14 December 2024
Arsenal 0 Everton 0
Football fans are a die-hard breed. Irrelevant to who you support, the majority of the fanbase will expect only the best from their team, demanding outcomes because of past glories. Arsenal are no different to any other club, they were runners-up the last two seasons, but their supporters are convinced this side is good enough to win the Premier League this time around.
As they welcomed Everton to The Emirates, this was just fodder arriving to The Gunners’ fans. A complete mismatch of top versus bottom, with neither actually being in those positions. Arteta has spent heavily in his tenure, yet all they have to show for it is being the ‘nearly-men’. Oh yes, and an FA Cup and two Soccer Aid shields.
Nothing ever comes to a team in the top-flight, you need to take it. Arsenal are just not making the moves they need to in the transfer market to try and go that one step further. The biggest elephant currently on Earth is at The Emirates. It has sat in the room for some time, the lack of a recognised striker capable of getting you 20+ goals a season.
Without that, you can have all the set pieces you crave, you will not win any major honours. This Arteta side is for sure a top four team, but all too often in the Premier League, there is a gulf between them and the winners. The manager seems to think he can prove us wrong and I for one am happy for him to show me just this.
The hosts came out with 1950s baseball jackets on, commemorating the last time they won the title no doubt. Jokes of course. They really do have some bizarre training tops. It was the visitors who carved out the first chance of the game. Doucoure was played into loads of space in the box, however he moved like a non-league player in FIFA trying to catch Vinicius Junior.
As a result the hosts were able to get across and block the effort. The Gunners went down the other end of the pitch and Lewis-Skelly picked out Odegaard with all the space in the world in the box. The Norwegian tried to stroke it into the net but got his half-volley all wrong as he sent it sailing over the target. An early chance wasted.
The Arsenal skipper was pulling the strings in the middle of the park. He fashioned another shooting chance but dragged it yards wide of the far post. Pickford was rooted to the spot and had it been more accurate, there was no way Stretch Armstrong was getting there. It all looked so good for the hosts, apart from the final product.
Odegaard had yet another chance as Saka skipped past Mykolenko. It was a brilliant save from Pickford but the Arsenal man could have had a hat-trick already. This is where he feels the pressure in this team of being the creativity and making goals happen. As we saw when he was injured, this Arteta side struggles to impose themselves on teams without him.
Havertz was the next player to try and shoot from an impossible angle. It takes some truly poor goalkeeping to be beaten at your near post from that angle and the Everton keeper was not playing ball. The hosts went into the interval level, wondering how they had not scored. It was something they had not failed to do at The Emirates this season in all competitions.
Early in the second-half a Tarkowski header in the box dropped to Saka. His volley was arrowing into the bottom corner but Pickford got down brilliantly to turn it around the post for a corner. The England stopper was proving to be a real thorn in the sides of The Gunners. Yet they still played with the composure that it was just a matter of time.
With half an hour remaining, Saka and Odegaard linked up perfectly. As the winger looked to cross for a teammate, once again The Toffees’ keeper was there to infuriate everyone sat in the home end. Say what you want about Pickford being random at times, when Arteta was looking to sure up his backline, he would have picked far better to lure him away from Goodison than bring Raya in.
Dyche would have loved this performance from his team. As a defender himself, he thrives on all this backs to the wall, you’re not getting through us stuff. The Gunners felt they should have had a penalty when Partey went down in the box but the referee waved play on and the subsequent VAR review decided there was nothing doing.
Even Liverpool fans were cheering on The Toffees at this stage. The more neutral, without vested interests, were hoping the visitors got the point they deserved. A penalty in added time is too cruel for this performance from Sean Dyche’s side. Despite leaking goals of late, they had prevented all Arsenal had to throw at them, trying to break the deadlock.
Arteta’s side are known to notch a late-winner now and again, for which they celebrate like the title is theirs. Any team would so late on in a match to be fair to them but Everton held on for a well-earned point. For Arsenal, they need a striker more than a student nurse protest. The owners will be wondering whether their Spanish manager has what it takes to go to the next level right now.
As for The Toffees, their new owners should be making a list of priorities for day one at Goodison Park. It should read something like this……….extend the contracts of Branthwaite and Pickford with insane release clauses, sack all of the accounts department and get a striker. They do not have one at the club and have seen from this Arsenal performance what this looks like in the flesh.
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