Live Blog

Fulltime thoughts - Everton again played a game of two halves, but the difference was both halves were excellent. Attacking relentlessly in the first, and then managing the game flawlessly in the second.

Premier League

90+3’ - Tosun wants a goal bad, gets called offside again.. and there’s the final whistle, Blues win 2-0!!

89’ - Tosun’s first involvement was almost a won penalty, but he was offside there stealing Richarlison’s ball. The Brazilian will come off now, Theo Walcott on. Minimum of three minutes to be added on.

87’ - Everton still galloping forward at every opportunity, and now Digne wins another corner. Cenk Tosun will be coming on for DCL.

83’ - Blues break again menacingly, Sigurdsson finds DCL but his shot is blocked, out for a corner. Lovely ball in from Digne and Richarlison runs in with pace and his header absolutely clatters the bar from six yards out!! That was unlucky.
Sigurdsson off for Tom Davies, Blues’ first sub.

80’ - Another great break for Everton and somehow no one can get solid contact on the ball in the box. Digne’s cross blocked for a corner and that’s cleared away.

75’ - Coleman rushes down the right and finds DCL running behind the backline with a great through ball, but then he fires it well over and wide. DCL’s running excellent, finishing not so much.

72’ - DCL puts a shot just wide after a strong counterattack. Richarlison then wins a corner on the right, but it’s cleared away. To Everton’s credit, the Blues are sustaining their effort and not looking overwhelmed at all.

64’ - Declan Rice has played well for West Ham today, but now goes in the book for tugging back Sigurdsson. Ball is lofted in by the Icelander, but it’s taken by Fabianski in a crowd.
Arnautovic is off for Diangana and the hosts have made all three of their subs. Who will be Everton’s first?

58’ - Hosts’ pressure now telling, corner bounces around in the box and Everton are retreating into their shell. Pickford’s poor punch keeps the ball alive and now another corner for the Hammers.
Blues counter with pace and DCL holds on to the ball for too long and the initial momentum is taken away. Toffees will rely more on counters like that with West Ham pushing up.

53’ - Coleman wins a corner by hounding Arnautovic, and the ball falls to Gomes who sees his full-blooded volley blocked. Keane then has a shot on target that’s also blocked for a corner, but that’s cleared.

50’ - West Ham holding the ball more as Everton are looking to just manage the game and hit the hosts on the counter. Blues looking to see the effect of the changes before they do anything.

46’ - Two changes for the home team, Chicharito and Michail Antonio on for Lucas Perez and Pedro Obiang. West Ham going all for it with an attacking 4-3-3.

Halftime Thoughts - Incredible first half from Everton here, one of the best we’ve seen this season. Just three weeks ago at Newcastle we saw a similar relentless first half where we hounded the home side into submission.
How the Blues play in the second half though will be the true test of this side’s resilience.

Seven shots on goal in that first half though!

45’ - Michael Keane hasn’t put a foot wrong all half, but now gives away a needless corner, which then turns into another corner that is then cleared away. Halftime.

Premier League

41’ - Turnover from Everton in the middle of the park gives the hosts their first real chance, Robert Snodgrass’ snapshot from the top of the box goes just wide of Pickford’s left post.
Richarlison the first player booked, slides in hard on Lanzini, did look like he slipped and went in further than he should have.

40’ - Fabianski saves West Ham again! Richarlison breaks down the right and his shot/cross is cleared by the goalie before DCL can get a foot on it.

33’ - Another fantastic break and the Blues are up 2-0 from Bernard!
Blues have been dominant and another beautiful move results in Bernard getting his first Premier League goal for Everton. Seamus Coleman and Richarlison played a great 1-2 down the right, and Coleman’s center was easily tapped in by the diminutive Brazilian.

30’ - Declan Rice hacks Richarlison down the right wing and Sigurdsson lofts in a free kick, goes West Ham’s way after a foul.
Hammers fans are trying to rouse their team, but they sound like they’re singing from all the way across the Channel.

28’ - Everton are continuing to create good chances every time they go forward, but are unable to finish anything so far. West Ham have been seeing more of the ball though as the Blues are slowing down their breakneck pace.

20’ - Idrissa Gueye does well to rob Manuel Lanzini of a shot from the top of the box from a counter attack. The Blues do look open in the back as they pile forward to keep the pressure up on the hosts.

16’ - Bernard again has the beating of Zabaleta and threads in a beautiful cross through the box, three players come close to it but Fabianski palms away again. No surprise why the West Ham goalie has the most saves in the league.

12’ - Fabianski makes three good saves to keep this game just 1-0. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Lucas Digne all get shots on target that are palmed away by the goalie.
DCL goes down going for a tap-in that Fabianski saves again from, youngster is up again though. The Blues have had an incredible start to this game.

9’ - The hosts are a shambles as Bernard steals Pablo Zabaleta’s soul and cuts in, but his shot goes wide.
Blues win another corner and once again the ball is pinging around in the box. Everton’s energy is good so far.

7’ - Five-on-three counterattack squandered! Gomes finds Sigurdsson wide who tries to square it instead of shooting from a narrow angle, and his cutback is cleared for a corner which is then cleared. Blues have the best of the exchanges so far.

3’ - Long ball game so far. Gueye finds Richarlison with a nice through ball, Brazilian wins a corner.
Kurt Zouma gets his head to it and it somehow bounces in! GOAL!

Terrible defending from West Ham in the box, Zouma headed it down and it bounced up and looped into the far corner to give the Blues the lead. It’s the Chelsea loanee’s second goal for Everton.

1’ - And we’re underway at the London Stadium.

Starting Lineups - Marco Silva doesn’t like changing winning lineups, but this is one is obvious as Yerry Mina is injured an Kurt Zouma missed out because we played his parent club Chelsea last game.

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Everton travel down to London this weekend to take on West Ham United, with the Blues two points and two spots behind the hosts.

The Toffees picked up a good 2-0 win over Chelsea at Goodison Park going into the international break, but the Blues have previously proven to be wildly inconsistent this season and there might be no way to predict which Everton will show up, and the second half performance could be almost polar opposite of that of the opening half.

The Hammers roared back from a 3-1 deficit late in the game to beat Huddersfield Town 4-3 in their last game, picking up three goals in the last fifteen minutes of the game to win. Everton need to be very wary of this after throwing away a 2-0 halftime lead at Newcastle, squandering a strong position in the face of pressure away from home.

If the Blues are indeed looking to make a run for the seventh spot in the Premier League, then it needs to start today against a team directly in contention - but will Marco Silva be able to coax out a consistent away showing from these Blues?

Match Details

Date and start time: Saturday, March 30th at 10:30a.m. PT / 1:30p.m ET / 5:30p.m. BST

Stadium: London Stadium, London, England

Capacity: 60,000

Weather: 65°F/18°C, partly cloudy, 3% chance of precipitation, 6 kmph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: NBCSN, Universo - United States; BT Sport 1 - United Kingdom; Sportsnet Now - Canada, DAZN, beIN Sports HD 2 & 11, SuperSport 3 Africa, SL2G, ESPN3 Sur, RMC Sport 1

Radio: evertontv, TalkSport Radio World, SiriusXM FC,

Live stream: NBCSports.com, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, Universo Now, Fubo TV, Flow Sports app

Gamethread: Comments section below starting one hour before game time

Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Starting XI: Pickford; Digne, Zouma, Keane, Coleman; Gomes, Gueye; Bernard, Sigurdsson, Richarlison; Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Stekelenburg, Jagielka, Baines, Davies, Walcott, Lookman, Tosun

West Ham United

Starting XI: Fabianski; Zabaleta, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell(C); Rice; Snodgrass, Obiang, Lanzini, Arnautovic; Pérez.

Subs: Adrian, Masuaku, Balbuena, Noble, Diangana, Antonio, Chicharito

Last Meeting

The Blues last game against the Hammers was also after an international break, but at Goodison, back in September. Everton had been held at home in a disappointing game against Huddersfield previous to that, and came out flat against an inspired Marko Arnautovic and Andrey Yarmolenko, and the pair ran the defence ragged all day and the 3-1 loss was Everton’s first with Marco Silva in charge.

Unfortunately little has changed since then for either side with both sides stuck in midtable after inconsistent seasons. Oh, the last time Everton visited the London Stadium was on the last day of the 2017-18 season, and it ended the same way, 3-1 to the hosts.