LONDON, April 3 — West Ham United boosted their bid for European qualification as defender Aaron Cresswell’s brilliant freekick and forward Jarrod Bowen’s second-half strike sealed a 2-1 Premier League win over 10-man Everton at the London Stadium today.
Bowen scored the winner by stroking the ball into the net in the 58th minute after Michail Antonio had his effort saved, but Everton only had themselves to blame as Alex Iwobi had gifted possession to David Moyes’ side in the build-up.
Earlier, boyhood Liverpool fan Cresswell heaped the misery on their 17th-placed Merseyside rivals in the 32nd minute as he curled the ball into the top right corner to make it 1-0 after Bowen drew a foul from Mason Holgate in a promising position.
Holgate, a late addition to the Everton team after Donny van de Beek’s injury during the warm-up, made it 1-1 after the break with his first league goal of the season although his shot took a big deflection to go past Lukasz Fabianski.
Everton were reduced to 10 men for the third straight league match as skipper Michael Keane was shown his second yellow card for a lunging tackle on Antonio, leaving Frank Lampard’s side facing an even more daunting task for more than 25 minutes.
Victory helped West Ham climb three places to fifth with 51 points from 31 games before their midweek Europa League quarter-final first-leg clash against French side Olympique Lyonnais. Everton travel to Burnley in the league on Wednesday. — Reuters
