After an incredible start in all competitions, form might be starting to slip for West Ham after they lost twice in under a week.
West Ham were outplayed for much of their clash with Olympiacos, following a heavy 4-1 defeat to Aston Villa just days before.
However, with a favourable run of games ahead, David Moyes will be eager for his side to get back to winning ways in the Premier League against his former club Everton.
Everton game will be tough
Despite sitting just three points above the relegation zone, Everton have actually improved quite a bit this season and this is shown through them having one of the highest xG (Expected Goals) in the league.
Anyone playing the Toffees and expecting an easy game would be in for a shock, and their threat is something Moyes is more than aware of.
“Everton are a hard nut to crack,” he admitted.
“They’ve probably played a little bit better away from home this season, so we expect it to be a really tough game.
“I don’t see them getting turned over easily, I don’t see teams beating them easily – I see a resilient team who keep at it, and on their day they have players capable of scoring goals.”
The visitors are not a side that see much of the ball but, even though this will not suit West Ham’s counterattacking football, David Moyes has no intention of changing his tactics.
“Every Premier League game is difficult, Everton is a tough game, and we’ll approach it the same as we’d approach any other game.”
Delighted with Dyche
As a manager that has been in many relegation battles over his career, the Scotsman believes that Sean Dyche is doing superbly, even through this difficult period.
“I think Sean has done a brilliant job, more importantly last season in keeping them in the Premier League,” he stated.
“Last year was probably the toughest I can remember in the Premier League regarding the relegation side of the league. We were involved in that for long periods as well.
“Dychey went right to the end and kept his team up, so congratulations to him.”
If recent reports are to be believed, the Merseyside team could be facing up to a 12-point deduction for alleged breach of Financial Fair Play, and Moyes sympathised with Dyche for having to navigate the club through this.
“It looks as it might be a difficult period for Everton right now with the financial situation, so he’s having to steer them through that.”
Taking advantage of run of home games
Many fans were concerned about how the club would cope with their extremely tough set of fixtures but, the east Londoners have had a remarkable start to the season.
West Ham will be relieved to know that they finally have a run of five Premier League matches against opposition that are all currently below them in the table.
On top of this, four of their next five games, in all competitions, are at home. This is something Moyes was clearly delighted about.
“It does feel like an advantage," he said.
"If you look at our start to the season, I was moaning a little bit because I thought we had a really unfair start to the season. We had three away from home in the first four games of the season, and even in the next batch of games, it kept us in a negative side regarding being away from home.
“Hopefully it will help us now having four of the next five at home. We’ve been good enough at home – we’ve had some tough games and we expect some more to come,” he concluded.
It is vital that West Ham maximise points over these next five games, if they come out of it with twelve or more points they will be in an excellent position to push on for Europe again.
However, as Moyes said, there is no easy game in the Premier League and they will need to be on top of their game if they are to beat Everton.