Romelu Lukaku’s cool finish earns Everton a point at West Ham UnitedRomelu Lukaku continued to wage his personal crusade against West Ham, scoring on his seventh successive appearance against the Hammers on a muggy, dirty wet afternoon at a slightly subdued Upton Park.
Otherwise this was a low-pressure meeting of two neat, quick-passing teams, illuminated by some nice touches but little in the way of unbound attacking play. When counter-attack meets counter-attack the result is often strangely lukewarm, and neither team here looked to have the will to commit to a more aggressive approach.
By the end a 1-1 draw seemed fair enough in a game marked out by two fantastic first half goals, the first a dreamy finish by Manuel Lanzini, the second from Lukaku made by an outstanding through pass by Gerard Deulofeu.
If there was little in the way sustained pressure, it wasn’t for the want of attacking talent on the pitch. Both teams had lined up in a sprightly-looking 4-2-3-1, with Andy Carroll starting his second Premier League game in a row for the first time since January for West Ham and Dimitri Payet and Deulofeu both in fine form of late.
In the event Carroll was applauded from the pitch having done very little of note, having spent much of the previous 86 minutes chasing John Stones, who was hugely composed throughout. Payet suffered a heavy tackle in the first half from James McCarthy and never recovered.
West Ham started brightly with Payet making an early thrust down the inside right channel and teeing up Victor Moses for a shot that crept wide.
Deulofeu began wide on the right, marked when Everton attacked by the equally jinky Payet, who provided the moment of the first 15 minutes with a kind of drag-back nutmeg on Ross Barkley that had half the stadium breaking out in a kind of delighted giggle.
Both teams had settled into a slightly cautious rhythm by the time Lanzini produced moment of genuine high class on the half hour mark to open the scoring. Moses again drove into the box, and shot hard and low. The ball was deflected and finally cleared by Stones to Lanzini 30 yards out, who tiptoed forward, shifted the ball between his feet and curled a sensational finish up and over Tim Howard and into the top corner.
A 1-0 lead only rarely brings the kind of full team bundle West Ham’s players formed near the corner flag in celebration, but this was a genuinely outstanding piece of skill, imaginatively conceived and brilliantly executed, the ball seeming to hang, then dip, before finding the one spot Howard simply couldn’t reach.
Everton’s equaliser two minutes before half-time came from a moment of instant off-the-cuff brilliance from Deulofeu as Payet lost the ball trying to slalom past McCarthy in Everton’s half. Deulofeu picked the ball up and slid a gorgeous pass through the tiniest channel, perfectly weighted for Lukaku to run on, take the ball around and Adrián and finish.
It would be hard to blame Payet. The pass was perfection, the West Ham defence filleted a little too easily. Plus, of course, Lukaku is the hammer of the Hammers.
Payet didn’t last much longer, leaving the field four minutes into the second half still suffering the effects of McCarthy’s heavy challenge in the first half, for which he wad booked. Enner Valencia took the Frenchman’s place, but left the field again 20 minutes later on a stretcher after tumbling in the area, replaced in turn by Mauro Zárate.
West Ham continued to press the harder, having more of the ball but not much in the way of clear chances, with Moses a driving force.
Otherwise a draw was fair enough in a match that only ever flickered, between two teams who never really seemed interested enough in committing players forward in search of a win.
Guardian