Dominic Calvert-Lewin sent Gareth Southgate another reminder on the eve of the England squad announcement as his hat-trick propelled Everton to the last eight of the Carabao Cup with a win 4-1 against West Ham
The 23-year-old opened the scoring at 11 minutes and secured the win with two more late after Robert Snodgrass equalized and Richarlison restored Everton’s lead
Richarlison would hobble within an hour of a previous injury to Jonjoe Kenny, the only flaw of the night for the Toffees as they had won six of six wins to start the campaign
Southgate are due to name their squad on Thursday for the next games against Wales, Belgium and Denmark, and Calvert-Lewin must be firmly in the frame for a senior first cap after dropping to eight goals in five games
The Goodison Park trophy cabinet was last restocked in 1995 with the FA Cup and Charity Shield, but there is a different feel around the club after nine points to nine in the league, and they will be taken seriously in Thursday’s draw for the quarter-finals
Carlo Ancelotti’s new-look team would welcome silverware as a sign of progress but also of intention, and there were many of these in the Italian squad’s selection as it included James Rodriguez, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin in a strong team
Michael Keane opted for an unexpected style to move away from Manuel Lanzini before crushing a ball that floated too easily above the West Ham defense, allowing Calvert-Lewin to take a touch ahead of the casually push past Darren Randolph
West Ham, still under former Everton winger Alan Irvine as David Moyes self-isolates, made eight changes from Sunday’s 4-0 win over West Ham, but Mark Noble and Sebastien Haller were not novices
They might have added to the score before the break, but Randolph pushed a Richarlison shot over the roof of the net after a good ball from the exceptional Allan, while the Brazilian was also denied by the flag from the assistant
Despite Everton’s dominance in the first half, West Ham surprised them in the second as they only needed 25 seconds to tie the game
Anderson struck the ball out for Snodgrass on the edge of the box and the Scotsman folded the ball past goalkeeper Jordan Pickford
It was only a brief reprieve Richarlison had hit a post and Gylfi Sigurdsson brought a clean save from Randolph before the hosts came back in front in the 56th minute, when Richarlison had time and space to cut to the left before a large deflection from Declan Rice saw his shot beat The goalkeeper
This would be Richarlison’s last significant contribution, as he was injured trying to tackle Ben Johnson, and hampered on time to be replaced by Alex Iwobi
Lanzini should have done better when Andriy Yarmolenko caught him at the far post while Pickford had to make a solid save on Haller’s acrobatic effort 15 minutes from time
However, Calvert-Lewin would kill the draw as he returned home after Alex Iwobi’s shot hit the post with 12 minutes remaining.
The fourth was almost as easy as Sigurdsson found him in the space in front of goal, and he missed the ball for his second hat-trick of the season
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Calvert-Lewin
World news – UK – Dominic Calvert-Lewin continues his strong streak with a hat-trick in the Everton Cup victory – Evening Express
