Arsenal made it 7 wins from 8 so far in the Premier League this season with a relatively comfortable 2-0 win over Everton at home yesterday.
Mikel Arteta made some changes from the midweek team, with Ben White, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres all handed starts. And as a team that has been a bit slow to get going in games so far, an early goal was just the tonic after all the effort against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
We put pressure on Everton from the off, with a couple of corners from the Declan Rice side, but another – delivered by Martin Odegaard – drew dividends. Gabriel flicked the ball on, Pickford got a hand to it, it dropped into a dangerous area at the near post and before a defender could get it away, Ezri Konsa was there to poke home from close range to make it 1-0. I quite enjoyed his post-match interview where he spoke about having to wait a long time for his first Arsenal goal, he only joined in the summer and he’s a defender, but I guess you can’t argue against his desire to get off the mark.
After that, Everton enjoyed a little period of the game where they had some possession, but posed little threat, before Arsenal upped the ante and probably should have gone in at half-time further ahead. A lovely move ended with Eze playing a ball into an area where I thought Gyokeres should have attacked it but he was on his heels a bit and it rolled not far wide – maybe Eze could have taken the shot on himself. Rice then fed Noni Madueke who turned well but dragged his shot wide of the far post with his right foot; Merino had an effort blocked; Madueke nearly produced a superb strike with a brilliant touch, turn, and shot from the edge of the box which fizzed just wide of the near post with Pickford rooted to the spot; Odegaard danced through the defence to see a shot deflected wide; and just before half-time Merino flicked a Rice free kick over the bar.
The only thing Everton had to offer was a chance for Thierno Barry when Ben White was unaware of his presence when trying to head back to his goalkeeper, but David Raya was there to make the save. It was pretty much one way traffic, and we absolutely deserved the lead at the break.
In the second half, there was a scare for Gabriel when he landed badly on his knee making a clearance. When he stayed down I thought ‘Oh crap he’s done his hamstring and his ACL and maybe his entire spine and nervous system’. Arsenal seemed to be readying Cristhian Mosquera to come on and replace him, but the Brazilian got some treatment, stretched himself out, and got back on. I was unsure about this, we’ve seen it happen more than once when a player who is hurt compounds the matter by not coming off immediately, but in this case it worked out well because he was the man to double the lead.
The manager had made a triple sub at that point with Kai Havertz, Bruno Guimaraes and Riccardo Calafiori replacing Gyokeres, Merino and Lewis-Skelly (who had been booked), and it was a nice pass from the summer signing to find Ben White’s overlapping run. He stood up a nice cross to the back post and Gabriel was there to head home for 2-0. I was not at all worried about offside despite a VAR check, White timed his run perfectly, you could see that in real-time, and the replays showed that.
Everton did have a decent chance when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall flashed a header just wide, but really that was about it. There were late cameos for Max Dowman and Martin Zubimendi who took a pointy elbow to the nose and needed treatment for that. Hopefully it doesn’t exclude him from the midweek EFL Cup game, because we need him to be there to start to give Rice a rest.
And that was that. Solid, effective, and with plenty to like about aspects of our performance. Sometimes I feel this Arsenal team can be a bit shot-shy, often looking for the perfect opening before letting fly, and it felt to me like they were instructed to just have a go a bit more yesterday. Merino and Odegaard took five shots each, none of them especially dangerous but it was interesting to note the positions. Four of Odegaard’s were from outside the box, with two of Merino’s from distance (and one from just on the edge). Maybe it’s nothing, just an anomaly, but mixing it up against a team that sat pretty deep is a good idea in my opinion.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:
> We’re very happy with the victory, the performance and the week, because we were given a terrible schedule. Playing Sunday afternoon, then Wednesday night in Munich, coming here really late on Thursday and then having to play again in the Premier League against a really tough opponent on Saturday at 3pm. We have overcome some injuries, and I’m really proud of the mentality of the team in the conditions today.
And paid tribute to his central defensive goalscorers, in particular Konsa who has had a strong start to his Arsenal career:
> The two centre-backs scored the goals today. We want to be the best in every phase of play, and we won’t stop until we do it. \[Konsa is\] unbelievable. To come to a club like Arsenal with no pre-season, Saliba is here and other players, and to position yourself in that manner with the naturality he has and put in the performances he has – the chemistry with Gabi that is so solid – is so difficult to do. We’re lucky to have him.
So a clean sheet, a first half goal, a set-piece goal at long last too, and three points, it’s hard to argue. You can see where we could improve, more efficiency in the final third is going to be an ongoing conversation this season I feel, but I think the manager is right to be proud of his team after a Sunday > Wednesday > Saturday schedule provided a real test – in trying conditions too – and his team came through it very, very well.
There’s a midweek game against Fleetwood to think about next, before what is always a difficult trip to Anfield next weekend. But after that defeat to Brighton, the team has generated some momentum, and let’s hope we can keep that going.
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Before I go today, a word of thanks to Andrew and Lewis for keeping things going in my absence, and my apologies that we didn’t have a post-Bayern Arsecast for you. I’d been feeling a bit unwell for a few days, went to A&E to get checked out, and after doing that they decided to keep me in hospital for a bit. Having run a whole loads of tests, and with a need to then wait for results, they let me home on Friday evening. So it’s not a clean bill of health, but they’d done as much as they can at that point.
I just want to say thanks to everyone who was in touch and sent messages/emails – it’s much appreciated. It’s not that you take your health for granted, but when something happens out of the blue it does make you appreciate how life was the day before you found out something wasn’t quite right. I don’t think there’s anything more scary than starting at a white wall in a hospital before they feed you head first into a machine that makes Berlin techno-noises. There’s just too much time to be left alone with your own thoughts, and I don’t like it!
Anyway, we’ll wait and see, and for now things continue as normal. We’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you tomorrow as usual, and in the meantime look after yourselves. Have a great Sunday folks.
❤️