own(Tony Hibbert) (65 mins)
Louis Saha (27 mins)
Dan Gosling (64 mins)
Barclays Premier League
, Nov 8, 2009
Ground: Upton Park
, Kickoff: 14:00 , Att 32,466
Team news
Duo doubtful for Hammers West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola is awaiting news on Herita Ilunga and Carlton Cole ahead of Sunday's game with Everton.
Both players were forced off with suspected hamstring injuries during Wednesday's 2-1 victory over Aston Villa and Jonathan Spector and Zavon Hines are standing by to step into the starting XI.
Fabio Daprela and Frank Nouble will also be added to the squad. Radoslav Kovac is available again after serving a one-match ban but Luis Boa Morte (knee), Dean Ashton (ankle) and Calum Davenport (leg) remain long-term absentees with no date set for their return.
Midfielder Mark Noble admits their last-minute victory over Aston Villa on Wednesday was one of the most emotional moments of his career.
Noble put the Hammers in front against Villa with a 45th minute penalty but Ashley Young levelled six minutes after half-time.
Substitute Hines fired the winner in injury time to lift the struggling side out of the bottom three.
It was their first home win in the league this season and Noble is now looking forward to Sunday's clash with Everton at Upton Park with renewed heart.
Noble, still only 23, is in line to make his 100th league outing against the Toffees.
"Wednesday was important," said Noble. "I can say the moments I have been through with this club that was emotionally one of the best moments I have had. It was so good to be involved with that. It was a really tough game, really tough, but in the end I thought we deserved it.
"The confidence is up for Everton. We will rest well, train well and hopefully the fans will turn up like they did against Villa. It will be fantastic if they get behind us and drive us on to another win.
"It was so emotionally charged because we needed the win so much. It was brilliant and now hopefully we can kick on. It is an unbelievable feeling when you score a goal like that. You just feel like crying.
"We kept going and going. The crowd were unbelievable when they got the equaliser they still cheered us and they didn't get on our backs. I thought that is what we need with the moment we are going through.
"I feel I have got a right to say that because I am a West Ham fan myself and I have been brought up round here. But I thought they were unbelievable and we won that game partly because of them." Russian winger Diniyar Bilyaletdinov is suspended for Everton.
Having been sent off last weekend against Aston Villa, he was able to play in the Europa League home defeat by Benfica, with the domestic ban starting at West Ham.
Former West Ham captain Lucas Neill and Dutchman John Heitinga, both ineligible for the Benfica game, come back into the squad but Louis Saha (calf) could miss out.
Tony Hibbert returned for the European match after flu but Everton will still be without long-term injured players Phil Neville, Phil Jagielka, Mikel Arteta, Steven Pienaar, Victor Anichebe, James Vaughan and Leon Osman.
Boss David Moyes admits his squad are beginning to feel the heat of playing a gruelling schedule of European matches and Premier League games.
The Toffees have now gone seven matches without a victory ahead of Sunday's clash and they are too close to the relegation zone for comfort.
Moyes, for the first time, concedes that he has occasional feelings of deep frustration that Everton are playing in Europe without the right resources, and their domestic form is suffering.
He said: "Regrets? I have tried not to have any regrets about it (playing in Europe).
"But the more and more games you play in it, the more and more times you realise that some other managers have talked a lot of sense about the number of games in the Europa League.
"With the squads we have got, us particularly, it is very difficult to win Premier League games when you have got so many midweek games.
"The word rotation gets used to make sure everyone is as fresh as they can be.
"But we do not have that depth of squad, so we could look back and say that Europe has been a hindrance to us.
"I don't like talking that way. I have always wanted to talk positively about playing in Europe, we always want to qualify.
West Ham 1-2 Everton
Last modified 10:01 09/11/09
Daily Mirror match report by Neil McLeman
Louis Saha and Everton wish they could play West Ham every week.
After seven games without a win in all competitions, David Moyes’ side returned to their happy hunting ground in East London yesterday to rack up their first Premier League win since September.
And despite carrying a calf strain, the France striker took his tally to five goals in three games against the Hammers with the opening goal of a slow-burning game which only came to life in the last half hour.
Dan Gosling doubled the Everton lead after the break before a comical own goal by Tony Hibbert set up an unexpectedly exciting finish.
Yet Everton held on for their 16th win over West Ham out of 29 games in the Premier League - their best record against any club - to climb to 12th place while the unhappy Hammers slipped back into the bottom three.
A season-long relegation battle looms for Gianfranco Zola’s side which badly missed top scorer Carlton Cole.
But after getting knocked out of the Carling Cup and losing home and away to Benfica in the Europa League, Moyes was relieved to see his side return to winning ways.
“We have not played that well, so we cannot ask for any more,” said the Scot.
“It has been a tough month - probably too many games for the same group of players to be playing in.
“Nevertheless I thought they showed great character to hang in there at the end. It has been a difficult period for them.
“I think Everton over the last couple of seasons have played good football, been up at the top and good to watch.
“The key is always to find a winning formula, and today we have found one.
“At the moment, we are lacking just a bit of quality.”
After the Hammers had enjoyed the best of the early possession, Saha showed that missing quality with Everton’s first shot on target after 27 minutes.
Tim Cahill took advantage of confusion in the Hammers’ central defence to slip a short pass to Saha and the France striker clipped a low shot past England No.1 Robert Green from the edge of the box.
It was Saha’s ninth goal of the season - and his fifth in three games against the Hammers after netting twice at Upton Park exactly a year ago. He also scored at West Ham for Metz in the Inter Toto Cup final a decade ago.
“Saha’s scoring record against West Ham was in my mind,” admitted Moyes. “He has got a calf strain and probably should not have been playing.”
By contrast, without the injured Cole, the West Ham front pair of Zavon Hines and Guillermo Franco looked lightweight against proven Premier League performers like Joseph Yobo and Sylvain Distin.
Zola threw on Junior Stanislas at half-time and Alessandro Diamanti came off the bench in the 57th minute as the game finally opened up.
But it was Everton who were the immediate beneficiaries. After 64 minutes, sub Yakubu fed Dan Gosling in space in the box and though Green saved his first shot on his 100th consecutive Premier League appearance, the rebound returned to the Everton midfielder and he lashed the ball home.
Yet the visitors enjoyed their two-goal cushion for less than a minute. The increasingly influential Diamanti released Stanislas and although the Hammers sub chipped over Howard, the covering Hibbert could only carve his attempted clearance into the roof of his own net from a yard out.
“I have not asked Tony Hibbert about the goal, but I felt he should have cleared the ball,” said the unamused Moyes.
“He had an opportunity to clear it.”
The Hammers had their chances to repeat their fightback from two goals down against Arsenal last month.
Hines, the scorer of the injury-time winner against Aston Villa last week, was twice through on goal only to stab his shots painfully wide.
And Yobo was fortunate to escape with only a yellow card after bringing down Hines as he again bore down on goal.
The Hammers had a final chance to equalise in stoppage time but Tim Howard denied Franco from a Parker cross.
West Ham: Green 7, Faubert 6, Upson 7, Da Costa 6, Spector 6, Behrami 7, Parker 8, Jiminez 5, (Diamanti 57), Collison 5 (Stanislas 46), Franco 6, Hines 5.
Everton: Howard 7, Hibbert 6, Yobo 7, Distin 8, Baines 7, Gosling 7 (Neill 76), Rodwell 6, Heitinga 6, Saha 8 (Yakubu 57), Fellaini 7, Cahill 7.
| Player rating out of ten | Player name | Substitution | Did they score? | Player's disciplinary record | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Green | ||||
| 20 | Julien Faubert | ||||
| 22 | Manuel Da Costa | ||||
| 15 | Matthew Upson | ||||
| 18 | Jonathan Spector | ||||
| 8 | Scott Parker | ||||
| 21 | Valon Behrami | ||||
| 17 | Luis Jimenez(sub 56) |
|
|||
| 31 | Jack Collison(sub 45) |
|
|||
| 10 | Guillermo Franco | ||||
| 41 | Zavon Hines | ||||
| Substitutes | |||||
| 28 | Peter Kurucz | ||||
| 30 | James Tomkins | ||||
| 33 | Fabio Daprela | ||||
| 14 | Radoslav Kovac | ||||
| 16 | Mark Noble | ||||
| 46 | Junior Stanislas(sub 45) |
|
|||
| 32 | Alessandro Diamanti(sub 56) |
|
|||
| Player rating out of ten | Player name | Did they score? | Player's disciplinary record | Substitution | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | Tim Howard | ||||
| 2 | Tony Hibbert |
|
|||
| 4 | Joseph Yobo |
|
|||
| 15 | Sylvain Distin | ||||
| 3 | Leighton Baines | ||||
| 5 | Johnny Heitinga |
|
|||
| 19 | Dan Gosling(sub 75) |
|
|
||
| 25 | Marouane Fellaini |
|
|||
| 26 | Jack Rodwell |
|
|||
| 17 | Tim Cahill | ||||
| 8 | Louis Saha(sub 56) |
|
|
||
| Substitutes | |||||
| 1 | Carlo Nash | ||||
| 23 | Lucas Neill(sub 75) |
|
|||
| 31 | Seamus Coleman | ||||
| 38 | James Wallace | ||||
| 22 | Ayegbeni Yakubu(sub 56) |
|
|||
| 35 | Keiran Agard | ||||
| 37 | Jose Baxter | ||||
| Team | West Ham | Everton |
|---|---|---|
| Possession | ||
| Shots on target | 6 | 7 |
| Shots off target | 3 | 9 |
| Corner | 4 | 5 |
| Fouls | 18 | 12 |
| Crosses | 1 | 3 |
