Summerville and Ings denied as Everton draw goalless with West Ham | first division

Was that enough? Reports had suggested that West Ham reviews the future of Julen Lopetegui during the international break if West Ham lost. They avoided it but, apart from the fact that they picked up another point, inching towards safety next May, was a goalless draw really that much better?

This was, for long periods, a terrible game and while West Ham will probably feel they had the better chances, certainly after the break, when Jarrod Bowen fired a shot wide, Crysencio Summerville hit the post and Danny Ings equalized. two good saves from Jordan Pickford but, still, no one could say that this performance was an undeniable argument for Lopetegui to stay.

A fan base that had been largely frustrated by the football produced under David Moyes towards the end of his second term was not walking through the shoppers at Westfield with joy in their hearts. The most memorable moment was probably a right-footed first-time shot from 25 yards by Vitalii Mykolenko that was so clipped that it barely entered the area.

“We deserved to win with the chances we had, especially in the second half,” Lopetegui said. “We kept a clean sheet and had enough opportunities to win the game. In the first half we lost 45 minutes. We can do better with energy and attitude. “We have to have the personality to make the right decisions.”

The setting matched the somber mood. It was a damp, raw November afternoon, a fine mist illuminated by spotlights as Anish Kapoor's Orbital-top cabin stood in the gray like a Soviet-era ski lodge. He was dull, cold, sad and tired; the awareness of past glories and the knowledge of how far these present iterations are from them weighed on everyone. Even the Land of Hope and Glory setting favored by the military band before the start was strangely jarring.

There were botched passes, misplaced passes, ill-conceived passes and passes to no one at all. When the press box monitors went off in the first half, it was like an act of kindness. At times in the first half, the game reached a specific tone of tedium where people began to wonder how Thilo Kehrer has fared since leaving West Ham for Monaco.

West Ham have entered one of those phases where everything is going wrong. Money was spent in the summer (£130m) but few of those signings have come to fruition so far. Inevitably, Tim Steidten, the manager who had such an uneasy relationship with Moyes, has come under scrutiny.

The good players (Bowen, Lucas Paquetá and Mohammed Kudus) are in a bad mood. Lopetegui has not convinced anyone that he is the man to lead the club towards a bright post-Moyes future.

Discipline has become a major issue, with Kudus suspended for five games after his antics towards the end of the match. defeat against Tottenhamwhile Edson Alvarez received a stupid second yellow card at Nottingham Forest, before providing a fitting visual metaphor for West Ham's season by getting lost in the tunnel.

From time to time, Summerville, one of the summer signings who has shown occasional flashes of promise, would go for a bit of a run, his legs buzzing as a welcome distraction from the general monotony, although his most decisive contribution was probably his return to the block after Idrissa Gueye had attacked. freed Abdoulaye Doucouré.

If there had been a little more pace to the pass, or if Doucouré had been prepared to shoot first time, he might not have had the chance.

“It was a good point, a good clean sheet, a solid performance,” said Sean Dyche, “but we couldn't really find that bit of edge, that bit of devil, that bit of quality in the final third.”

Only in the last few minutes before the break did anyone seem to want to score, Pickford first denied Bowen and then Michail Antonio. That was the prelude to a more open second half, but the bar was low.

A point each could go a long way toward dragging both clubs back into the middle of the table, but the idea of ​​60,000 people turning out voluntarily to watch is, frankly, mind-boggling.