Paul Merson predicts result of Everton clash vs West Ham
Paul Merson doesn’t think Everton have 90 mins of good football in them, as he predicted the result of the game against West Ham this weekend.
The Toffees earned a huge Premier League win against Newcastle in their last outing, before a 4-0 thumping in the FA Cup at the hands of Crystal Palace prior to the international break.
With a three point gap between themselves and the bottom three currently, Merson says the nature of the defeat against Palace would have been ‘worrying’ for Frank Lampard and predicted a 2-0 loss at the hands of the Hammers on Sunday.
“With games against West Ham and Burnley in the pipeline, Everton have a massive week of football coming up,” he said.
“They have to make sure they don’t lose games, but I don’t know if Frank Lampard will set his team up like that. Against Crystal Palace, they started the game really well but ended up losing 4-0, which has got to be worrying for the manager.
“West Ham have a Europa League game coming up, so they might look to rest a few key players for this one.
“Despite that, I think the Hammers will win here, as I don’t believe there is 90 minutes of good football in Everton at the moment. They show flashes of brilliance in games but the consistency just isn’t there.”
Must not lose
The win over Newcastle has given the Blues a bit of breathing room in their battle against relegation, but they can’t afford to keep losing games.
At Goodison Park they have been relatively good, winning four of six games under Lampard but away from home they have lost every single game.
That is a pattern that must end if the club want to get themselves out of this hole that they find themselves in and with West Ham likely to have one eye on Europe, they have a great chance to get unexpected points here.
That said, it’s hard to argue with what Merson has said. Consistency is seemingly non-existent with this team right now and they really struggle to battle against adversity.
Lampard needs to show progress and change having had a good two-week break, so fingers crossed that Merson is wrong about this one.
In other Everton news, View: Lampard to wield axe, four changes – Everton predicted XI vs West Ham
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