West Ham United-Everton Preview

Frank Lampard is confident Everton are "going in the right direction", despite still being without a Premier League win this season heading into Sunday's match with West Ham.

The Toffees lost their opening two games of the 2022-23 campaign and have since drawn four in a row, most recently holding rivals Liverpool 0-0 a fortnight ago.

Only three times in their top-flight history - in 1926-27, 1956-57 and 1994-95 - have Everton failed to win any of their opening seven games.

But with a raft of new signings settling in, Lampard feels his side are in a better position than they were prior to the recent transfer window.

"From where we were at the end of last season, we had to add through the core of the team," Lampard said.

"We've deserved more points than what we've got - that doesn't mean anything but it's nice to feel the confidence of being solid and feel like we're going in the right direction.

"We feel confident in ourselves and the way we're playing. We haven't had the rub of the green. We have to keep working in the right direction and believe that will come."

West Ham have themselves struggled for form early in the season and are level with Everton on four points.

The Hammers' performances have improved of late, though, and David Moyes is optimistic his side will only get better once their new recruits fully settle in.

"I think the players we've brought in will make a difference and it just needs a little bit of time," he said.

"But we need to try and get the points on the board in the Premier League. We've shown better signs with our performances against Tottenham and Chelsea recently.

"We've got competition for place and we need that if we're going to try and challenge the boys at the top again. We're going to have to get these players playing at their best."

Everton - Asmir Begovic

The hosts will be without goalkeeper Jordan Pickford - who has the second-best save percentage in the division this season behind Nick Pope - due to an injury sustained against Liverpool. Begovic has made 255 Premier League appearances, but he has started just three games in the competition in the past two seasons and has big gloves to fill.

West Ham - Michail Antonio

Antonio continues to start for West Ham, despite the big-money arrival of Gianluca Scamacca, and the versatile forward has been involved in his side's past two league goals.He assisted Tomas Soucek against Tottenham and was on target himself against Chelsea last time out. However, not since August 2021 has Antonio scored in successive top-flight games.

- Everton have won more Premier League games (27) and scored more Premier League goals (88) against West Ham than they have versus any other opponent. However, they have lost three of their past four matches against the Hammers (W1).

- West Ham have won both of their past two Premier League away games against Everton, each by a 1-0 scoreline. They have never won three consecutive trips to Goodison Park in their league history.

- Everton are winless in their past seven Premier League games, with three defeats being followed by four consecutive draws - they last time the Toffees drew five league games in a row was in May 1977.

- West Ham United have lost seven of their past nine Premier League away games (W2). Overall in 2022, they have lost eight on the road (W3 D1), with only Everton losing more away games so far this calendar year.

- Everton manager Frank Lampard has lost three of his four Premier League games against West Ham (W1) - he has only lost more against Liverpool in the competition (four), while only against Liverpool again (80 per cent) has he lost a higher percentage of his top-flight games in charge than against the Hammers (75 per cent).

Updated September 17, 2022