Everton 1 West Ham 3: First 2018-19 Premier League points for Manuel Pellegrini as Andriy Yarmolenko stars

1/19
Malik Ouzia @MalikOuzia_16 September 2018

West Ham stopped the rot and avoided making their worst ever start to a league season thanks to a well-earned 3-1 win over Everton.

The Hammers arrived at Goodison Park on the back of four successive Premier League defeats, but a brace from Andriy Yarmolenko and a second-half strike from Marko Arnautovic gave Manuel Pellegrini a first league win at his new club after Gylfi Sigurdsson's first half header had threatened to drag the hosts back into the game.

With Jack Wilshere out injured, Pellegrini recalled Declan Rice to the side and gave Yarmolenko his first league start since joining the club this summer.

Everton were still without the suspended Richarlison, as well as three senior centre backs, and their vulnerability at the back was evident just 11 minutes in, when the visitors took the lead.

One pass lifted over the top was enough to unlock the door, setting Marko Arnautovic free. The Austrian could have gone for goal himself, but squared unselfishly to leave Yarmolenko with a simple finish.

Getty Images

Midway through the first half, the Ukrainian added a second, capitalising on a sloppy pass from Jordan Pickford to find the top corner with a terrific curling strike.

Getty Images

Right on the stroke of half-time though, Everton found a way back into the game courtesy of Sigurdsson, who powered a brilliant header past Lukasz Fabianski after an excellent cross from Jonjoe Kenny.

Getty Images

But on the hour mark, the two goal cushion was restored by the excellent Arnautovic after nice work by Pedro Obiang.

Getty Images

Everton threw on Ademola Lookman and Oumar Niasse, and the latter came closest to reducing the deficit, rattling the crossbar from six yards out.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in