West Ham v Everton: Match Recap (Disappointment included)

I really don't think I need to write up a recap for this match. Everyone can guess what happened. Same old Everton, same old problems. The sad part was, at moments, we were better than I had seen us play all season. Some of the passing was just amazing, but like usual, the finishing was atrocious.

I really thought we were going to win this match. West Ham United really is not that great this season and we played quite well at the beginning. Even after Tony Hibbert's own goal, I was still optimistic of a victory.

I can't completely say we dominated though because West Ham did have some opportunities to steal three points from us, but just like us their finishing was bad. We really missed Phil Jagielka and it showed throughout the match were there were clear opportunities for West Ham to take on Tim Howard.

After Hibbert's 16th minute own goal, Tim Cahill managed to find a wide open Seamus Coleman with a superb cross (42nd minute).  All that was left for Coleman to do was tap it in, and Everton tied it.

What disappointed me the most was the play of Mikel Arteta. He did not seem to be anywhere close to the dominance he showed last season. He did not look fit and definitely did not seem influential. He still made some good plays, but it wasn't anywhere close to the dominant Arteta I was used to seeing. Hibbert, minus the own goal, played OK. He was caught out of position a few times, but seemed to recover (or Piquionne/Cole shanked).

Moyes' tactics were also a little bit of a disappointment. While Tim Cahill at striker seems like the obvious choice to ridicule, I wasn't too angry at that move. Cahill has been playing deep enough that he was our best choice at striker, but I think putting one of our actual strikers would have benefited the club in the long term. None of our strikers have any confidence and putting a midfielder in their place doesn't seem like it would help them. It was also not the best allocation of skill for Cahill either. Even though he did provide the assist on our goal, he wasn't as effective as he usually is.

Taking out Steven Pienaar also left me perplexed. Pienaar was only getting better as the match went on. I didn't understand why Moyes decided to substitute him out when he seemed to be the only player that was threatening an attack.

All in all, this match was nothing special. I don't even know what to say if someone asks what we could do to improve. The only thing we could say is, get new strikers. Regardless, we have to play with what we have for now, and I really hope one striker finds his form and starts scoring.

I say this every week, but hopefully we can come away with three points today. Stoke City is coming up and even though they play really well at home, it is a winnable match.