Everton v Arsenal this saturday lunchtime: just what are Everton playing at?

 

Everton are in real trouble

Previous: The real facts about football that the media will never touch

By Bulldog Drummond

The match is on BT Sport 1 and kicks off at 1230.

I’m sure you will hardly need telling of Everton’s travails.  And to make things worse they didn’t do anything to address their problems in the transfer window, save accepting the return of Ellis Simms from a loan to Sunderland.  In fact, in letting Anthony Gordon go for £40m it almost looks as if they have given up on the Premier League.

Which is a bit odd not only because no one wants to be relegated, but Everton are one of just six clubs to have survived in the league from the start, the others being Arsenal, of course, plus Manchester United, Tottenham Hots, Liverpool and Chelsea.

In fact the last time they were in anything other than the top division was 1953, making this their 70th anniversary at the top.,  Their last trophy was the 1995 FA Cup and their last title was in 1987 when they finished a spell of two league titles, one FA Cup win, one league runners’ up spot and twice being defeated finalists in the FA Cup. 

Since then they have managed fourth twice, and been in three more FA Cup finals winning it in 1995 – their last trophy, 28 years ago.  

And now here they are in the league, 35 points behind Arsenal and with Arsenal having played a game fewer.  They have scored 30 goals fewer than Arsenal and let in 19 more.

Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Arsenal 19 16 2 1 45 16 29 50
16 West Ham United 20 5 3 12 17 25 -8 18
17 Wolverhampton Wanderers 20 4 5 11 12 30 -18 17
18 AFC Bournemouth 20 4 5 11 19 42 -23 17
19 Everton 20 3 6 11 15 28 -13 15
20 Southampton 20 4 3 13 17 35 -18 15

 

So we ought to have a look at their home form and Arsenal’s away form, to see if that evens things up a bit.

 

Team P W D L F A GD Pts
19 Everton at home 10 2 2 6 9 14 -5 8
1 Arsenal away 10 8 1 1 20 6 14 25

 

Not surprisingly the result looks like an Arsenal win.  Everton are scoring 0.9 goals per home game and conceding 1.4 goals.  Arsenal are scoring 2.0 goals per away game and conceding 0.6.   On that basis the result is most likely to be Everton 1 Arsenal 2, but Arsenal could go on a bit of a rampage if they feel like it.  Just for fun.

Arsenal will be aided by the fact that Everton fans are reported to be angry about the lack of new players and it is reported that Dyche wanted two attackers – although I hardly think that will be enough given the state of the club.  (We’ll consider the notorious Dychian tactics next time – he is not a man known to be interested in football).

However it is reported that Everton are or were “in talks” with free agent Andre Ayew who has just left Al Sadd of Qatar.  But I think they have missed out on even him.

The owner of Everton did promise a striker, but these club owners are pesky fellows who don’t always keep their word so the lack of one is perhaps not surprising.

Everton are in fact the second lowest scorers in the league, although in defence they have let in fewer than the notoriously leaky Tottenham Hots – although to be fair so have Wolverhampton Wands.   In fact Tottenham’s defence is so porous the media seem determined not to talk about it at all, concentrating on the Kane fellow instead in their usual lopsided manner.

But one of the most interesting things about Everton’s January transfer activities is that they did seemingly keep putting bids in, only to have them rejected by other clubs.   Udinese refused to deal over Beto Betuncal, Watford wouldn’t loan Ismaila Sarr, Rennes’ Kamaldeen Sulemana chose Southampton instead, Thorgan Hazard of Fenerbahce didn’t fancy it, and nor did Conor Gallagher of Chelsea, and Jean-Phillipe Mateta of Palace.  In fact no one seems to want to go to Merseyside.  I can’t imagine why.

So why did such players all refrain from joining Everton, including Andre Ayew who it seems preferred a spell of unemployment as the alternative?  What is wrong with the club and its owners?

One big factor in their current situation is that they are building a new stadium.  But even here there is a problem as shown in the headline “New Everton stadium may never be finished as pundit suggests new ‘huge blow'”.   Of course that is just the normal mindless media tittle tattle, but the argument is that if Everton go down, they simply won’t have the money to be able to finish the stadium although probably false, is rather amusing.

Everton have not won any of their last ten league and cup games and in the last 12 Premier League games they have won just one and drawn one, losing the other ten.  It is indeed looking like they are heading for a visit to the Championship.

5 Replies to “Everton v Arsenal this saturday lunchtime: just what are Everton playing at?”

  1. OT

    Go find the videos of Bolgun’s hattrick yesterday. His 3rd goal is a thing of beauty….
    It looks like we’ll have 3 high level strikers next season.

  2. @ Chris

    Good stuff. As a bit of a statto it’s also worth noting he’s the leagues top scorer and for comparison:

    Messi 17 starts, 75 shots, 9 goals
    Mbappe 17 starts, 72 shots, 13 goals
    Balogun 17 starts, 63 shots 14 goals

    This season will no doubt have done his game and his confidence the world of good!

  3. Sound a little smug there if you don’t mind me saying so.Will be glad to get out of Goodison in one piece with all 3 points hopefully.The place is a bearpit & they will be fired up to the eyeballls under Dyche make no mistake.Ably & abetted by a ref who is a known ‘ Homer’ with a tendency to let tackles fly.Either too stupid to spot them or suspiciously one sided shall we say.Expect a very physical encounter.

  4. Positive Pete

    As I said the other day:

    “And a manager that following varies comments over the years clearly has very little time for Arsenal, or in fact anything to do with ‘football’ in the real sense of the word.”

    As Bulldog says above:

    “We’ll consider the notorious Dychian tactics next time – he is not a man known to be interested in football.”

    And as you say:

    “…..Will be glad to get out of Goodison in one piece”

    As you suggest, we will have to be totally on our game, a) to win, and b) to get of there in one without casualties.

  5. I agree with pete. With Dyche at the helm its going to be 4-4-2, with tackles flying in from all directions.

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