Just when it was least expected but sorely needed, Wayne Rooney popped up with his first ever hat-trick for Everton, proving that timing, like class, is probably permanent. Everton may not be quite as bad as a week of relentlessly bad publicity has suggested, though of course it is possible that West Ham are in even bigger trouble than anyone imagined. West Ham at the moment, much to the chagrin of David Moyes returning to Goodison almost unnoticed, look as if anyone could beat them. Photograph: BT SportMoyes is on the sort of six-month contract at West Ham that Allardyce successfully resisted when Everton first approached him. It didn’t, there was no one in the middle, which is probably the reason why West Ham came to Goodison two points below the home side in the league.

Source: The Guardian November 29, 2017 22:00 UTC