Handy three points for Arsenal..

Morning all.

I used to enjoy visiting Goodson Park, it was a proper old fashioned English football stadium and it reminded me of our beloved and much missed Highbury. I would get the coach up from Islington early in the morning, pick up a few fans on the way and eventually roll into Liverpool. I’d hang around close to the stadium before kick-off, mainly because there’s not a lot to see other than Coronation Street houses, and either look for a pub, a cafe or pop into the church hall adjoining the football ground for a sit-down, a nice cup of tea and a piece of delicious homemade cake whilst chatting to a local and then watch Arsenal invariably get a positive result.

But that was back in the days of Vieira and Petit and I’d not been up there for a while. Now Everton play at the oddly named Hill Dickinson Stadium situated in the Liverpool Docks. All shiny and new it reflected Everton’s ambition to become one of England’s top football clubs again. In David Moyes they have a trusted hand on the tiller and a manager well known and respected by Mikel Arteta. It was going to be a tough assignment with City now top of the Premier League and the ‘usual suspects’ in our  discredited sports media sharpening their pencils in order to write about how Arsenal were bottling it once more. You know the form.

Arteta, fresh from a full weeks rest and critical work on the training ground went with his strongest squad available, the phoney war is over, its total football from now on! Players had to step up to the plate and deliver, no more taking a second touch, if the shot is on you take it and you take it early. No more faffing about in midfield, you make sure you find an Arsenal shirt with a pass and you are clinical in front of goal. Well that’s what my mind was telling me.

Arteta with his full-strength team, as strong as he could field, faced off against the home fans as they created a raucous atmosphere as the game kicked-off. Everton defender Keane fully embraced the atmosphere by going straight through the back of Gyokeres as the Swede attempted to turn as he received a pass and ended up on the deck but no free-kick. Welcome to Merseyside!

Everton looked sharper in the opening 15 minutes and offered a threat from a couple of corners, Raya being left in a heap on the floor during one of them. Arsenal by comparison were wasteful in possession and rarely threatened the Everton goal.

Finally around the 18th minute a slick piece of interplay ended with a Zubimendi shot but it sailed over the bar. At least the Gunners were getting up a head of steam and finally we enjoyed a piece of luck via VAR. On 23 a well driven corner into the box by Declan ‘old reliable’ Rice saw Calafiori rise to head the ball but instead the hands, both of them, of O’Brien knocked the ball away. After a VAR check the referee gave the only decision he could, penalty, and Viktor Gyokeres dispatched it 4 minutes after the actual handball offence with the minimum of fuss. He needed that and we all needed it.

From then on Arsenal began to look more confident, the passing became more sharp and incisive and but for a lunging block by Tarkowski on Gyokeres he might have doubled his tally following a penetrating pass into the Everton box. Calafiori went down with a head injury as the clock ticked into added time, fortunately he was ok then an overhit pass by Odegaard pushed Gyokeres wide in the dying moments and the Swedes cross was headed past the post. Half-time 0-1.

No changes by either side at half-time and after some initial sparring Trossard put Gyokeres free down the left flank, despite having two centre backs in front of him he drove for the goal and almost squeezed it through but the combined weight of Keane, Tarkowski and Pickford foiled him. Saka was having one of those games, nothing he tried came off but you never sub off Bakayo because he scores. On 52 some sloppy play in midfield saw the ball end up with Barry charging in onto our box, Zubimendi made a challenge just outside and as Barry exaggerated his fall, we got away with one. It wasn’t comfortable.

The home fans had woken up and Everton redoubled their efforts, aided and abetted by some nervous Arsenal defending. The spectre of Sunderland and Aston Villa cast a long shadow and I feared another episode as the clock ticked down. The game was suiting Everton, it was scrappy and Arsenal struggled to regain control, Rice was everywhere but he couldn’t do everything. Meanwhile Tarkowski continued to referee the referee and Moyes growled on the sidelines.

Clearing the ball seemed to be an increasingly difficult task for Arsenal and passing to a team mate seemed equally difficult as well. On 65 Arteta took Gyokeres off for Jesus but it didn’t change a lot and on 77 Martinelli replaced Trossard which also made a minimal difference. Trossard had earlier hit the post after great work by none other than Rice but Zubimendi and Odegaard just weren’t giving us the control we needed in midfield and with our defence creaking, you feared the worst every time the ball came into our box. Luckily Raya was on his game but this wasn’t the Arsenal we’d seen earlier in the season, this version was edgy and anxious.

Merino came on at 88 minutes for Odegaard and gave us a semblance of control but it was still all hands to the pump as the clock moved into added time and we started wasting it. To be fair Everton didn’t create any clear chances although there was a couple of penalty claims but Raya definitely deserved his clean sheet, although it wasn’t a stroll in Stanley Park.

Overall it wasn’t what we wanted to see but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I beholden 3 beautiful points and a clean sheet. Sometimes you have to get a scratchy win to rebuild confidence and this was all of that and more.

By comparison Crystal Palace, who we play on Tuesday, lost 4-1.

What City do is irrelevant, we have got to stop focusing on them and what they do and just keep chipping away because this is a long long hard season and the summer fatigue will eventually hit the 115 charges brigade.

We march on…

By Kev.