It was a moment Edson Álvarez had dreamed of.
When Vladimír Coufal cleared an Everton corner in the 95th minute of Saturday’s victory at Goodison Park and the ball then dropped to Jarrod Bowen, the Mexico midfielder had only one thing on his mind.
He may have been 90 yards or so from Jordan Pickford’s net, but he summoned up his last reserves of energy following a breathless encounter on Merseyside to make sure he was there at the sharp end of the attack.
Seven months after his move from Ajax, Álvarez eyed the opportunity to net his first Premier League goal, and his lung-busting run to support Bowen’s burst forward provided him just that.
Bowen laid the ball off, Álvarez dinked the ball over England goalkeeper Pickford and West Ham United had secured a memorable 3-1 win at Everton.
Memorable for the Claret and Blue Army and memorable for Álvarez himself, who said he will never forget Saturday 2 March 2024.
“It’s my first goal in the Premier League, and I don’t really have the words,” he explained. “It’s a very special moment for me and also for all my family.
“I just want to enjoy this moment – maybe this night I will watch the goal 100 times more! At this moment I am very happy and very blessed.”
Álvarez’s goal secured a hard-fought victory that was won with two goals in a dramatic period of second-half stoppage time.
After Kurt Zouma had earlier cancelled out Beto’s headed opener, Tomáš Souček’s stunning, swerving drive gave the Irons a 91st-minute lead, before Álvarez secured the points even later.
“It was the 95th minute and I just saw Jarrod running with the ball, and I just ran,” he recounted. “I felt a little cramp in my hamstring, but I didn’t care, I just ran.
“Jarrod waited for me very well until the last moment. I expected the ball a little more on my right, so I could open my foot, but he played it on my left so I was just thinking in one second to chip the ball.
“Believe me, it’s [a] very different [feeling to that of my goal in Europe]. I always say this is the best league in the world, so it is just an amazing moment for me.
“It was teamwork that got us the victory. Tomáš did amazing [with the second goal], but Alphonse did unbelievably today.
“I think in general the team showed a lot of passion that we wanted to win this game and I want to say thank you to the fans, because they came here to this game and gave us extra motivation.”
The success at Everton meant the Hammers returned south with back-to-back wins in their pocket, less than a week after they carried a six-game winless Premier League run into the home encounter with Brentford.
For Álvarez it showed just how quickly his team’s fortunes can change, and now he wants to maintain the form into Thursday’s UEFA Europa League round of 16 first-leg tie at SC Freiburg.
“It’s part of the game,” he added. “Of course we want to always be at the top, but sometimes it’s just difficult and many things can happen.
“Now we are doing much better. We’re doing it for us, for our families, because at the end we want to win.
“This is the way now. We have a very important game on Thursday and we want to recover and play well.”
