This weekend always looking like a “swing weekend” with Arsenal and Manchester City both playing away at grounds they have both struggled at in recent years. And as it turned out both teams lost 1-nil.
We predicted on Saturday morning that it was going to be a tough trip to Everton and that is eaxactly how it transpired.
Sean Dyche was always going to make his Everton side hard to break down. As predicted he packed the midfield and went with a very solid 451.
Everton worked their socks off defensively. Their players showed an intensity and attitude that has not been seen all season. We became victims of the “new manager bounce”.
Dyche’s team pressed superbly.
Alex Iwobi and Dwight McNeil put in a fantastic defensive shift, which saw Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli doubled up on every time they received the ball.
One weakness of the way Mikel Arteta sets us up is that the full backs do not really get around the wingers. This means we can then not take advantage of the space created when the wingers are double marked.
We certainly miss Gabriel Jesus’s movement when teams defend so tightly. He drifts left and right and finds that space. It just is not Eddie Nketiah’s game.
Everytime the ball went inside, Everton smothered us.
Abdoulaye Doucour, Idrissa Gueye and Amadou Onana ensured that Granit Xhaka and Martin Odegaard saw very little of the ball. Again doubling up on our creators.
Dominc Calvert Lewin also dropped deep, helping out his midfield whenever Thomas Partey received the ball.
Where ever we looked, Everton were doubled up on us. Our passing was not quite sharp enough, not quick enough. And we were just enable to take advantage of the free man.
As predicted on the morning of the game, Dyche put out a side that had a lot of players 6ft+. Set pieces were always going to be a threat and that is how they scored.
We never really got fully going and had one too many looking off the pace. But we can not take anything away from Everton.
Dyche set them up brilliantly and their players played to his plan for 90 minutes. I imagine that is how Everton will play for the rest of the season. Hard to beat and grind out wins.
There will be some frustration around. There always will be everytime we do not win a game. Some have gone OTT. Toys thrown out the pram. The same people that have spent much of these season silent, not posting, then only pop their heads from under a rock when they have negativity to share.
They will probably be trying to find a way to blame the transfer of Jorginho. Moan about our transfer deals in January. Mykhailo Mudryk or Moises Caicedo would not have made a difference on Saturday.
These people are best left ignored.
We are still top of the league. I still do not expect us to win it. Manchester City are still favourites.
I had always said that I will not consider us as having a proper chance until we are above Manchester City following the game on 15 February.
City’s defeat means that 3 points against Brentford guarantees is still being ahead of City after we face them.
Dust ourselves down and we go again against Brentford.
I expect them to set up simialr to Everton. Hard to break down and look for set pieces. Almost every team we play between now and the end of the season will play like that.
As we saw in the match day blog, stick with the team! We go again.
Saturday, 4th February 2023. Kick-off time: 12.30pm
(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Jakub Kiwior, Rob Holding, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner, Amario Cozier-Duberry.
Yellow Cards: Oleksandr Zinchenko
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 70%
Referee: David Coote
Assistant Referees: Lee Betts, Mark Scholes
Fourth Official: Andy Madley
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR John Brooks; AVAR Darren Cann
Attendance: 39,314
After our disappointing FA Cup match last week, it is good to be back to our bread-and-butter Premiership games again. Today we are at Goodison Park, which in recent years have been quite a tough place for us to ply our trade, despite Everton’s lowly Premiership position of late. Our new signing, Jorginho, is on the substitute’s bench today along with our other new boys Jakub Kiwior and Leandro Trossard. It should be quite a competitive match here in Liverpool this afternoon against the Toffees.
Both teams were fiercly competitive right from the kick-off; indeed it was Everton’s Vitaliy Mykolenko who committed the first foul of the day on our captain Martin Ødegaard within a couple of minutes of the start. Arsenal looked very good at this point in the match, stroking the ball around, finding their players well, with not too much interference from the home team. Gabriel Martinelli was briefly found in space on the left wing but after he knocked the ball back to Oleksandr Zinchenko, the resulting shot went straight into the arms of goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. There was a great chance for us to open the scoring when Bukayo Saka set up Thomas Partey, but he did not catch his shot properly and Jordan Pickford saved easily. Bukayo Saka got a free-kick for an accidental sharp poke to the eye from Idrissa Gueye, and after some treatment, he continued playing. However, the home side woke up and started to put us under pressure when a corner found the head of Amadou Onana but fortunately Ben White was on hand to clear the danger; the consecutive corner found James Tarkowski but his header was deflected behind for a third corner, which went nowhere, thankfully. This trio of corners saw Everton press us back into our own half, but Aaron Ramsdale was on hand when needed, to stop any chance of a goal. Just before the half hour mark, there was some great movement on our part, and eventually the ball found Eddie Nketiah, who blasted the ball up and wide with only Jordan Pickford to beat. We have to start getting a grip on this match, as the home side are exploing gaps in our midfield and on the wings, and although we play well when we possess the ball, it is when we lose it and our inability to get it back is the problem today. Five minutes before the break, Bukayo Saka met a cross from the left wing with a volley that sent the ball running to the far corner of the goal. Somehow Conor Coady was on hand to poke the ball away, and in injury time we were fortunate not to concede a goal when a Seamus Coleman cross found Dominic Calvert-Lewin whose spirited header went wide of Aaron Ramsdale’s goal. We really have to impose ourselves more on this game in the second half.
Everton started the second half proceedings in this cauldron of noise, and again the home side came straight out of the blocks at us, with Idrissa Gueye hitting a shot from the edge of the penalty area and it took a wicked deflection; Aaron Ramsdale was initially wrong-footed but readjusted himself to dive the right way and palm the ball away for an Everton corner. Wake up, chaps. Granit Xhaka was set up for a shot on the edge of the penalty area but he was met by three Everton players, who successfully blocked his shot. We started to pass the ball around, but the home side were getting their defenders in the way to stop us progressing further, which is a concern. An Everton cross to the back post was met by Oleksandr Zinchenko, who coolly chested the ball back to Aaron Ramsdale, and a few minutes later, Eddie Nketiah ran down the left wing, crossed it to Martin Ødegaard, who whacked the ball high into the stands. Just before the hour mark, Mikel Arteta made a double substitution when the new boys Jorginho and Martin Trosssard replaced Gabriel Martinelli and Thomas Partey, but then disaster struck, when James Tarkowski headed the home side ahead from close range that gave Aaron Ramsdale no chance to save his effort at all. We had a penalty appeal turned down when Gabriel was sent tumbling just inside the penalty area by a shove from Neal Maupay before he clumsily fell into Idrissa Gueye. There were some fierce tackling taking place this afternoon, none more so than by Amadou Onana, who was rightly booked for an extremely late lunge on Ben White. After a messy exchange in the Arsenal six-yard box following an Everton corner, Fabio Vieira replaced an ineffective Martin Ødegaard, and we broke out quickly deep into the Everton half. Leandro Trossard hit a superb shot from the left wing which was parried by a diving Jordan Pickford, and although we do have our moments, we do not appear to have enough in the tank to grab a vital goal, and with the home side sitting deeper and deeper as the game ebbs away, it is going to become more difficult to do anything about it. Ben White was replaced by Takehiro Tomiyasu with six minutes of the match remaining, and as hard as we are trying to score, it does not appear to be our day. In the first minute of injury time, Oleksandr Zinchenko received a ball on the edge of the penalty courtesy of a Fabio Vieira corner, but his left-footed shot went just over the bar. There was an unsavoury incident between Oleksandr Zinchenko and Neal Maupay, which resulted in both players receiving yellow cards after a minor fracas involving quite a few players from both sides; it mattered not, as referee David Coote blew the whistle to bring the game to a close a minute or two later.
We may well have had seventy per cent posession, but it just was not our day on Merseyside this afternoon. Make not mistake about it, we were poor overall at Goodison Park, and although this was only our second defeat in the Premiership this season, at this stage it is one that we could well do without, especially as Manchester City are playing Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow afternoon. Anyone can (and will) lose a match, but it will be more important to see how we bounce back from this against Brentford next Saturday, and the following Wednesday against Manchester City. It’s going to be a bumpy ride from now until the end of the season.
MATCH REPORTRemember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Brentford at the Emirates on Saturday, 11th February at 3.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
The signing of Jorginho saw the usual clowns come out from under their rocks.
Most have been eradicated from the club since the Covid break, but some still remain. They are the usual suspects who have been silent for the majority of the season will jump on anything to try and spread their negativity.
These fans are still bitter, angry individuals who hate the club. Have not got over the last few years of Arsene Wenger. And carry their bitterness as a badge of honour.
Pretending to speak for all fans, they say rubbish like “this potential transfer could ruin the great relationship the club has built with the fans”.
No it won’t.
Fans like me, and the majority, will be going into today looking forward to getting another 3 points. Backing the XI on the pitch regardless of who they are. Backing the manager.
The breakdown in your relationship with club has nothing to do with the signing of Jorginho and everything to do with yourself. Unhappy individuals who have not had a relationship with Arsenal for years. Probably still moan avbout moving from Highbury nearly 20 years ago.
Whilst they are stuck in the past, the majority of us move on. And today that is Everton away.
A struggling team are always at their most threatening with a new manager in charge. And under Sean Dyche, Everton away will not be an easy game.
Dyche is pragmatic manager and in the short term, he wwill be concentrating on one thing – making Everton hard to beat.
Even during his best days at Burnley, Dyche’s philosphy was “defence first”. With Everton in a relegation battle, he will make them even more resolute.
With Patterson, Godfrey, Keane, Doucoure and Garner injured, his options are limited.
I would not be surprised if he starts off with 5 at the back: Holgate Mina Coady Tarkowski Mykolenko.
Ahead of them in the middle will be Onana and Gueye, flanked by Iwobi and McNeil, who he knows from his Burnley days. And then upfront Neal Maupay.
They will look long to Maupay and hope that Iwobi and McNeil can get up to them.
I do not expect them to be much of a threat going forward under Dyche – although with a big team we will have to be careful at set pieces.
Expect today to be a tough day. May well just be the single goal in it. And I feel whoever comes off the bench between Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard could be the match winner
Then tomorrow we can sit and watch Tottenham v Man City.
Could be a big weekend in the title race with both teams away! We just need to focus on the football and get the 3 points.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 