Afternoon all.
Goodison Park, a ground Arsenal haven’t seemed to favour over years gone by. Last season we went their with a strong side yet still came away with zero points. We had 71% possession, 15 shots but only 3 on target.
Everton have started the season as many of us pro thought they might, badly. The club is apparently going through some weird kind of takeover but ultimately, Sean Dych is still the manager so his tactics will not have changed. Get stuck in and bully Arsenal into submission. Perhaps a tad exaggerated but I’m sure you know what I mean.
Just before the international break, Mikel Arteta hinted that rotation wasn’t far away, well, it’s landed today.
Aaron Ramsdale and Kai Havertz out, Fabio Vieira and David Raya in. I didn’t see either of those changes coming. Changes yes, but not those two. I assumed, wrongly it turns out, that Gabriel Jesus would get the nod ahead of Eddie Nketiah but there you go. Ahead of the game, Mikel Arteta said:
Obviously I have a big emotional attachment to that football club, the way they treated me and the years that I spent there. The incredible memories that I have, so always grateful. It was a big, big part of my playing career, and now as a coach I have to play against them and obviously I want to beat them.
I’m not at all keen on Everton, other than when they gave us a lot of money for Alex Iwobi but I’ve always looked at them like a Bolton, West Brom, Burnley etc, annoying. They can be rubbish one week and then spring a surprise the next which usually reserving the latter for us. Anyway, I hope we can batter them today. Good and proper.
Just a short one today, busy busy. Lol
A strange decision to rule out a Martinelli goal for offside, now Martinelli is off with a hamstring injury
Trossard on in his place.
I couldn’t see the offside either. In fact, only VAR did.
Good start, slow middle to end of the half.. a bit predictable in attack..
Vieira and Nketiah not in the game enough, nor Trossard..
This referee has already forgotten the idea of speeding up the game, he is allowing Pickford to take all the time he likes to take goal kicks and to delay playing the ball in general.
Good possession loads of passes, just not creating chances and certainly not looking as though they are going to break the duck.
Three shots only one on target. Not good enough!
Excellent cross from Vieira but no player ready to get to it..
A booking for that? Never..
Cicero, I strongly suspect you’re looking forward to 8pm? Lol
Nice strike Trossard..
Looking forward to it certainly but no more certain of a win than ..
.
oh wait a minute Trossard with a lovely goal.
Might be an entertaining game though… 😄
Clean sheet, one goal, three points, just another day at the office! 🔔
We will have to lift our game. or the next two matches could be results we don’t want.
Geoff, not every team we face will only want to defend for 95 minutes.
New post up.