West Ham vs Everton Preview

Photo credits: West Ham United FC

In the 12th match week of the Women's Super League, West Ham will take on Everton at the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Sunday 26th of January at 15:00pm UTC. As both are close in the table, this will be an exciting and balanced match. However, Everton have been in good form recently so will West Ham be able to break them down?. Here is a preview of what to expect for Saturday's match.

Recent Performances:

West Ham have had a declining form recently, having three losses and only two wins against Palace and Leicester. Their most recent match in the WSL against Chelsea, gave them a staggering loss of 0-5 at home. To add to the misery, an own goal by Amber Tysiak, who recently extended her contract contributed to this scoreline. This was especially hard for the team after most of their points came from home matches this season - this home game is vital for the team to get back on track. This was their biggest loss this season. There was much scrutiny for manager Rehanne Skinner, who was sacked in 2023 from Tottenham after nine straight defeats. Fans hope form will pick up or a new manager will be needed.

Though obviously top of the table opponents like Chelsea are hard to beat, the scoreline is something that needs amending, as 0-5 is staggering. They need to secure their defense as their tackles were not effective, creating deflections, which created goals for the winning side. They only had 6 shots the whole match, with on target showing a need for offensive nature to stay in the final third. They are currently three points from the bottom of the table. West Ham will need to pull out everything in this match to keep their chances of finishing higher in the table than last year, in which they finished at 11th out of 13 teams.

Everton have had a good run of form recently and been consistent in their last league matches; drawing twice, having two wins and a loss. This comes at a great time as in November 2024, they were bottom of the table with no wins, which sparked criticism from fans for their ‘unbalanced squad’; it has been a bad start to the season as the news for the new takeover to be completed impeded their chances of buying new players in the summer. Luckily, the takeover was completed in December and has now had an impact on the morale of the players as they have been great against large opponents and rivals, such as beating Liverpool in the Merseyside Derby to then securing a win over Manchester City, 4th in the League. Though they sit just above West Ham on 10 points, ninth in the league, which shows a stark difference and improvement. They have defended large defeat margins but also scored goals. Everton will be a tough opponent to rival with in this match being labelled as ‘tactically smart’. 

Players to look out for:

Though the Chelsea defeat did not show any stand out players, their top goal scorers Asseyi and Katerina Gorry, will create threats. Gorry was the highest rated player during the Chelsea game, having the most shots for West Ham to threaten Chelsea, though none went between the posts. She will dominate West Ham's midfield as captain but as a mixture of defense and offense, being the middle ground with battles to gain possession and stop attacking by strategic tackles but also helping out through long balls to strikers to create offensive pressure.

French forward, Viviane Asseyi, is also their top assistor, but did not pull through during the Chelsea match. She still shared a shot to try and get West Ham a break. However, as this is a match more evenly matched due to the WSL table, her aggressive play-style will help try and draw fouls to gain free kicks and other benefits. This may go her way but also might be a detriment to West Ham as she has 4 yellow cards in 11 matches. In this close match, all opportunities and chances matter.

Everton have had many goal scorers this season but their top goal scorer this season has been 26-year old midfielder Hayashi, with two goals over all competitions. Her most recent goal was the winner at their game against Man City and contributed to a minor assist of a header into the box to gain the goal against Villa, which led them to a draw in the final minutes. Hayashi is a key player in their squad to drive Everton forward and into the final third. She is always in positions where she is left by defenders and unmarked. She will be a threat if West Ham do not put a marker on her.

A major threat to West Ham's scoring chances will be goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan. During the Villa match, she pulled off some amazing saves, especially from long distance strikes. Her part in the game was key to helping Everton gain a point during that match - she saved nine shots with 7 being from inside the box. Her pass accuracy was 88%, which suggests her skills help stop pressure from opponents and not conceding goals by this.

Everton had 5 new debutants during this match, showing that though half of the team were new to playing under Everton and which would likely change the dynamic, Everton's play seemed a lot more promising to previous matches. These debutantes were Martina Fernández, loanee from Barcelona, Kelly Gago, who joined in December from FC Nantes, loanee Emma Watson from Manchester United and Louna Ribadeira from Chelsea. These players have all had experience playing for top flight clubs showing quality that is now being added to this Everton team - this could be the reason for this run of form. Hayeley Ladd had a sparkling debut, winning all her trial duels and most of her ground duels. These players may be key to the victory against West Ham.

The Statistical Predictions:

It is likely to be predicted that this match could be decided by one goal. In their previous match, in which Everton was at home, West Ham scored a much needed goal after an own goal put Everton in front. This will be a closely fought match; both teams need to commit zero faults.

The predicted line-ups for this match - they will likely be similar to the previous match with few changes:

West Ham XI: Szemik, Smith, Li, Ueki, Paví, Zadorsky, Denton, Asseyi, Gorry, Pavi, Piubel.

Everton XI: Brosnan, Fernandez, Ladd, Hayashi, Ribadeira, Finnigan, H.Payne, Sarri (goal during clash with Villa), Watson, Wheeler, Lawley

You can watch the match live on the WSL's YouTube Channel.