The euphoria of the result against Aston Villa on Wednesday night was short lived as West Ham United were defeated at home against a resolute Everton side.

Gianfranco Zola’s side showed two changes from the midweek win, seeing Luis Jiminez and Zavon Hines replace Mark Noble and the injured Carlton Cole respectively. Robert Green started in goal, making his 100th league appearance for the club.

The Hammers dominated the first half with the first of their many chances arriving in the seventh minute when Guillermo Franco diverted Julien Faubert’s cross just the wrong side of the far post. The Hammers continued to dictate the play and on 20 minutes Hines played the ball through to Scott Parker on the left flank, who curled a shot straight at Tim Howard. Minutes later Parker returned the favour for Hines to try his luck, with an over hit ball that Joseph Yobo cleared.

On 28 minutes, a goal for the visitors was to stun the home side, not to mention the crowd, as Louis Saha’s left footed shot was tucked home past Green. 10 minutes later Franco was bought down by Marouane Fellani 25 yards out. The free kick was taken by Jiminez, but took a deflection from the wall and was easily gathered by Tim Howard.
 
On the stroke of half time, Parker, who continued to have an excellent match, won a corner. The corner was cleared as far as Jonathan Spector, who was tripped as he headed back towards goal with the ball. The half ended when Himinez teed up Manuel Da Costa for the free kick, but his shot was sliced high and wide.

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The Hammers started the second half at the same tempo as they started the first. Zola made one change, introducing Junior Stanislas for Jack Collison. Both Jiminez and Franco had half chances, before the Chilean was replaced by Alessandro Diamanti on 57 minutes.

Seven minutes later, Everton went two goals ahead when Dan Gosling's initial shot was blocked by Green and then smashed into the back of the net on the rebound.

West Ham pulled a goal back almost straight away, when Diamanti’s through ball was latched on to by Stanislas, only for Tony Hibbert’s attempted clearance to be mis-hit in to the roof of the net with his left foot.

The home side were now back in the game and for the next 25 minutes it was they who were pushing to find a deserved equaliser. Diamanti continued to impress and curled a teasing effort just over. Hines missed two excellent openings late on, as time ran out for West Ham to snatch an equaliser. The final whistle blew and the Hammers found themselves back in the bottom three, with a trip to Hull City up next.