Everton supporters have been drowning their sorrows in recent times after seeing their side suffer their first defeat under Marco Silva at the weekend.

The former Hull City and Watford chief took over at Goodison Park during the summer following the departure of Sam Allardyce, and he had made a solid start to life on Merseyside prior to the visit of basement side West Ham on Sunday. The Toffees had won one and drawn the other three of their four Premier League games before Sunday’s meeting with the Hammers, yet their unbeaten run came to a shuddering halt as a brace from Andriy Yarmolenko alongside a Marko Arnautovic strike inspired the visitors to a 3-1 win at Goodison Park.

Thus, there have been many disappointed Evertonians up and down the country in recent times, and they are unlikely to be thrilled at recent revelations from ex-midfielder Leon Osman, who admitted that the Toffees twice failed to land Yarmolenko in the past.

And after tormenting the Everton back four with two goals in the 3-1 West Ham victory at the weekend, the Merseysiders will surely be regretting failing to land the £18 million-rated ace (as per Transfermarkt) in years gone by.

The 28-year-old has produced the best football of his career while at Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kiev between 2006 and 2017, in which time the forward proved to be very prolific indeed in bagging 137 goals in 340 appearances for the club, helping them to three league titles, as well as two Ukrainian Cup crowns.

Thus, it’s not hugely surprising, given he has also netted 36 goals in 79 caps for Ukraine during his career, that Everton were keen on luring the Ukraine international to Goodison Park in the past, and Sunday showed exactly why they will regret failing to bring him to Merseyside.

The former Borussia Dortmund ace, who made the move to West Ham during the summer from the Bundesliga heavyweights, proved to be a handful for the Everton backline, netting the opener after fine work from Arnautovic and Pedro Obiang, before cutting inside onto his deadly left foot to fire past Jordan Pickford for his and the Hammers’ second.

Impressively, this was Yarmolenko’s first start in the Premier League for West Ham after a testing first few weeks at the London Stadium, which prompted reports during the international break to suggest that the Hammers were ‘sorry’ to have signed the forward during the close season.

They certainly won’t be sorry anymore given the 28-year-old produced an excellent attacking display to inspire them to their first win of the season on Sunday - in fact, it’s Everton that will be ‘sorry’ for failing to lure him to Goodison Park in the past.

Everton fans… what do you think? Let us know!