The Everton side credited Moyes with a great win in the gaffer’s last home game of his 11 year tenure.
The Blues were unchanged from the side that last week held Liverpool to a goalless draw, and West Ham made only one change from their goalless draw with Newcastle, bringing in young midfielder Jack Collison for exuberant winger Vaz Te.
Ahead of the games there were doubts as to whether Moyes should stay in charge: would his mind be on other things? Could he motivate the players? Will they play for anything? Those questions were answered in 5 minutes as Everton came out of the blocks on fire, pressing West Ham all over the pitch and looking to spring attacks straight away.
It didn’t take long for that to pay off. After only 7 minutes, the home side took the lead through an excellent piece of build up play. Baines picked up the ball inside, fed it to Fellaini, who off-loaded it to Osman but received it straight back, and then the big Belgian saw Baines launching himself down the left and duly delivered into him. The left back then cut back to deceive Collison, returned the ball to a further forward Fellaini, who nicked it inside to Pienaar, who nicked it inside to Mirallas who coolly slotted home. It was one of the goals of the season for pure footballing excellence.
Everton didn’t calm down after that. Another 30 minutes of pure dominance followed and West Ham couldn’t cope in the slightest. To continue the story of Everton’s season, the Blues didn’t capitalise on the many chances that were created. West Ham’s James Collins and goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen were the heroes preventing a mauling.
It wasn’t until after 30 minutes until West Ham finally tested Everton, with Kevin Nolan striking a ball on target that Tim Howard had to stretch to save well. Everton did tire slightly and the first half finished with a one goal advantage for the men in Blue.
After a 15 minute break, the Blues were invigorated and came out all guns blazing once again. The final pass was just missing though as Pienaar, who was lively throughout, couldn’t find that final through ball. After another 15 minutes, the Gwladys Street End sucked the second goal in. By this point, all four stands were chanting as loud as they could, and Everton responded when Gibson picked the ball up off Howard, turned and fed Kevin Mirallas into a 3 on 3 situation, where the tricky winger ran at James Collins and turned him one way and then the other, finally getting his shot away but deflected off Collins’ legs which resulted in the ball flying past a helpless Jaaskelainen.
From there Everton were in complete control. David Moyes’ side created many more opportunities which mainly arose from cut backs, but had it not been for Collins and Jaaskelainen the scoreline have been so many more.
The Hammers did give Everton a small shock when Carroll headed a set piece onto the post, but that gave the Toffees the final ten minute wake up call to see the game out for a 2-0 win.
The Goodison crowd stuck around and paid their thanks and congratulations to a departing Phil Neville and David Moyes, and also got a special treat to say goodbye to former Everton man Tim Cahill, having not had the chance since his move last summer. It was great that Everton signed off with a win, but the emotions of the lap of honour were truly amazing scenes.
