Earlier in the season there would have been no coming back from such a crushing blow. It would have been the start of a vintage West Ham collapse. Another disappointment for the home support to absorb, another lead lost, another squandered advantage inching Nuno Espírito Santo’s side towards the Championship.
Two minutes of the 90 remained when Vitalii Myolenko crossed, James Tarkowski won the first header and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall lashed Everton level. Say farewell to the lifeline.
West Ham had just enjoyed an almighty escape, the officials somehow failing to award a penalty for a blatant handball by Mateus Fernandes. But when their luck ran out and Dewsbury-Hall scored with Everton’s next attack it seemed that the story was going to be about Nuno’s caution backfiring and West Ham losing ground in their shootout for survival with Tottenham, who had finally found a way past Wolves at Molineux.
At that point West Ham were sliding back into the bottom three with games against Brentford, Arsenal, Newcastle and Leeds to come. Four minutes later, though, another shift. They were into the second of eight added minutes and Callum Wilson, who had entered the fray with West Ham clinging on to their 1-0 lead, had done what he tends to do against Everton: score.
Wilson’s ninth goal in his past eight appearances against Everton kept Tottenham in 18th and West Ham two points above them. Stoppage-time interventions are proving crucial. Last week, it was Georginio Rutter shattering Tottenham in their draw with Brighton. This time it was Wilson capitalising on good work from Jarrod Bowen – and it was worth remembering that it was the veteran striker who kickstarted West Ham’s unlikely revival by scoring a last-minute winner at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in January.
“The next move is to play forward and get a goal,” Nuno said of his side’s response to Everton’s equaliser. “This is character. It makes us proud.”
Nuno has recovered from a poor start to his time at West Ham. He has changed the mood since the turn of the year, instilling heart and desire. This was far from a flawless performance — West Ham were nervous during the first half and too quick to drop back after opening the scoring — but the grit was reminiscent of how they were during David Moyes’ two spells.
The one consolation for Moyes is that defeat in the 750th Premier League game of his managerial career, on his 63rd birthday, owed much to contributions from two of his best signings for West Ham.
The Hammers were struggling before Bowen and Tomas Soucek joined them in January 2020. Six years on, both are still going strong. They have shown leadership during a fraught campaign and their importance was clear here, not least when Bowen swung in a corner for Soucek to punish Everton’s growing frailties at set pieces and make it 1-0 in the 51st minute.
They are West Ham’s reliables. Theirs is the club’s most effective partnership in Premier League history, with Bowen setting up 10 of Soucek’s league goals. However, their importance cannot be measured by goals alone. Bowen ran himself into the ground again but the captain still found the energy to set up Wilson. Soucek, meanwhile, is one of the least flashy players around, but never stops trying, is a presence in both areas and was in the right place to thwart Everton with two heroic clearances during the dying stages.
“His worth has been enormous,” Moyes said of the Czech Republic midfielder, who has provided tremendous value for money since West Ham spent £19m to make his loan from Sparta Prague permanent. “Because of his goals, the type of boy he is, he epitomises a lot of things you want as a coach.”
Moyes was seething after losing on his first return to the club he led to Conference League glory in 2023. This was a damaging result for Everton’s hopes of European football. They were underwhelming for long spells, conceded two soft goals and were beaten in stoppage time for the second successive week.
Everton could not capitalise on West Ham’s anxiety. With the margin for error slipping away after after Nottingham Forest’s destruction of Sunderland, the hosts had to win. No wonder they were so jittery after Soucek’s goal. Everton pushed after the hour and Soucek produced an astonishing goalline clearance to divert Thierno Barry’s header on to the bar.
West Ham had not created much. Jordan Pickford saved from Taty Castellanos. But they kept going. Into added time it went. El Hadji Malick Diouf crossed. And Bowen, whose nine league assists in 2026 are bettered only by Bruno Fernandes’s 11 for Manchester United, stole round the back to tee up Wilson.
“West Ham have momentum,” Moyes said. “You need to keep it going.”
This is going to the wire.
