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Everton's claim to be the best of the others no longer seems exaggerated. They went from seventh to one point. Although they need energy to fight for this place, too much hype, this convincing victory deserves to be won. Marco Silva's team played the slender football that his appointment originally promised, which may have been the most accomplished performance of his reign.
Kurt Zouma and Bernard scored goals to defeat a West Ham team whose bloodless performance was as bad as anything that happened under Manuel Pellegrini.
It is impossible to predict these teams and in a first half sometimes absurdly open, they stressed the point. West Ham, theoretically confident after seven undefeated home games, was torn apart by a team that had won an away match against opponents outside the last four.
Everton could have been lost in the meantime and the way they took their lead was enough to calm those who think the old problems of their hosts here have been dispelled.
Despite all their smooth exchanges in the acres of space they had, their breakthrough in the fifth minute was done by rudimentary means. Zouma would have been optimistic of waiting for a gift from Issa Diop but found herself pleasantly surprised. Diop should have been up to 6 feet 4 inches, but as Gylfi Sigurdsson was bending over a corner from the right, he was slightly wrong. That meant Zouma had climbed to meet the ball before he could even jump, sending a well-focused header bouncing off Lukasz Fabianski.
Without Fabianski, the margin would have been doubled quickly.
He repelled Dominic Calvert-Lewin's slanting shot after Everton dug a chasm into the right flank, then cleverly blocked Sigurdsson's rebound. Lucas Digne tried his luck shortly thereafter, requiring a fingertip save. Diop then left the box to sneak behind the post after Calvert-Lewin opened the scoring.
All this happened in 13 minutes. There was little to leave afterwards; the bullets continued to whistle through West Ham's penalty area, barely avoiding toe-out or slicing through a torn back line. Finally, we would receive a significant touch and it is Bernard, hardly recognized for his final product since his arrival last summer, who scored his first league goal for Everton for the 28th time. The arrival on Séamus Coleman was very simple after the combination of the right-back with Richarlison. Evisceration was clinical but so simple and West Ham, whose half-goals Marko Arnautovic had spoiled, was whistled when the half-way whistle sounded.
Pellegrini had to regret starting with a 4-4-2 with Lucas Pérez, the theoretical partner of Arnautovic, barely visible. Pérez and Pedro Obiang were replaced at half-time, Javier Hernández and Michail Antonio arriving in their place.
West Ham at least started putting pressure on Everton, a feat that seemed to have been imposed at the beginning of the period. A Robert Snodgrbad corner went over everyone and Jordan Pickford was forced to shout against Aaron Cresswell. But Everton, for whom Andre Gomes saw a volley blocked by Pablo Zabaleta, has retained control. Idrissa Gueye, who at times seemed very inclined to embark on the offensive game, was producing one of the most devouring grbad events that delighted Paris Saint-Germain at the winter transfer window.
No one dressed in light blue and blue worked with comparable vigor, and when Pellegrini introduced Grady Diangana for the last 23 minutes, it turned out to be one last attempt to find one. Another round of boos, apparently for the player rather than for the change, welcomed the departure of Arnautovic. He was equally disenchanted, throwing a bottle on the floor.
Richarlison headed for the crossbar while there was only eight minutes left, the stadium half empty now; West Ham, once again the worst, has never seemed to regret early departures.
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