Everton 0 Arsenal 1
Sean Dyche’s side welcomed Arsenal to Goodison Park buoyed by news that the club had been sold to American investors this week. The Gunners were unbeaten this season and hoping to extend that run at a venue they have struggled at all too often.
If the Premier League are looking for a montage to use to sell the thrills, spills and action of the league to other countries……none of this game will feature in it. It was a tough watch. In between Oscar-nominated performances by Arsenal players and Everton trying to string more than four passes together, it was poor.
All too often, any slight contact with an Arsenal player would cause them to go down like it was a career-ending injury. One of the worst culprits for this is Gabriel. The big, hard, tough defender. Hmm, maybe not.
Although, Bukayo Saka has it in his locker as well. And then when no decision is forthcoming, he leaps up like the grandad in Willy Wonka on finding they have a gold ticket. The only way to start stamping this out is showing cards to players who do it.
Credit: @Arsenal
The Gunners thought they had taken the lead when Viera threaded it between the lines to Martinelli who neatly slotted it past Pickford into the bottom corner. However, the VAR review showed that Nketiah was offside in the build-up, despite the ball coming off Beto. It was deemed it was not an intentional touch by the striker as it was played against him.
Everton started the second half with a break forward as Doucoure ran through. As he got into the box, he could see the outstretched leg of a defender and went down. Unfortunately for the midfielder he is not the quickest and Saliba had withdrawn his leg by the time he got there.
Arsenal started knocking the ball around and as Rice played it to White on the edge of the box, he pulled the trigger with his left foot but it was all too close to the keeper. Odegaard then got into the box, cut onto his left foot and let fly. It drew a save from Pickford but in all fairness, it was straight at him.
With an hour gone in the game, there had been little to happen that would cause any concerns to people with known heart defects. The closest Everton came was when Beto laid the ball off to Danjuma on the edge of the box who tried his luck but it was always dipping over the crossbar.
Odegaard then slipped the ball into Saka who cut it back to Trossard, the Belgian struck it first time with his left-foot and it hit the inside of the post and went in. Pickford had no chance in saving it. Mikel Arteta dropped to his knees in celebration like he was on the front cover of the film Platoon.
The Gunners’ Norwegian playmaker had a chance to run through with only Pickford to beat but the Everton keeper was able to deny him with a save. As much as the hosts huffed and puffed, they created very little.
Credit: @Arsenal
Arsenal took all three points and their Spanish milk-tray man(ager) was delighted with the victory. It wasn’t a pretty performance but The Gunners are learning how to win games ugly. They did it against Man Utd and followed it up with another maximum against Everton. The Toffees are looking like the only chance of anyone preventing all three promoted clubs going straight back down.
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