West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has been impressed by the strength of Everton’s signings and is sure the visitors will prove extremely difficult to break down on Saturday at the Boleyn Ground.
The Toffees lost midfielder Marouane Fellaini to Premier League champions Manchester United on transfer deadline day but they also made busy with their own chequebook before the window closed.
Former Wigan boss Roberto Martinez replaced David Moyes at Goodison Park and went back to his old club to sign James McCarthy, with loan deals for Gareth Barry and Romelu Lukaku also completed before the window shut.
Those deals followed earlier moves for Arouna Kone, Antolin Alcaraz, Joel Robles and Gerard Deulofeu with Allardyce, who revealed West Ham had failed with a bid for Lukaku, left praising Everton’s business.
“Gareth Barry in particular is an outstanding acquisition from Manchester City and with Romelu Lukaku joining their frontline as well he’s given them some excellent options,” he said.
“They’ve got a very good variety of players added to the ones that were already there.
“Arouna Kone has been bought in and they’ve only really lost Marouane Fellaini so not only is their starting XI strong but their whole squad is now very strong.”
Everton picked up their first league win under Martinez against Chelsea last week and remain unbeaten after three successive draws preceded the 1-0 victory.
“Our job on Saturday is to make sure we know what we’re playing against,” Allardyce added.
“They will try and pass the ball out from the back more than they did under David Moyes but after that they generally play the same as they did under David.
“They had a fantastic result against Chelsea last weekend so we’re expecting a tough match on Saturday.”