Andriy Yarmolenko and Marko Arnautovic deliver West Ham’s first points as Everton stumble

The scale of change undertaken at Everton is laid bare in assessment of the squad that was named the last time the architect of their defeat here scored against them. That was in the spring of 2015 under Roberto Martinez’s guidance, a night when Andriy Yarmolenko inspired Dynamo Kiev to a 5-2 victory in the Europa League knock out stages.

The only survivor from that crushing experience was substitute Leighton Baines, who has now been succeeded by Lucas Digne as Everton’s first choice left back. There has been much discussion about West Ham’s recruitment strategy which seems to lurch from one idea to the next. Yet Everton have muddled through without showing any signs of improvement in the last three years, having appointed two directors of football and three different managers in the period – four if you include David Unsworth’s tenure as caretaker, which lasted longer than anyone making key decisions would have envisaged when Ronald Koeman was sacked.

Marco Silva is the next man in line and though he started the day unbeaten, his record so far was slightly deceiving because Everton had won in the league only once. This was a damaging defeat for him, not only because it was at home against an opponent that had lost all of their games so far but also because it was against an opponent that somehow looked so dangerous on the counter-attack despite a lack of true pace anywhere on the pitch.

Speaking on Sky Sports where he was working a match analyser, David Moyes questioned Everton’s transfer record since his departure for Manchester United in 2013. “I’m not sure whether many of them have been Everton type players,” he said.

Silva cannot do anything about what has gone before him, of course, but it surely a worrying sign that two of Everton’s key summer buys were bought by Marcel Brands despite injuries, with Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes unavailable because of foot and hamstring problems since arriving from Barcelona.

It sounds like the sort of desperate path West Ham might choose to take, a club that is similarly trying to re-establish its identity but toiling in that process. The upheaval happening there was illustrated by Manuel Pellegrini who made six changes to the side that lost at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers two weeks ago, the most made by any West Ham manager between Premier League fixtures in four years when a record was set by Sam Allardyce who switched seven players for a game with Cardiff City.

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Selflessness is not a quality usually associated with Marko Arnautovic, nor really West Ham as a collective for a long time. As he bore down on goal in the eleventh minute, it must have been tempting for the Austrian to try and score his team’s opener having been set free in a very simple way by Pedro Obiang, who had spotted the ocean of space behind Everton’s defence, deciding to loft a pass into it. Arnautovic was one-on-one but had Yarmolenko to the right of him. The Ukrainian had not scored a league goal since appearing for Borussia Dortmund against Bayer Leverkusen in December last year. Thanks to Arnautovic, that run would end.

Yarmolenko would receive further assistance for his second of the afternoon, though it would arrive from an Everton player. During the international break, Jordan Pickford separated himself from other goalkeepers that take the sort of chances that recently made Alisson Becker look silly. Pickford’s error did not involve a Cruyff turn that would send him back towards danger but his pass from a goal kick was, indeed, dangerous – certainly very loose.

It allowed Mark Noble to snaffle possession and from there, Yarmolenko still had much to do but his 20-yard shot was a rocket that Pickford had no chance of saving. It was perhaps doubly not the most convenient day for any Everton goalkeeper to draw attention to himself considering the banner unfurled at the Gwladys Street end of Neville Southall before kick-off, marking the club’s record appearance holder’s 60th birthday.

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Everton did have chances, two of them falling to Cenk Tosun, the Turkish striker who still looks like he’s trying to adjust to English football eight months after arriving from Besiktas. In one of his opportunities, there was a sense that it would have been better for Everton if it had been Gylfi Sigurdsson heading Digne’s cross rather than Tosun, whose tame effort did not test Lukasz Fabianski. As the first half drifted towards a conclusion and with confidence draining, Jonjoe Kenny slung in a delivery from the other side of the pitch and this time, Sigurdsson was there to meet it and suddenly, West Ham’s lead had reduced to one.

Silva had removed Morgan Schneiderlin just before that moment, introducing winger Bernard for his league debut. Schneiderlin’s father had died last week but this decision had been tactical and for 15 minutes, it seemed to be a sensible one because the Brazilian’s trickery encouraged Goodison to believe that an equaliser was coming.

Football’s basic principles tell you, though, that the more a team pushes up and the more players it commits in advanced positions, the bigger the gaps in defence. West Ham settled the outcome with a finish from an unchallenged striker and this time Arnautovic was beneficiary of unselfish play, this time from a perseverant Obiang.

Silva would admit, “We did not perform at a level to win this match.” Long before the end, Goodison was emptying and at the final whistle, booing was audible. The Portuguese will have to find a way to meld a team quickly to harness a trust. Pellegrini, meanwhile, really needed this. He faces Chelsea and Manchester United next. It had been his 65th birthday and he was asked whether his players had remembered. “The cake was the three goals,” grinned a serious man, not known radiating a room with a smile. That’s how much it mattered.