Hammers Break Home Resilience For Toffees

David Moyes was the last manager to get three points from his first game in charge of West Ham United back in 2020 but at least Nuno Espírito Santo helped the Hammers pick up a point in a 1-1 draw at The Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday night, in what was an ultimately an encouraging performance.

The new man in charge made two changes from the team that former Head-Coach Graham Potter named for the 2-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace nine days earlier. He handed a debut to Soungoutou Magassa, as he replaced James Ward-Prowse, who wasn’t involved, while Niclas Füllkrug was preferred to Callum Wilson upfront. Wilson was on the bench, along with Brighton and Hove Albion loanee Igor Julio.

Youngsters Freddie Potts, Luis Guilherme, Oliver Scarles and Callum Marshall were also included in the matchday squad.

The only positive result for the Irons so far this season ironically came on the road at Nottingham Forest twenty days ago. At that time, the Tricky Trees were under the stewardship of Espírito Santo and the Portuguese was looking to get his Hammers’  tenure off to a good start here.

His team started brightly, as Lucas Paquetá and Füllkrug tried to make an early breakthrough but unfortunately, both Michael Keane and Vitaliy Mykolenko were in the right place to intercept.

Füllkrug wasn’t finished there either, as he had a further two attempts to get the better of home goalkeeper Jordan Pickford but they were easy for the former Sunderland man to gather.

Neither side was able to get a foothold in the early stages, as Alphonse Areola was forced to hold efforts from Beto, as well as Iliman Ndiaye.

Potter was only relieved of his duties on Saturday morning which gave Espírito Santo less than two days to work with his new squad. Defending from corners and crosses has been a re-occurring issue this season and it proved to be the visitors’ undoing once again here with eighteen minutes gone. A corner was collected by James Garner and his cross was headed past Areola by Keane.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall nearly made it worse for the visitors just before the break but fortunately, his effort bounced past the post and didn’t trouble Areola.

Referee Sam Barrott then brought the first-half to a close and the Irons were once again behind, just as they were against the Eagles last time out.

West Ham were initially on the back-foot when the action restarted as the Toffees almost went further ahead but luckily, Crysencio Summerville managed to get a vital block on Jake O’Brien’s effort. They were also fortunate to survive another scare when Idrissa Gueye fired over.

Garner really got involved in the action just minutes later, but he was blocked by a combination of Max Kilman and Areola. The same player then forced a good save from the Frenchman.

Although they were in front, Everton looked increasingly vulnerable as their opponents began to pile on the pressure. They almost equalised when Summerville suddenly pounced on a mistake from O’Brien but unfortunately, Pickford bailed his teammate out as he made the save.

Just before the hour mark, the East Londoners made their first change, as Potts came on for Magassa.

Six minutes later, the scores were level when captain Jarrod Bowen did what he does best and his curling shot deflected off Keane and past Pickford after El Hadji Malick Diouf’s cross wasn’t cleared. After continued chants of disgruntlement at various points in the match, those in the away end were now interested.

Minutes later, the Irons could have turned the game on its head Bowen was nearly played in for a quickfire double had the ball not taken a nick off James Tarkowski. Espírito Santo’s men were dominating proceedings by this point with both Konstantinos Mavropanos and Diouf creating good chances however, neither could hit the target.

With thirteen minutes of normal time to play, the new Head-Coach made a strange call and substituted Summerville, allowing Guilherme to take his place.

Mavropanos nearly put his side in trouble inside the final ten minutes when he pulled down Dewsbury-Hall. Thankfully, Barrott only awarded a free-kick and those who made the journey up from East London breathed a collective sigh of relief when Garner sent the set-piece wide.

As stoppage time edged closer, the contest could have been won at either end but neither opportunity was taken, as Füllkrug’s shot was blocked, while Tarkowski was brilliantly kept out by Areola.

Andrew Irving and Julio entered the fray, as both Füllkrug and Paquetá were withdrawn deep into stoppage time at the end of the encounter.

The point may not have lifted West Ham out of the relegation zone but at least it is something for the new Head-Coach to build on. They will now head to The Emirates Stadium to take on Arsenal on Saturday afternoon, looking to make it three wins in a row in North London.