Everton at least look like they have direction as West Ham simply look stagnant

Everton and West Ham entered their game with just seven goals between them, but while Frank Lampard has a plan, the Hammers seem to be running out of ideas.

That says a lot about how this season has gone for both clubs Everton and West Ham played their Premier League game at Goodison Park after scoring nearly 50% fewer goals between them than the bottom of the Leicester City table. These two clubs arrived at their current attacking options by very different routes. Everton have lost their attacking talismans this summer due to the transfer market and injuries. All five West Ham strikers scored a goal between them.

September saw a slight improvement in the positions of both teams. Everton entered the game without a win, but their goalless draw against Liverpool was at least managed with grit and determination. West Ham have won just one Premier League victory, but the Europa Conference League has brought them four more. After taking four points from Aston Villa and Spurs, there was no shame in losing to Chelsea with two minutes to play, another example of a less well-placed side taking the lead against wealthier opposition and failing to not keep it.

And both teams came to this pre-international clash on a knife edge. Victory for either would lift them comfortably out of the relegation spots and towards the middle of the table. A defeat would mean a long period of introspection and the possibility that the losing manager will no longer be in place by the time teams reappear in the Premier League then begins to increase. Everton and Frank Lampard can at least now try to enjoy the break.

The afternoon began somewhat as a precursor to what was to follow, with managers accidentally leading each other's teams onto the pitch for the pre-match royal tributes. Both teams spent the first half demonstrating precisely why they are 17th and 18th in the Premier League with Jamie Carragher in the Sky comment box lamenting the "lack of quality" displayed.

There was plenty of running, plenty of solid tackling, and there were even occasional flashes of coordinated, fluid attacking play, but then a final ball went wrong, or a shot was too docile, or a sub-decision optimal grip. Scoreless at half-time in a game between two teams who had scored seven goals and recorded one victory between them – 1-0, of course – in their previous twelve games combined. Who would have ever thought?

The half seemed to bring an improvement for Everton, but West Ham's confidence still looks absolutely down, especially in the attacking positions. There were times when they played the ball away from the defense with intelligence and fluidity, but once they got within 30 yards of Everton's goal, that confidence seemed to ebb.

Neal Maupay put Everton ahead eight minutes into the second half with a low right-footed shot that went just inside the near post of Lukasz Fabianski and once they had scored, confidence no longer seemed an issue. Within ten minutes of the score, Demarai Gray jumped into the left channel and fired a low shot across goal which only missed by inches and would have been an accurate goal if someone in a blue shirt managed to reach the end of that.

And if there was one player who best summed up the small but crucial differences between these two teams, it was Alex Iwobi. Iwobi's arrival at Goodison Park looked like a most Evertone-esque signing; a coin-...