Everton suffered a 3-1 defeat away to David Moyes’ West Ham United at the weekend to drop to 16th place.
Sean Dyche’s charges took the lead through Betoa, who capitalised on a fierce cross from James Garner, but the Hammers came back with three unanswered goals, two of them in stoppage time.
The hosts will rue the missed penalty as Alphonse Areola saved Betoa’s 12-metre shot.
An interesting statistic emerged, which is certainly unwelcome for the Toffees, who remain the third worst scorers in the division.
Everton are not helped by goalkeeping statistics:
West Ham goalkeeper Areola had a productive afternoon at Goodison Park this weekend, earning an impressive 9.74 rating according to WhoScored.
According to Sofascore, the French goalkeeper scored nine goals, including a penalty kick, and prevented 3.11 goals.
The 9.74 rating is the highest rating for a 31-year-old goalkeeper in the Premier League this season, proving just how winning his performance between the posts has been.
He leapfrogged Jose Sa and Bernd Leno, who both scored a perfect nine-plus against the Merseysiders.
This means that all three of the top-rated goalkeeping performances this term have come against Dyche’s team.
That’s an unwelcome statistic that ultimately costs Everton.
Everton wasted lots of chances infront of goal in defeat to West Ham United:
Everton, though unfortunate because of the brilliance of their opponents’ goal scorers, must take responsibility for their wasted chances.
Yesterday, Beto’s shot from the white spot was tame and Areola handled it quite well. The £25 million summer signing joined the Toffees with high expectations but has so far failed to live up to them.
Two goals in 22 Premier League appearances is an underwhelming return and at times he has looked lacking in confidence.
The tall central striker wasted two great chances and was sent off 13 times in 74 minutes on the pitch. Beto’s all-round game needs to improve, not only in front of goal.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who replaced the Portuguese striker, hasn’t scored since October, so Dyche should consider turning to Youssef Chermiti to solve his goal problems.
The 2004-born midfielder, who was brought in from Sporting last summer, is still waiting for his first league appearance for Everton and deserves a chance, having scored twice in the Under-21 game last week.
The other option is for Chermiti to work with Calvert-Lewin or Beto, who works just behind him as a second striker.
Perhaps this could improve the Toffees’ performance in front of goal.