By Bulldog Drummond
- Everton v Arsenal – the referee and past matches
- Everton v Arsenal: comparisons of the current state of the clubs
- Everton v Arsenal, the turmoil in the build up, the walk out by the fans.
- Everton v Arsenal: the tackles, fouls and yellow cards. What will the ref do?
And now here’s an interesting thought from the BBC before we come to the teams…
-
In his Premier League career, Everton manager Rafael Benítez has seen his sides concede more goals against Arsenal (27) than against any other team in the competition. Indeed, the Spaniard has seen his teams keep just one clean sheet in 17 top-flight games against the Gunners (1-0 with Liverpool in February 2016).
However the BBC appears to have decided to change its pre-match website on Arsenal games and it now needs to be treated with some caution. For example it has a simple Everton v Arsenal table charting the results in the Premier League between the two sides, quite rightly showing Arsenal having won 34 to Everton’s ten. But what makes the chart so confusing is that the Arsenal figures are put in blue and the Everton figures in yellow – for reasons that most certainly don’t become at all clear.
Now moving onto the teams…
Sports Mole give us a team of
Ramsdale;
Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tavares;
Partey, Lokonga;
Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe;
Aubameyang
and they predict a 0-1 win to us.
This is the most popular lineup selection in the media, with WhoScored going for the same lineup. In doing this they also point out that this lineup would give the Arsenal team an average age of 23.5 as opposed to 26.9 for Everton – which really is quite a big difference.
They also give us a fact I have not seen elsewhere which says, “Everton have been losing at both half time and full time in their last 3 matches” in the Premier League. No wonder the natives are restless.
They predict a 2-0 win to Arsenal adding, “While Arsenal have struggled on the road of late, Everton are in dire form and the Gunners should immediately bounce back from their 3-2 loss to United with three points on Monday night.”
The Guardian go with the same lineup except in the back line
Ramsdale;
Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;
Partey, Lokonga;
Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe;
Aubameyang
and they oblige with a list of players who might make the beach: Leno, Hein, Okonkwo, Chambers, Marí, Holding, Soares, Tavares, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Pépé, Balogun, Martinelli, Nketiah, Lacazette, although acknowledging that Leno might still be injured.
Interestingly the SportsReview quotes Arteta on Martinelli saying, “Yes he looked a threat. “He had a big chance in the first half, and he probably should have played on. He created assists, he worked extremely hard, and he had some really good moments…”
Pain in the Arsenal make us flip through several pages (good for their Google rankings) to find their prediction, which is a 4-5-1
Ramsdale;
Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;
Sambi, Partey, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli;
Aubameyang
But that business of flipping through the pages turns out to be worth it as they also give this interesting assessment of the situation: “Rafa Benitez is a man under severe pressure by the fans, with even more fierce animosity directed at the club’s owners and board for continuously shambolic recruitment.
“The Toffees are a mismanaged and unorganised mess, not to mention they’re still missing vital players in the team as Benitez tries to juggle around for results with some average players. It isn’t working.”
The retention of a place for Martinelli is interesting, and I would certainly say that he needs a fair amount of playing time to play himself into this Arsenal team. Giving him a run for an hour and then replacing him with fresh legs will not only help his development, but it is the sort of swap that can leave defenders suddenly having to readjust just when they are starting to feel the pace.
Crowdwisdom whom I think we have not quoted before offer this line up which takes us back to 4-4-2 and keeps Elneny and Martinelli in the side.
Aaron Ramsdale;
Nuno Tavares, Gabriel, Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu;
Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny, Emile Smith Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli;
Martin Odegaard; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
I am not sure that Elneny will be in there again, but it all depends whether you think that he made the last game because of a feeling on how Arsenal could best work against that opposition, or whether another club wants to buy him and is looking to see him in action.
The Evening Standard having raised worries about Smith Rowe give us
Ramsdale;
Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;
Partey, Lokonga;
Saka, Smith Rowe, Martinelli;
Aubameyang.
And that’s about it. All that is left is for the game to be played.
smithrowe is very unlikely to be fit, according to the club site
i hope all those above-mentioned papers are wrong, and that “many more changes are gonna come”, something like:
ramsdale
chambers-holding-gabriel-tierney
lokonga-mniles
pépé-saka-martinelli
lacazette
COYG
The overwhelming contempt with which Sky treats Arsenal has become apparent today. Their show has been running for 26 minutes as I write, and they have hardly mentioned Arsenal. They are currently discussing in detail the Manchester United game.
They have had a long debate about Everton, but not a single word about Arsenal, and now it is Man U, Man U, Man U.
Such behaviour by this broadcaster, which is often replicated elsewhere, influences many viewers into the view that Arsenal is of no significance or importance.
Even though they are playing today.
The regular decision of Sky not even to mention Arsenal as participating in tonight’s match is part of a unified campaign to put Arsenal down. The media attitude is that Arsenal as a club is not important – a team of no significance.
And keep that attitude up long enough and people start to believe it.
It is an attitude shared with much of the media.
Interestingly, the discussion is about how each club needs to enter each game with a clear idea of how they are going to play the game. In fact what they won’t admit is the same is true for TV stations. They come into a programme like this (Everton v Arsenal) with a clear idea of how you are going to present reality. And the reality for Sky and other broadcasters, is that Arsenal is of no significance or importance, even though they are one of the teams playing tonight.
Not a single mention about the club or the team.
Since Sky 38 minutes into the programme won’t tell you the Arsenal team here it is
There are four changes
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang starts on the bench. He’s replaced with Alexandre Lacazette up front.
Granit Xhaka and Bukayo Saka return.
Kieran Tierney at left-back.
In the FA Cup we are away to Nottingham Forest. Tottenham have a tough one against Morecombe
GOAL MIKE DEAN
Fascinating. Sky Sports, the guardian, the idiots on french TV are all adamant.
How could Godfrey NOT have been sent off.
Thing is no one is saying : Oh sure, DEAN !
If they don’t sink 2 other ones quickly, winning this game is going to be one hell of a battle….
VAR goes Arsenal’s way. But how about Dean waving play on for two or three passes and then calling it backfor a free kick that went in. He really is 98%. 98% against Arsenal Football Club. the other 2% he has his eyes shut.
Not even Dean could disallow that goal. Sky pundits saying the foot into Tomy’s face was intentional. Unbelievable that wasnt a red card. Mike Dean and the VAR official should both be sacked immediately.
Godfrey? Oh, guess he had his eyes shut.
Dean being Dean and Saka getting a lot of attention , if there’s going to be a yellow card I’m sure it will be an Arsenal player
well those 5 minutes before half-time were eventful, weren’t they??
wonderful goal, the only decent move we’ve produced within their 30 yards – our goalscoring viking was right where he should always be imo, in the middle of the pitch, close to laca and not on the right wing as some kind of bukayo’s bizarre shadow …
what a difference class makes; granit has ruled the midfield as though he had never been injured, too bad he doesn’t have a michael thomas or aaron ramsey by his side … partey’s technique (touch, pass, dribble, shoot, …) is a complete mystery to me, maybe the lad’s lost all confidence – scoring a goal might help him recover (a header on a set piece, maybe??)
marti/bukayo are brilliant as always, laca/kieran are rusty (how could they noy be?) but they did very well on the goal
godfrey’s still on the pitch; i guess the pgmo must have great fun debriefing arsenal games, congratulating one another about the way let the arsenal be kicked about the pitch, they might even have a contest, make bets (mikey, you let godfrey kick the jap’s face, that was a good ‘un ahahah) …
COYG, you can make it – even though i’m afraid we’ve not yet seen what dean is really capable of
straight from the feed of the Guardian.
“The problem with not giving a red card to Godfrey is that it encourages dangerous play by excusing for “lack of intent”,” says William Ireland. “Either he intended it — or he wasn’t careful enough. So no card, encourages violent play that is often going to be excused. Giving a red encourages players trying not to hurt each other. It shouldn’t be a close call.”
Maybe they’ll get punished for criticizing the ref ?!?!
My God….VAR not going Dean’s way…
Is this the twighlight zone ?!?!
And Granit gets his yellow…
This is so fracking ridiculous and single sided but we’ve come to expect it.
Feels like Atkinson is better even if we get him every 3 or 4 games….
And Gordon can try to break an Arsenal leg and nothing happens. And ust before Oodegard gets yellow….
Even the french TV idiots are totally disgusted.
Dean being Dean yes but Arsenal being Arsenal of late. When we get in front we always try to sit back instead of looking for the second goal…
We simply can’t do it like that. I remember the days of Arsene Who ….the days when we got 1-0 in front we would look for the second goal… and when we had the second goal…we went on in search of the third…. Oh well….
Arsenal so need a striker, shocking performance, no desire tonight. Partey at fault for first goal, poor return to Nuno, Nketiah and Auba poor misses again. And for those giving ref grief there’s also VAR that didn’t give red card too – though no idea why. Irrespective Arsenal were poor, against a dire Everton team they weren’t up for it at all
Why does Arteta continue sending us out as cowards. His team selection was bizarre. I am sick and tired of seeing us play this way. No main striker for 80 per cent of the game. Stupid bugger, can we swap him for Benitez please. We will never win games playing Laca as a midfielder. Its unlikely that we will win any with him as a striker
Dean as usual delivers for his bosses. We will nit be allowed to get any higher than fifth place and if that bunch of crooks can get us back to the lower half of the league they will be laughing all the way to wherever they go to enjoy themselves.
Sky commentators delerious at the end. Im just sick yet again.
The notion of two “number 10s” is, I think, where we are headed, and I am not sure we are the only team thinking this way. It’s taking time to get it right, but it is a very interesting approach, and fits in well with the whole process under Arteta.
Can an add nothing to what has already been said(and indeed what I fully expected). It’s the Mike Dean anti-Arsenal show. When the fuck are we going to take the PGMO to court?!
@Chris are you French (or are you watching from France?) What experts are you talking about? For those I know here in France, they are obviously anti-Arsenal.
(I’m French and I’m used to watching shows with English commentators).
I’m not very good at judging refereeing. Could someone please… How come the kick to Tomi’s face doesn’t result in an immediate red card?
And why did Dean deny Odegaard’s call for a VAR check regarding the hand controlled block.
Am I wrong? Or am I too pro-Gunners?
(Sorry Tony ou Walter, i use to check my message with translator in line) You can delete the mention of it of course. Sorry again)
Our upward curve has flattened out and no matter what anyone says the players have to take a long hard look at themselves ,we have to many who are not brave enough in the middle of the field and will always take the so called easy option of going back to our keeper rather than keep a move going ,White will make a 30 yrd run which will come to nothing so he is out of position Xhaka is still an accident waiting to happen no matter who thought it a good idea to play him as soon as his name was in the team we knew the pace would drop and when he got his customary yellow card he should have been taken off ,he was afraid to tackle Gomes in the build up to the winner because of his yellow and the Dean factor which will never change while he is allowed to referee professional football. Tavares has already been found out as just an average player who hasnt learned after his assist for pool he headed the ball towards the penalty area from which the equaliser came .Top 4 is a long way off and the teams around us are all turning the corner another false dawn has come and gone .
I don’t know exactly what they do in training during the week but I suggest they forget about tactics, systems, formations and all the other stuff they do and instead teach them how to shoot. Eight hours a day for five days, nothing but shooting. Any player who misses a sitter forfeits half his wages. Drastic action is called for, we are throwing games away and I am sick of excuses. Partey (who is still playing at the much slower La Liga pace) had yet another shot that troubled the Sky satellite more than the opposing goalkeeper and how many games in a row has Aubameyang missed gilt edged chances. And now Nketiah has been infected.
It pains me to say it but Everton deserved to win. I know they should have had a man dismissed but Dean and VAR let them off the hook and they took full advantage.
Thoroughly depressing.
Alex the reason your comment didn’t appear immediately was because either your email address or IP address hadn’t been used before and cleared – you are cleared to comment now. (I have to have these defences in place otherwise the site gets full of abuse).
Mick I think we need the tactics in order to play in a way that doesn’t get us the 80+ yellow cards we had two seasons ago. That is the sadness of the situation.
Tony I would willingly take a few extra yellow cards in exchange for a goal or two!
PG Gunner
I’m just wondering about your experience as a coach or any other qualified football professional. I ask because I’m merely an unqualified observer of more than 50 years of attending Arsenal games and, in my experienced but amateur opinion, find your observations particularly naive.
Can you provide some evidence in support of what seems like an arbitrary and completely unsustainable criticism?
If anybody seriously cares about the way we are treated by the PGMO I’m happy to make the first contribution to a legal fund to challenge them in court. I’m far too old to organise something like this and as a pensioner I don’t have much I can contribute. However I am prepared to put a significant proportion of my life savings into seeing some justice. If somebody wants to organise lawyers and set up a crowd funding thing, I’ll put in the first £1,000.
I guess the club must feel compromised and unable to do something but, seriously, this is now beyond a joke.
In reply to Mikey my naive observations come from watching the game and supporting the Arsenal for over 45 yrs . Each and everyone of us have our own opinion and my comments are based on what I saw against Everton and in the game with Liverpool and sadly on to many occasions in the recent past Xhaka will always divide opinion the yellow card he picked up last night was lazy and for a player of his experience plain stupid and as I wrote the build up to the goal he knew he was unable to tackle Gomes because of his booking had he not been booked he could have afforded to take 1 for the team ,as for Tavares even if he headed the ball out for a throw would have been better than heading it back towards goal common sense would tell you that ,it goes to show he has learned nothing since the Liverpool disaster and from what I can remember he was involved in a mix up in the build up to 1 of the Utd goals last Thursday night.Forgive me for such naive observations but it gets annoying to see the same mistakes being made time and time again.
Mikey.
Not that I need to defend PG but how Everton’s second goal came about was exactly how I, as a neutral saw it.
White was far too advanced , he does that a lot, that immediately left space for Gomes.
Had Xhaka not already been booked he would almost certainly have know that what was developing needed to be stopped but he couldn’t risk a second yellow which every ref would have viewed as appropriate had he intervened .
The reality was Xhaka needed to be pulled after around 70 minutes. He clearly was not match fit, he had been booked and Everton in bringing on Gomes and Tierney coming off presented a far different proposition.
Tavares is an interesting player but he lacks positional awareness. It’s easy to get drawn into the hype about his forward play but he doesn’t seem to have any real defensive awareness. Watch how often he charges infield and also how he exposes your two CD. If fit not playing Tierney who is a far more rounded player is strange.
You only way you can realistically get away with having two full backs so far advanced is to play a 3 at the back that also would allow White the freedom that he seems to want . You all saw last night how Richalson was a real problem once Tierney came off.
Should Gomes have been sent off ? Probably but it’s far too easy to look elsewhere in terms of excuses that was a game that you probably had more than enough to win but you didn’t and that wasn’t down to Dean it was more about game management
@ PG Gunner
I should have been more specific. I get what you mean about Xhaka but quite honestly, I think many refs have already decided to card him before the game kicks off and merely look for the first opportunity.
I was actually referring to your use of terms such as, “we have to [sic] many who are not brave enough in the middle of the field” and “teams around us are all turning the corner another false dawn has come and gone”. The first is meaningless, the second suggests you believe the Spuds and Man U are on the up which isn’t what I see at all.
Mikey the fact that in the last 3 matches Spurs have picked up 9 points ,Utd 7 points and we have picked up 3 points in the last 2 matches we led in both games and came away with nothing ,the dropped 6 points will be a major factor come the end of the season ,and regardless of which team is on the up 7 or 9 points out of a possible 9 is on the up in my book.
To reinforce Tony’s statement last Thursday’s Daily Telegraph sports section devoted a two page spread to Manchester United – not a word about Arsenal. Onto the Godfrey assault on Tomiyasu – here are some quotes:-
Alan Smith in commentary “he’s bang in trouble here”
Ally McCoist “a red card all day long”
Jamie Carragher “he’s a lucky boy”
A Talksport caller ” anyone who’s played the game at any level knows he meant it”
VAR is not to blame – Stuart Attwell is. Surely it is not in his remit to referee the game. He should have told Michael Dean to observe the incident and make a decision as match referee. We all have a good idea the outcome had Xhaka been involved.
It comes as no surprise Dermot Gallagher agreed with Attwell. Well he would – he allowed Dan Smith of Sunderland to effectively finish Abou Diaby’s career with a wicked tackle. Keith Hackett was of the opinion Godfrey should have been dismissed.