O’Brien rescues late point for Everton against West Ham after Soucek opener | Premier League

That Everton fans drifted away from Goodison Park somewhat disappointed with a point against West Ham, despite their side equalising in the 91st minute, tells its own story about David Moyes’s influence this season and the recent spike in expectations.

Every moment at this grand old ground is to be savoured, with four more home games before the big move to Bramley-Moore dock. The noise of the crowd when Jake O’Brien cutely nodded in a late leveller against West Ham may well have been heard down at the docks and beyond, but Everton could – and perhaps should – have won it through Carlos Alcaraz.

Moyes’s substitutions made a telling difference after a stodgy performance from the hosts for the best part of 70 minutes. Tomas Soucek, who had been a pillar of Moyes’s West Ham when the Scot signed him in 2020, struck a smart opener just after the hour. But from the moment the Everton manager ushered on Youssef Chermiti, Armando Broja and Tim Iroegbunam in the 79th minute, there was a blue onslaught.

Some will wonder why Moyes did not take action sooner. Another five minutes and they might have won it. “The subs changed the game for us,” he said. “Tim and the two forwards gave us a new impetus at the end of the game. We’ve not had that. We found a way of getting a result, great resilience from the players.”

On O’Brien, who scored the leveller at Brentford last month, he said: “He’s beginning to get a couple of goals. I’m pleased for big Jake, he’s improving. He’s a young centre-back making his way as a false right-back. It was an important goal for us.”

Moyes stressed Everton had “no divine right” to breeze past a West Ham team largely built by him. He joked he had “spent most of their money”, but the visitors were largely as blunt as their former manager’s response, reliant on counterattacks and testing Jordan Pickford with potshots.

Their principal threat was the former Moyes favourite Jarrod Bowen, who laid on the assist for Soucek’s opener and was an outlet throughout, showing why he was included in Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad.

For the goal, Bowen teased O’Brien on the left, although Soucek still had work to do, stepping inside and caressing the ball into the far corner.

Everton wobbled for a moment, with Pickford scrambling to save from Bowen and Soucek again just seconds after the opener. Then came the inevitable Goodison roar and the changes from Moyes to set up a grandstand finish.

West Ham retreated too deep. The equaliser seemed like it was coming long before O’Brien nodded in from Idrissa Gueye’s volleyed cross. Alphonse Areola parried away Chermiti’s shot but Everton maintained the pressure. Gueye’s ball was begging to be headed home and O’Brien supplied the decisive touch.

It was a deserved point, although Alcaraz’s agonising 95th-minute miss might prove to be the abiding memory. It should not matter too much in the scheme of things, this draw keeping Everton and West Ham level on 34 points, 17 clear of the drop zone and indisputably safe. Both managers will feel their team can climb the table next season.

“We did a lot well, we restricted Everton to not too much and played well in the second half,” said Graham Potter. “But at the same time when you’re 1-0 up at Everton with the atmosphere here, you feel the pressure.

“Our performance quietened things down, but the crowd are always in the game. As an away ground it’s as tough as it gets when the crowd are up and at you.”

Everton and West Ham have more in common than many may care to admit. In 2016, the Hammers left a crumbling historic ground for a shiny new ­stadium and (eventually) enjoyed a renaissance, its apex the 2023 Europa Conference League success masterminded by Moyes.

Whether Everton can ever write such a fairytale at their new home remains to be seen. With Moyes at the helm, belief is high.