West Ham United Vs Everton soccer game preview

West Ham last beat Everton in the Premier League in April 2007 when Bobby Zamora's goal earned a 1-0 win and the hosts head into this weekend's fixture with problems in attack. Everton will look to get their second win of the season when they travel to West Ham United on Saturday, after achieving their first victory against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea side last weekend. West Ham will be looking for a good performance against Everton, as they have been less than satisfactory in that department so far this season. They defeated Cardiff 2-0 on the opening day, but have since only managed two shots on target in their matches .

Everton have had a different story however, and will consider themselves unfortunate that they only have six points instead of 12 at this stage. The confidence that will have been gained, with the win over the title favourites last weekend, will undoubtedly prove invaluable when they face the Hammers on Saturday.

Team News

West Ham are still without their big summer signing Andy Carroll, who discovered that he suffered yet another injury recently, further delaying his comeback. Sam Allardyce has confirmed that Joe Cole and Stewart Downing will also miss this game but should return next week. Romelu Lukaku will be available to make his debut for Everton this weekend, after signing on loan from Chelsea. Gareth Barry will again have the chance to show his quality after making an impressive debut against Chelsea.

Interesting Statistics

Eurosport have some interesting statistics for this match:

West Ham have had just six shots on target so far this season.

They also have the worst shooting accuracy in the league at just 20%.

Everton have defeated West Ham six times in their last 10 league meetings, losing none.

At seven shots, Ross Barkley has had more shots blocked by the opposition than any other Premier League player.

This fixture has produced three red cards on the last three occasions.

Paul Merson's prediction

I've watched West Ham a few times this season and I don't know how they're going to score until Andy Carroll gets fit. They never looked like scoring a goal against Stoke and Modibo Maiga hasn't really done anything in the last two games. He really hasn't had a kick. Kevin Nolan doesn't look like the same player when Carroll isn't in the team and he can't make his runs off the big target man. I would be tempted to change things on Saturday and play Nolan up front. He's intelligent and will give you more than Maiga at the moment. They've got to change things because if they don't then I think you'll see "nil" again.