• Michail Antonio came on as Pérez had not warmed up • Pellegrini denies West Ham owners put him under pressure

Manuel Pellegrini said Lucas Pérez was left on the bench during West Ham United’s win at Everton as he was not ready to replace the injured Marko Arnautovic.

Yarmolenko double against Everton helps West Ham to first league win Read more

Pérez was clearly unhappy at the decision of the West Ham manager, who celebrated his 65th birthday at Goodison Park with a crucial first win of the Premier League season. The summer signing from Arsenal was Pellegrini’s preferred choice to replace Arnautovic when he sustained a knee injury shortly after scoring West Ham’s third goal but, as he had not warmed up, Michail Antonio was sent on instead.

Pellegrini explained: “It is very simple. When Marco had a problem with his knee I wanted to put Lucas but he was sitting on the bench and Michail was ready. We had already taken too long over the substitution so I put Antonio on. I don’t have to explain the decision, especially during the game, but Antonio was ready so Antonio was the change.”

A disgruntled Pérez aside, Pellegrini enjoyed a comfortable and important first league win of the season and afterwards insisted West Ham’s owners had never doubted him despite starting with four consecutive defeats.

“In football you are always under pressure,” he added. “For me, the pressure is the same in every game – the pressure to win. I have a lot of communication with the owners. Of course they were not happy but they never have any doubt about what we are doing. We didn’t deserve to lose the last three games. Maybe we didn’t deserve to win them but not to lose them, against Arsenal we were very unlucky.”

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The West Ham manager admitted he had to be patient with Andriy Yarmolenko, who arrived late after signing from Borussia Dortmund in the summer and marked his full debut with two goals at Goodison.

He said: “He didn’t arrive here ready to play. He has a lot of quality and he always demonstrated it but he needed another pace and more work. We preferred to work with him for a couple of weeks before starting him and today he showed he was ready.”