Everton elevated themselves further up the Premier League table as they recorded their first Premier League win of the season on Sunday.
A narrow 1-0 victory over West Ham, courtesy of a goal from new signing Neal Maupay, proved to be enough for the Blues as they avoided dropping into the bottom three. West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City remain at the foot of the table, Brendan Rodgers' side now the only team without a win.
Frank Lampard 's side are now 13th in the standings and just one point off the top 10. Here's what the national media made of a crucial afternoon at Goodison Park.
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Will Unwin, The Guardian
"A first Premier League win of the season and the first goal for his new striker have lifted the gloom for Lampard going into the international break. The Everton performance to defeat West Ham was industrious, littered with brief moments of quality, including Maupay’s sublime winner, but little more. Lampard will not mind how the result arrived but he will be desperate for it to provide lift-off for Everton this season.
"Overall the atmosphere at Goodison Park was subdued for large parts as fans watched a side without their No 9, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who is yet to feature this season, or Jordan Pickford, also injured. The fiery atmosphere that helped keep Everton in the league last season has been replaced with trepidation and fear. The fans arrived in hope rather than expectation and they were rewarded for their commitment.
"Maupay had spent the afternoon looking ineffective as the latest Calvert-Lewin replacement. Rarely did he make the right run for teammates but when it mattered he found the net."
Chris Bascombe, The Telegraph
"If Lampard’s previous Goodison victory preserved Everton's Premier League status, his latest protected Premier League hope. Unlike the last time they tasted victory on their own patch, there were no epic comebacks, no pitch invasions and no grand outpourings of emotion at full-time. And yet as the old songs aired after referee Michael Oliver’s final whistle, there was an inescapable sense of another significant moment in Lampard’s Everton career.
"Instead of finding themselves in the bottom three – a genuine prospect had West Ham repeated their recent success here – Everton are tentatively looking ahead with optimism after Maupay’s first goal for the club delivered on his vow to provide an attacking impetus to a hitherto blunt strikeforce.
"It can only be suggested in whispers for now, but there are signs of encouragement at Goodison, even if – just like this game – Lampard’s rebuild promises to be a slow burner."
Richard Jolly, The Independent
"It was almost four minutes into stoppage time, with West Ham requiring a goal, that Gianluca Scamacca did something they may have wished someone had done much sooner. He flattened Idrissa Gueye.
"It scarcely helped their cause for an equaliser – indeed, it used up precious time, while the Italian collected a caution for a forceful challenge as each competed for a header – but perhaps it made him feel better. If it was one way of stopping Gueye, it was the only one West Ham found.
"Gueye was acquired by Everton the first time for £7 million, the second for £2 million. His return could be described in other numbers, of tackles and interceptions and blocks or even passes and pass completion rate, when an essentially destructive presence showed his constructive side."
Dominic King, Daily Mail
"In those few moments, after the whistle had gone and the music began to play, the spring in Lampard’s step told a very significant story. Everton’s manager has been working relentlessly to change the landscape at Goodison Park and the upshot has been the return of positive noises emitting from a camp that has been synonymous with division and disappointment.
"Lampard, though, has spent his life in football and nobody knows better that positivity only remains if good results follow. Atmospheres change when rewards are not forthcoming, progress stalls when points are not put on the board.
"So, at the seventh time of asking, it was clear to see what this 1-0 triumph over West Ham meant to Lampard, who marched proudly to the Gwladys Street and shook his fists in delight to the masses behind the goal in which Maupay had fizzed in the decisive strike."
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