Deep down, all Arsenal fans were waiting for this moment, when our backs are against the wall against a team we are undoubtedly better than player for player. Everytime this season, we have been able to back it up and collect the 3 points but this wasn’t meant to be at one of our bogey grounds, against 19th place Everton at Goodison Park. We haven’t won at the ground since Alexis Sanchez and Ozil were on the team and looks like we have to wait for next season to lift the curse as they nicked us 1-0 to stall our lead at the top of the table, through a Tarkowski back post header off a corner, kill me.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:
- Where does this put the title? Don’t panic. This match halts our title league aspirations for sure, keeping us 5 points ahead of City but games like these were bound to happen. What we can’t do is panic as there is so much football left to play. We have City twice, City at multiple points throughout this season have looked vulnerable to dropping points this season as they actually drew Everton first time they played this season. Too early to panic, just take care of our business and we will be fine.
- Dreadful in attack today: Outside of Saka, I thought Martinelli, Ødegaard and Nketiah were absolutely dreadful today. Everton came in playing with a brand new manager and the new manager bounce is always possible but at the end of the day, champions win against 19th place opposition no matter the circumstances and these 3 were terrible today. Not once, maybe Eddie on one dribble in the second half, did they take responsibility for any attacking pressure to Everton, it was just lifeless from all 3 of them as Saka throughout the match did put Mylolenko in a body bag, he just didn’t get the support from his teammates.
- Xhaka may be feeling tired? Xhaka today was also someone today that stood out today as being absolutely useless. Every opportunity he picked up the ball in the half-spaces between Martinelli and Eddie, he gave it away. Because if our inability to retain possession properly, Everton were able to counter Thomas and Gabriel/Saliba at ease with Zinchenko and Ben White also isolated high up the pitch. We may need to look to give him a rest or he needs to get his shit together for Brentford next week.
- Gabriel has become our best CB at the club: Saliba will get all the plaudits for how good he has been in his first season and Ben White has been tremendous at RB but Gabriel as of late has become a monstrous colossus at the back for us. His ball-winning, ball retention, aerial duels, etc. He does it all for us at the moment. Many many times he was isolated onto Dominic Calvert-Lewin and every time he bulled the englishman and he’s pretty much taken care of every opposition he has come against. Maybe its the motivation on missing out the Brazil World Cup team, but he has been our best defender the past few months, fully deserving of this new contract extension.
5. Trossard might need to start next week against Brentford over Martinelli: not permanently, but just to rotate our squad a bit and give us a new look going forward. I have been on Martinelli the past few weeks on being too-one dimensional in our fluid attack and things haven’t gotten better. We were able to put paper over the cracks with Martinelli’s goals but that well seems to have dried up dramatically and maybe a new change of pace up top might be the answer for the time being.
6. Bounce back against Brentford at home and take care of City and we are back on track: Lot easier said than done for sure, but time to man up. Put up or shut up time for the boys, you’d wish it wasn’t prompted after losing at Everton but that is the position we find ourselves in, time to put things right these next few games.