Match Report: Everton 2 – 1 Arsenal

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Everton (2) 2 Arsenal (1) 1

Premier League

Goodison Park, Goodison Road, Liverpool L4 4EL

Saturday, 19th December 2020. Kick-off time: 5.30pm

(3-4-3) Bernd Leno; Rob Holding, David Luiz, Kieran Tierney; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Mohamed Elneny, Dani Ceballos, Bukayo Saka; Nicolas Pépé, Eddie Nketiah, Willian Borges da Silva.

Substitutes: Hector Bellerin, Alexandre Lacazette, Alex Rúnarsson, Cédric Soares, Shkodran Mustafi, Joe Willock, Sead Kolašinac, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli.

Scorers: Nicolas Pépé (35 mins)

Yellow Cards: Kieran Tierney, Joe Willock, Mohamed Elneny

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 58%

Referee: Andre Marriner

Assistant Referees: Scott Ledger, Simon Long

Fourth Official: Paul Tierney

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Michael Oliver; AVAR James Mainwaring

Attendance: A maximum of 2,000 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

With no Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang this evening due to a calf injury, we are starting with Willian up front, playing in a 3-4-3 formation, which is going to be extremely difficult here at Goodison Park tonight. Let’s go!

Everton started very much in the ascendancy, with Arsenal being pushed back firmly into their own half, which was a worrying development, so early in the match. We were very nearly one down after fifteen mintues, when Michael Keane hit a thirty-five yard shot which flew just past Bernd Leno’s right-hand post, and a minute or so later, we somehow managed to break out of our half when Kieran Tierney made an impressive thirty-yard run before crossing the ball into the penalty area for Eddie Nketiah to run onto, but all his good work was undone by a clearance from Abdoulaye Doucoure. After twenty-two minutes, we went one-down when a ball from ex-Gunner Alex Iwobi was headed towards the goal by Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but unfortunately Rob Holding diverted it past Bernd Leno into the goal. In reply, Eddie Nketiah capitalised on a mistake by Jordan Pickford, but sadly his effort went wide of the mark. We started to come back into the game; Dani Ceballos did well on the right-hand side before he was the recipient of a crunching tackle by Ben Godfrey, and despite all of our efforts in trying to get back into the game, the home side took control of the match yet again, and started to come at us relentlessly. Penalty! With ten minutes to go before the half-time break, Ainsley Maitland-Niles was brought down with a clumsy collision by Tom Davies in the penalty area; Nicolas Pépé stepped up (in the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang), and he introduced the ball to the back of the Everton net with a cool stroke of his left foot. Kieran Tierney was booked for a challenge on Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and the subsequent free-kick from Gylfi Sigurdsson went wide of Bernd Leno’s goal, thankfully. Literally, on the stroke of half-time, an Everton corner found the head of Yerry Mina and the ball clumsily went into the back of the Arsenal net after some messy touches from Bernd Leno in a valiant attempt to keep it out of the goal, to no avail sadly.

The second half began, as expected, with the home side performing strongly (having gone into the break a goal ahead), and shortly after the restart we did manage to hit the frame of the goal after fifty-one minutes, when a David Luiz strike (via a corner) was deflected by Tom Davies onto the woodwork and off and into open play. We certainly have made a decent fist of things since the break, with good passing, good movement with probing balls into the Everton penalty area. Despite all that, two substitutions were made within five minutes of each other; Gabriel Martinelli for Nicolas Pépé and Alexandre Lacazette for Eddie Nketiah with fifteen minutes left of the match remaining. And so the formation changed, and the more we tried, the less successful we became. Slowly the home side started to come back into the match, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Gylfi Sigurddson getting close to scoring, but thankfully Bernd Leno was on the spot to save our bacon yet again. During the five minutes’ imjury time, all the action was in the Everton half, with Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette being desperately unlucky not to score, but time ran out and it was not to be, sadly.

Fourteen points from fourteen matches, and of those games, we have lost eight. We are also five points off the relegation zone; these terrible facts speak for themselves. And we have Manchester City on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup (or whatever it is called this week) and Chelsea in the Premiership on Boxing Day. There is very little confidence in the side, the defending oscillates between poor and non-existent, the midfield is indecisive, and the strikers are not firing at all. Although we had fifty-eight per cent possession in the game here at Goodison Park tonight, it’s truly not much good if you don’t do anything with it, is it? How on earth Mikel Arteta is going to square the cirle with this squad of players? And we have a white-hot derby match on Boxing Day to contend with as well. Either way, it’s going to be the most difficult job of his managerial career, trying got put this train back on the rails, and quickly too.

Remember 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: Manchester City at the Emerates on Tuesday, 22nd December at 8.00pm (Carabao Cup). 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.

Individual stupidity and poor refereeing decisions cost Arsenal 10 points

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This are not good for The Arsenal at the moment. There is no way to sugar coat it. Very few positives. And Mikel Arteta is hanging onto his job by the thinnest of threads.

But things could be oh so different, with Arsenal losing 10 points as a result from poor refereeing decisions and individual player stupidity.

Arsenal 0 – 1 Leicester

With Arsenal on 9 points from the opening 5 games, having suffered defeats away to Manchester City and Liverpool, they faced Leicester at home.

Four minutes into the game, Alexandre Lacazette had a header wrongly ruled out for offside.

Jamie Vardy would strike in the 80th minute to give Leicester 3 points.

Leicester are a team that enjoy laying on the break. 1-0 down, they would not have been able to sit back, drawing Arsenal in before hitting them on the break. They would have had to have come out and played a bit. This would have left more space for Arsenal to score a 2nd and probably a 3rd.

Leeds United 0 – 0 Arsenal

For 51 minutes it was a fairly dull game. Then Nicholas Pepe touched heads with a Leeds player, who went down as quickly as we all hope Leeds will.

It was a moment of stupidity from Pepe that led to Arsenal playing for 40 minutes with 10-men.

Arsenal dominated that 40 minutes and would surely have taken all 3 points if Pepe did not lose his head.

Arsenal 0 – 1 Burnley

Another head loss moment, this time from Granit Xhaka.

0-0 with Arsenal dominating, Burnley were looking tired. Then Xhaka lost his head, getting himself sent off in the 58th minute.

Arsenal dominated the rest of the game, but am Aubameyang own goal in the 78th minute separated the two sides. Another 3 points lost due to a “heads gone” moment.

Arsenal 1 – 1 Southampton

Having come back from 1-0 down to equalise, Arsenal were playing the best football they had in weeks. Then Gabriel got his 2nd yellow card.

Both yellow cards were very soft refereeing decisions. Th types of incidents where players often walk away without a booking. Gabriel’s first was for blocking the ball. Something Theo Walcott did moments earlier and was not booked.

The ref was very quick to go to his pocket. Dani Ceballos booked randomly for showing minor dissent.

Despite being down to 10-men for half an hour, Arsenal had the best chances to win the game.

4 games, 10 points dropped. How it could have been so different if it were not a poor refereeing decision and 3 Arsenal players getting sent off.

That 10 points dropped would have seen us in 3rd place.

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 1 – 1 Southampton

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Arsenal (0) 1 Southampton (1) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Wednesday, 16th December 2020. Kick-off time: 6.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Mohamed Elneny, Dani Ceballos; Nicolas Pépé, Eddie Nketiah, Bukayo Saka; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Alexandre Lacazette, Willian Borges da Silva, Alex Rúnarsson, Cédric Soares, Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz, Joe Willock.

Scorers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (51 mins)

Red Cards: Gabriel Magalhães

Yellow Cards: Dani Ceballos, 

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 35%

Referee: Paul Tierney

Assistant Referees: Dan Cook, Sian Massey-Ellis

Fourth Official: Andre Marriner

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Craig Pawson; AVAR Neil Davies

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

As London has moved into Tier Three (as per the UK Government’s guidelines), none of our supporters are allowed into the Emirates to watch matches until further notice. Ho hum. Anyway, for tonight, (the first of two exclusive matches to be shown on Amazon Prime Video), Granit Xhaka and Hector Bellerin are serving suspensions and are unavailable for this evening’s match; however, Nicolas Pépé has now served his, and is available for selection, as is David Luiz, who finds himself on the substitute’s bench. Unfortunately, Thomas Partey is still on the injured list, but may be available for the Everton game on Saturday afternoon. Now, these are the facts, Jack, and it doesn’t make good reading. Sadly, twelve hours and twenty-six minutes have passed without the team scoring a goal in the Premiership from open play, and Arsenal have lost four straight home matches in the Premiership for the first time in sixty-one years, equalling the club record, and our total of thirteen points from twelve matches represents Arsenal’s worst start to a season since 1974, when we finished sixteenth in a twenty-two club First Division (three places above Tottenham Hotspur). And if those depressing statistics do not fire the team up tonight to change matters, then in heaven’s name, nothing will. Let’s go!

A fairly sluggish start from both sides, with the most worrying incident being Bukayo Saka receiving attention from the physio after a nasty knock to his knee. He recovered, and we managed to press Southampton into their own half, and although the visitors played their way out of trouble, it was still good to see our chaps attacking the ball with purpose so early on in the game. Eddie Nketiah broke into the Saints penalty area from the left, but his shot was saved easily by Alex McCarthy, and a minute or so later, ex-Gunner Theo Walcott ran onto a ball from Che Adams between Keiran Tierney and Gabriel, and simply chipped the ball over Bernd Leno to give the visitors the lead after just eighteen minutes. Southampton certainly felt the wind in their sails now, and most of the action was in our half, and our play started to be one of a holding one, almost containment. However, just before the half hour, Nicolas Pépé had a shot blocked in the Saints penalty area, and the subsequent loose ball was blasted over the bar by Dani Ceballos. Although the visitors were playing the quicker football, we had our moments. Dani Ceballos was brought down in the penalty area, and although our appeals for a penalty were denied, we started to link some interesting play before the break, a Dani Ceballos ball found Nicolas Pépé just inside the penalty area, and he hit the ball sweetly with his left foot, but it was easily retrieved by goalie Alex McCarthy. Although we went into half time one-down, it was not as bad a performance as it could have been.

And so the second half started in earnest, and we certainly started to play a lot better; after six minutes, it happened. Bukayo Saka twisted and turned in from the left, passed it to Eddie Nketiah, who laid a quick ball into the path of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored the equaliser with some aplomb. At last. The goal certainly livened up proceedings, and the match started to be quicker in pace, with some real end-to-end stuff. On the hour, Bukayo Saka was unlucky not to score when an excellent shot from outside the box was parried by Alex McCarthy, and the resulting corner petered out into nothing. Unbelievably and pointlessly, Gabriel pulled back Theo Walcott near the half-way line, and as it was a second booking, he was dismissed, and for the second match in succession, we were down to ten men. And so restructure began, with Eddie Nketiah making way for the now-recovered David Luiz to strengthen the back line, and a couple of minutes later, Dani Ceballos was substituted for Joe Willock with twenty-five minutes of the match remaining. We were fortunate not to concede a second goal when Nathan Redmond hit our crossbar from close range, and the extra man for the visitors started to work in their favour now. Time and time again, wave after wave of Southampton shots rained down on our goal, but Bernd Leno and the defence held firm. With six minutes of the match remaining, Cédric Soares replaced Nicolas Pépé to shore up the defence, and we certainly needed that extra man at the back as the visitors applied extreme pressure on us. How unlucky! Rob Holding headed a ball onto the Saints bar from a free-kick two minutes into injury time, and to think that he was just a few inches away from grabbing a late winner. But a draw it finished, and at least we grabbed a point, which is certainly better than nothing.

There were times when it looked like we were going to lose another match, and to be fair, we were truly awful. But then again there were times when we strung passes together and looked good. Then came the dismissal, which changed absolutely everything in a heartbeat. Mikel Arteta was forced, yet again, to remake and remodel the team, which he must get sick of playing that card, so late in the match for the second game running. Anyway, we got a point, and that is surely a start.

Remember 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: Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday, 19th December at 5.30pm (Premier League). 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.