats in their last 14 matches and while the underlying problems at Goodison Park are not their fault, many consider their position untenable.
It was a sign of the dysfunction that has plagued Everton that members of its board can attend a match in London without fear for their safety, but have been warned that the dangers are too great for them to see their club at Goodison.
Another sign of that dysfunction was that when his owner, Farhad Moshiri, took his place in the directors’ box yesterday, it was the first time he had seen Everton play live since October 2021.
Everton chairman Bill Kenwright attended the match after missing their home game last week.
Some suspected that he had only come so he could fire Lampard in person, though he, CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale and non-executive director Graeme Sharp, all targets of fan ire, departed 10 minutes before the end with Lampard saying later. he had not spoken to them.
Only Bill Kenwright, the chairman who loves the club to the core but has been vilified more than anyone, remained in his seat watching another grim setback unfold before him.
The outlook for Everton is bleak. His next two games are at home against league leaders Arsenal and away against Merseyside rivals Liverpool, not the ideal introduction for a new manager, should the board make a change.
And whoever is in charge will be in the middle of a civil war between the fans and the club executives. “A board full of liars,” read a prominent sign at the Everton end. ‘No communication, no plan, no vision,’ said another.
The inventory of problems at Everton is too long to mention here, but it includes not replacing star striker Richarlison, who was sold to Spurs last summer, losing his last three home games to Wolves, Brighton and Southampton, the players chased down the street in their cars by fans outside Goodison Park, posting losses of £372.6m on their last three sets of financial accounts and spending £700m on new players in the last seven years and yet, somehow, presenting a first eleven that lacks real quality.
Alex Iwobi was Everton’s brightest outing in the game, but he was unable to inspire a win for his team.
The loss sends Lampard’s team into another week in the bottom three as they sit in 19th place.
Something has to give and it won’t stop at Lampard alone. If he is the first lamb slaughtered, surely others will follow.
Lampard cut a grim but defiant figure afterwards. He has dealt with a difficult situation with great dignity and class throughout his time at Everton and his reaction to this setback was no different. ‘It means we’re going to have to dig as a club,’ he said, ‘and I’m prepared to dig. That’s all’.
Given the circumstances, it wasn’t surprising that both teams started looking like they had a lot to lose and not much to gain. Some described the initial stages as tentative, which was generous.
There was a flutter of excitement at one end when Jordan Pickford miscontrolled a backward pass and had to scramble clear. There was an alarm for West Ham when Everton appealed for handball against Angelo Ogbonna. He was disallowed by referee Stuart Attwell.
It took 28 minutes before either side managed a shot on goal. It came from West Ham as Michail Antonio passed the ball to Said Benrahma on the edge of the box and Benrahma released it with his right foot.
Michail Antonio made life difficult for James Tarkowski and dodged him to set up the second goal
Antonio dropped Tarkowski to the ground before providing the cross for Bowen’s second goal
The ball was moving and deflecting in the air and Pickford had to arch his back acrobatically to deflect the shot over the crossbar. Encouraged, West Ham pushed for the first goal.
Six minutes later, his pressure paid off. A ball was lobbed into the Everton box from the left, Kurt Zouma rose higher in a mass of bodies to throw it in and Jarrod Bowen ran towards it and pushed it past Pickford into the net.
Bowen ran into the crowd and tucked the ball under his shirt in a nod to his girlfriend, Dani Dyer, who is pregnant with twins. There was one happy story, at least, amid all the gloom surrounding these teams.
Four minutes before the break, Bowen scored again. This time, the goal was largely due to some impressive defending from James Tarkowski, another aspect of Everton’s bloody recruiting strategy. Tarkowski was leading Antonio into the corner when he inexplicably dove to try and take him down.
Vitaliy Mykolenko battled back for the Toffees and was duly hooked at the interval
Antony turned away from him and Tarkowski’s desperate efforts to regain his ground only resulted in Antony’s cross being diverted into Bowen’s path. Bowen charged the ball past Pickford again from close range. He now he had a goal for each twin.
At the other end, Alex Iwobi saw a deflected shot from Declan Rice and it bounced safely off the foot of a post. It was all Everton had to show in an absolutely insipid first half that was full of possession but low on so much more. For them to look so far behind another team in the bottom three does not bode well for the rest of their season, whoever their manager is.
At half time, ‘If the Kids are United’ was played over the loudspeaker system, which may have resonated with the Everton fans as well. “They can lie to my face, but not to my heart,” says one of the letters, which would have struck a chord with those who feel they are at war with the club’s board of directors.
Everton improved at the start of the second half. With a little more composure from Demarai Gray, they could have scored a goal shortly after the break. They came close again just before an hour had elapsed when Idrissa Gueye fizzed in a low shot that slid inside the post before Lukasz Fabianski flicked it wide.
Danny Ings made his West Ham debut in the second half with the game already won
West Ham nearly put the game out of reach midway through the half when Emerson broke down the left and was allowed to drive into Pickford’s goal.
He triggered an upward shot that went into the roof of the net until the Everton keeper tapped it high over the bar.
Everton huffed and puffed but never seemed to get back into the game. In fact, Rice came close to putting his team up 3-0 when he shot past Pickford but missed the far post.
For all the money they’ve spent, Everton don’t have a player remotely in Rice’s class. There are no happy flowers in Goodison anymore. Not on the field, not off it.
West Ham 2-0 Everton: Relive the action minute by minute as it happened at the London Stadium with the Sportsmail live blog