- Everton v Arsenal: the troubles in the north west
- Darren England is the referee for Everton game, and what that means
- Everton v Arsenal, and why Arsenal should not emulate Mancester C
By Tony Attwood
I see that the notion that Opta has a supercomputer which spends its time predicting results is still with us. Honestly, there is no way something as rare and expensive as a genuine supercomputer would be used for football – supercomputers work on worldwide weather trends, and tracking military installations.
But still the idea keeps popping up and today we hear that the “Opta supercomputer ranks Arsenal as clear favourites with a 53.2% win probability to Everton’s 20.8%.” Well, I suppose it saves the journalists from thinking. Or writing anything original.
However even more amusing is the notion that the supercomputer actually said, “Everton are winless in their past four Premier League encounters against Arsenal.” And then, perhaps more interesting, “Only Liverpool are currently on a longer unbeaten run away from home in the Premier League than Arsenal.”
And yet someone somewhere has found this stat also reported in the same source: “Since the start of 2024, the Gunners have amassed more points on the road (52) than any other team in the competition and have conceded fewer goals than any other side on their travels (16).” Now maybe that was a computer what did it.
Plus we could add to this, a set of home matches for Everton that reads, beaten Tottenham, beaten Leicester, drawn with Liverpool, drawn with Manchester United, drawn with West Ham. Yes, five home games without defeat looks great but really it is a bit naff when you see it includes games against the Totts, Leicester, ManU and Wham.
But these journalists love their negatives. Here’s the BBC: “Arsenal have won just three of their past 26 away games on Merseyside against Everton and Liverpool (drawn 10, lost 13) in all competitions” To which one can only say, “Is there seriously any indication that the city a club plays in has any effect on its results? Surely it is the team they play against, not the physical location within the country that is significant.”
However, that might be a bit too sophisticated for the journalists. Here’s another BBC gem however but on a different web page.
“Having drawn 0-0 when the sides met at the Emirates in December, Arsenal could fail to score in both league meetings with Everton for the first time since the 1912-13 campaign.” Although to be fair they do ultimately get around to mentioning that Arsenal have been unbeaten in the last 10 away league games.
But to be even quite fairer still to the Corporation they do have one stat that I hadn’t picked up on:
“Bukayo Saka has been directly involved in 23 league and cup goals this term, scoring 10 and assisting 13. He is the third Premier League player to reach double figures for both metrics in all competitions in each of the last three seasons, after Mohamed Salah and Bruno Fernandes.”
Sports Mole give us a 1-1 draw as a prediction and a team of
Raya;
Partey, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinchenko;
Odegaard, Jorginho, Rice;
Nwaneri, Merino, Martinelli
Raya
Partey, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly
Rice, Jorginho, Odegaard
Nwaneri, Merino, Martinelli
And they tell us that “Arsenal will find life very uncomfortable as they prepare to visit Goodison Park for the final time,”
90 Min go for a 0-1 win to Arsenal using the team
Raya;
Partey, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly;
Odegaard, Jorginho, Rice;
Nwaneri, Merino, Trossard.
As ever we shall see and shall also return later for some considerations of all that has or has not gone before.
There is no other word for Darren England than CHEAT
Everton against Liverpool:
Fouls 9 Yellow cards 4
Everton against Arsenal:
Fouls 17 yellow cards 3
And that’s with at least 3 clear and obvious yellows.
Now in the interest of balance:
Liverpool were shown 4 cards for 20 fouls.
Arsenal sere shown 1 yellow for 13 fouls.
But when a foul is given for Trossard kicking the air 2 feet from the player you get the idea of what this referee, if that is what you can call him, was about.
It is not surprising that Arsenal usually get less penalty kicks than other supposedly top 7 teams, yet are penalised more than the said top teams…….Honestly, a penalty kick given in this game for an Arsenal foul? What are we having to watch time and time again?
Moyes appears to have sent his team out with the instruction to enjoy themselves in this last Goodison match by having a little kick about on the pitch. Arsenal team members being the persons that were kicked about.. Referee none too unhappy to observe such tactics……
Nitram is again quite correct in his observations today as there was one ‘f’ in referee out there today, but such a performance seems to be the normative scenario in games in which Arsenal are involved, especially against teams from the North of England.
But then I am a biased follower of Arsenal in my conclusions but am not paid one iota for such bias conclusions, unlike members of the PGMOL who can be paid up to £250,000 pa for showing their bias when at their work……
An honest ref and Var would have given a yellow card for diving rather than a penalty . When they showed the replay I thought that finally VAR were going to overturn a decision in our favour then I remembered Stuart Attwell.
The media have been looking for a target to replace Xhaka ever since he went to Germany, and they have decided that Myles LSkelly is the ideal candidate to fill the vacancy.
MLS is going to have to find a way to deal with playing with a great big bullseye on his back for many years to come and I blame pundits like Carragher and Neville for that.
When I see the things that some serial offenders get away with, eg Tarkowski who despite being a dirty f’****r has never received a red card in his career, it becomes obvious that Arsenal players are judged to a different set of rules than players of other teams.
PGMOL are a bunch of cheats.
Nothing new from the PGMOL or the media. A team decimated by injury still has the best defense in the league, third in scoring (by one) and holding 2nd in the table. If they are as bad as the media say, what about the other 18 clubs? Just a joke. Doesn’t stop.
4′ – England fails to give a yellow card to Patterson after a poor challenge on Nwaneri (thereby encouraging further dangerous tackles).
18′ – England gives a yellow card to O’Brien for a much earlier foul on Ben White. So much earlier, that I had almost forgotten about it.
38′ – A clash of heads in the Arsenal penalty area. I had my heart in my mouth.
46′ – England awards a penalty to Everton after Harrison fouls Lewis-Skelly at the edge of the Arsenal penalty area.
?? – O’Brien? twice blocks David Raya in full view of the referee. No free-kicks are awarded.
95′ – England blows the full-time whistle. As the Arsenal players start to leave the pitch, he awards Everton a free-kick for a non-existent foul, and play restarts!!!
Darren England is actually FIFA-listed.
Make it make sense.
Remember when VAR was about to be introduced to the PL and most people thought it would be a good thing?
The PL is about to introduce automated technology for offside decisions, which will allow them to produce doctored images to show on your TV screens to support the “decisions”. The TV companies will never have to show any match footage that contradicts the final decisions. Let that sink in.
The penalty MLS gave away yesterday was soft and justified by VAR , so how come a free kick or a penalty is not awarded at every corner , some thoughts please .
Mick Shelly
“The media have been looking for a target to replace Xhaka ever since he went to Germany, and they have decided that Myles LSkelly is the ideal candidate to fill the vacancy.”
Absolutely brilliant observation. That is exactly what they want.
Label him, ‘Rash’, Reckless’ ‘An accident waiting to happen’ or any other of a dozen words or phrases that basically give referees carte blanche to give free kicks, penalties yellow/red cards whenever they want without the possibility of a word of critism.
“Yes, it was soft”. “Yes it was six of one and half a dozen of the other” “Yes it was outside the box”, but it’s Miles Lewis Skelly, and we all know what he’s like. Definite penalty and should of been a red card.
yes, we all do know, whatever happens MLS will be the villain.