West Ham ended their drought as they won 3-1 at
Everton on Sunday to secure their first points of the Premier League
season.
Andriy Yarmolenko scored twice on his Premier League debut and Marko
Arnautovic grabbed the other to give Manuel Pellegrini a much-needed
victory and move his side out of the bottom three.
Wolves moved into the top half after a 1-0 win over Burnley, who
dropped to the bottom of the table.
In the build-up to his side's trip to Everton, former Manchester City
manager Pellegrini said he was sure of his ability.
And his side backed him up with a confident display on his 65th
birthday.
"I was not worried about my birthday today - I just wanted to win the
game - it was the best gift my players could give me," Pellegrini
said.
"I think that we continued playing the same way we have done, but the
best thing we did here, we went for the game from the first minute,
we didn't wait for Everton to go.
"I have a lot of years here, I wasn't going to change for three or
four results. We believe in what we are doing and we are not going to
change."
Pellegrini was also rewarded for his team selection with Ukraine
forward Yarmolenko scoring the first two goals in his first Premier
League outing for the club.
Yarmolenko opened the scoring after 11 minutes, scoring from close
range after good work by Arnautovic before producing a superb
left-foot strike to double the lead 20 minutes later.
Everton pulled one back right on half-time through a Gylfi Sigurdsson
header but Arnautovic restored the visitors' lead just after the hour
with a nice finish to a fine move.
The home side pushed forward and hit the bar through Oumar Niasse's
volley, but West Ham were good value for their win.
"We didn't play with enough quality to win the match," Everton
manager Silva admitted.
"We started well with good pace and intensity, but we made mistakes,
and at that moment we didn't react well.
"It's a tough result for us. A club like us to lose 3-1 at home is
always tough. We have to react - there's nothing more to it. We have
to react to the mistakes we made."
West Ham climbed four places to 16th while Everton, after their first
loss under Marco Silva, fell to 10th behind Wolves.
Nuno Espirito Santo's side outplayed Burnley throughout and could
easily have won by a wider margin, with 30 shots to their opponents'
seven.
Raul Jimenez scored the only goal of the game just after the hour
mark, firing a low shot into the corner.
"I am very, very satisfied," the Wolves manager said.
"We played good football and stayed organized and created chances.
Burnley are a good side and stayed in it until the end.
"If there is a 'but,' we could be more clinical. But if we can
continue to make these many chances, it makes me very proud."
Burnley dropped to bottom place, still chasing their first win of the
season and manager Sean Dyche admitted that they are struggling.
"When we got into the Europa League there was this immediate noise
about it being tough," he said.
"People ramp it up and say 'there you are, I told you'.
"Well, we have to find a way through that and I remind them they are
roughly the same group of players who finished seventh last season."