Morning.
This is the first time since facing Shaktar and then Liverpool back in October that we’ve had two home games in a row. After beating Monaco in midweek, it’s Everton today and a game that might be just a little trickier than it looks on paper. They’ve had 10 days off because of the postponement of the Merseyside derby, and come into this one pretty fresh against an Arsenal side who played three days ago.
Given their gameplan is likely to be sit deep and defend, and that might make it a bit of a slog, but it’s still a game we have to take three points from. The injury news was positive on Gabriel but nobody beyond that, but if he’s fit that’s a big boost. No slight on Jakub Kiwior who has done well in the Brazilian’s absence, but Gabriel’s presence and threat from set-pieces will just give Everton more to think about.
The Polish international could still be used at left-back if Mikel Arteta decides the physical demands on Myles Lewis-Skelly are too big, but after his performance in the Champions League, I’d have no hesitation about playing him again today. If that is the case, I imagine it will be Jurrien Timber at right-back after he had a smaller role to play against Monaco on Wednesday. I also think if we’re going to face a team that sits deep and denies us space, adding him to the Odegaard/Saka dynamic gives us a better chance of finding a way through. Partey doesn’t provide the overlapping threat of Timber and Ben White, so the Dutchman could be important today.
Arteta was asked about the Rice, Merino, Odegaard midfield in his press conference, and said:
There have been recently a lot of new units, and certainly that was one that we had planned and discussed and I think they can play so well together. They did a really good job, they will play again together for sure in the near future. I think they complement each other really well.
The key thing is the word ‘planned’, I think it was a combination the manager would have liked to have used much earlier than he did. It’s a bit mad that we got to December before they started together for the first time, but injuries have been disruptive this season and this is a great illustration of that. We need to see it more often to assess how it works, and today is another opportunity for that. I think it just gave us a nice balance overall, it got left side of our attack more involved, so I’m curious to see it in operation again
Further forward, I think it’ll be Kai Havertz again, his height and presence could be important against a team like Everton who will make it physical, and then toss a coin about the left hand side. It could be Leandro Trossard, it could be Gabriel Martinelli, it could even be Gabriel Jesus but let’s hope whoever is deployed out there can deliver the goods. It also feels like a day when the bench might be important – if Everton provide stubborn resistance, we will have to add some freshness to change things up.
Hopefully though a nice early goal opens things up a bit. We haven’t scored too many of them this season, but if Everton’s plan is to stay compact and keep it tight, scoring quickly would stick a fork in a that and hopefully we can then take advantage. We made lots of chances against Monaco on Wednesday, we need to be more clinical obviously, and if we are I think this is a game we should win.
Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. We have a preview podcast available right now on Patreon. Join us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, goal clips, reaction, player ratings and much more over on Arseblog News.
Until then.