- Arsenal v Everton this weekend: early thoughts and a concern
- How top clubs have at least 6+ of the top players in the world in their squads
By Tony Attwood
Arsenal games against Everton are usually jolly nice affairs since, at least for us, Arsenal win them. There have been 225 competitive games across the centuries between the two sides, of which fractionally under half have been won by Arsenal and just under 29% have been won by Everton.
But these are modest days for Everton now placed halfway down the league, more or less, 12 points behind Arsenal, four wins fewer than Arsenal, four defeats more than Arsenal, 12 goals fewer scored than Arsenal, nine goals more conceded than Arsenal and overall a goal difference that is 21 points worse than Arsenal.
We might conclude that Arsenal have the upper hand.
However, Everton can take some comfort from a review of the last six games they have played in the Premier League as they have picked up one more point in these games than Arsenal, although their goal scoring in those last six is still poorer than Arsenal’s.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aston Villa | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 7 | +9 | 18 |
| 2 | Manc City | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 8 | +10 | 15 |
| 3 | Nottingham Forest | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 6 | +4 | 12 |
| 4 | Everton | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 6 | +2 | 12 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 11 |
The fact is that Everton had a blip and a half this season, starting with a home draw with Aston Villa, which, given Villa’s current status, now looks not a bad deal. But it was the start of a run of eight games in which they only won one game (a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace at home.
But since then, starting on 8 November, things have improved with victories over Fulham, Manchester United, Bourghemouth and Nottingham Forest. And victories are victories – we can’t take that away from a victorious club, no matter what the status of the opposition. But the reality is that in the league today, those four clubs beaten by Everton are 14th (Fulham), sixth (Manchester United), 13th (Bournemouth), and 16th (Nottingham Forest).
Of course, clubs can only beat who they are set to play, but even so, those victories were primarily against teams from the lower reaches.
In the last four games, Everton have scored five and conceded six, so it does suggest things are finely balanced at present. In their last four matches, Arsenal have scored eight and conceded three.
Of course, one of the issues is that they now have a lovely new stadium at the Bramley-Moore Dock in north Liverpool, which is said to have cost over £750m, and that will restrict their ability to buy new players for a little while. Obviously, all clubs (except those funded in the style of Manchester City) have to move and thus pay for a new staidum some time, and it always has an impact. It just happens that it is Everton’s moment to suffer from that impact.
This is Everton’s 71st consecutive year in the top division in England, and that would of course be someting to celebrate, were it not for the fact that this is Arsenal’s 100th consecutive year in the top division in England – but the media don’t like to talk about that much, and strangely nor do Arsnal, so we mention it a lot instead. In fact, we are tracing the 100 seasons in the top division in a series of articles on the Arsenal History Society website – the latest covering Arsenal 1951/2; losing the cup final is now available. You can find indexes back tothe start from that page. We’re adding a new article every few days.
But coming back to more recent times, between December 2020 and February 2023, Everton generally found Arsenal fairly easy going, winning four of the five games played between the two clubs. And the only sense that this might be something of a false statistic came with the fact that the one game in that run Everton didn’t win was a 5-1 trouncing in 2022 at Arsenal’s ground.
Since then, there have been five more Premier League games between the two clubs – Arsenal won the first three of these, and the last two were draws – which gives a hint as to how Everton might approach this match.
To consider that point further, we can compare Arsenal at home and Everton away, as we normally do ahead of league games.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal home | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 3 | 17 | 22 |
| 9 | Everton away | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 10 | -3 | 10 |
As we can see there is quite a difference between the two sides in this regard – in fact a 20-goal difference and a 12-point difference.
Looking at more recent games for a sign of an improvement, in their last six away games in the Premier League, we find two victories, one against a very erratic Manchester United and one against AFC Bournemouth, each with a scoreline 0-1. Then there was a very credible draw with Sunderland, but also defeats against Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea.
In each of these games, however, Everton were certainly not hammered – the winning home team knocked in just two each time. So they are not walk-overs, but they do tend to lose away from home.
