everton Archives - Arsenation

Play Rosicky and Oxlade Chamberlain

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Apr 162013

In the modern world of the Sky dominated “EPL” every game is massive, but tonight’s match at the Arsenal really is critical. Arsenal have won seven out of eight matches in the league and (should) we beat Everton and Fulham, we will be seven points ahead of Tottenham, bearing in mind we were seven points behind them after our defeat at WHL on March 3rd, that’s some achievement in its own right.

For most of the game against Norwich we were very poor, sadly, some of this was down to bringing Jack Wilshere back into the team prematurely. I’ve thought for a while that we have a problem when Mr Wenger plays both Cazorla and Wilshere. The team seems to over-play anyway but there is even a greater tendency to over complicate the game around the opposition’s box, when those two are in the team. The reality of the situation of course, is that those two are our best players and next season it’s incumbent on the manager to work out how to get the best from the pair in the same team. But tonight is different; we need three points and a platform for a further three at Fulham on Saturday.

The two players I’d love to see in the starting eleven tonight are Tomas Rosicky and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Both have the quality to see space and have the ability and the bravery to pass or run into that space. Rosicky in particular has stacks of experience of winning critical games (sadly with the Czech Republic as opposed to Arsenal) and the nous to handle some of the big players Everton have. I was at Goodison last October when we were pretty fortunate to get a draw and we were battered by Fellaini in the first half. He got far too much of the ball and Rosicky is the type of player to combat this situation by moving the play away from areas where the Belgian can dominate.

Young Alex has been woefully under-used by the manager; I often wonder what he needs to do to get a look in. He demonstrated exactly what he’s about as a player with his contribution to the second goal against Norwich: Saw the gap, ran into it (with his head up – take note Gervinho), and passed the ball just where it needed to go. He’s twice the footballer Walcott will ever be and we need to utilise him more, starting with tonight.

I acknowledge that when we have players of the quality of Walcott, O-C and Podolski as substitutes, we can win games from the bench. But we were lucky against Norwich, we don’t usually have linesman like we had on Saturday and Everton a real team, they are challenging for Europe on merit alone. I have a lot of respect for Everton and their manager, they’ve had no investment to speak of, no trophies for almost 20 years, but they have a fantastic support and a competitive, attacking team with some exceptional players. We will have to be right on the money tonight, look how easily Norwich scored from that set piece, imagine Leighton Baines on the ball with Fellaini, Distin and Amichebe waiting for it?

Therefore, I would make sure that all the starting eleven tonight are fully fit (sorry Jack) and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Flapper’s ribs can be bandaged successfully for 90 minutes (never thought I’d write that!) I think our totem poled Teuton should play and hopefully Aaron Ramsey will continue his very good recent form partnering Mikel Arteta.

I firmly believe that we can beat Everton tonight, but we’ll have to earn it.

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Everton Away – We want our Arsenal back?

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Nov 292012

Goodison Park is one of my favourite grounds; it’s a classic four sided British football stadium, you can get a pint right opposite the main stand and there’s a great chippy virtually next door to the pub. Admittedly, it was better when we used to get the upper stand at the Park End as opposed to being shoved down one corner in the Bullens Road, but it’s still a genuine football occasion when Arsenal visit Everton, you get the feeling that previous generations have experienced football in almost exactly the same fashion.

The evening started really well when, during the pre-match goal keeper warm up, Steve Bould left the pitch, jumped over the hoardings to chat to a group of supporters and sign autographs – class.

I was really pleased with a point last night; your status in football is governed by how you perform against your peers, and these days, Everton are competing with us in the “fight for fourth”. Yesterday, we equipped ourselves relatively well, it was a typical freezing northern November night, but the team (with a few notable exceptions) competed in a manner which supporters have a right to expect. One player should never dictate the outcome of a game, but last night I felt that if Fellaini was wearing a red and white shirt, we would have won the game quite comfortably. In the first half he was exceptional, Arteta couldn’t live with him and Fellaini won just about everything on the floor and in the air. His goal might have been slightly fortunate, Sagna’s clearance (which was poor anyway) went straight to him, but his control and shot were very much of a player in the £20 million + bracket, he’s this season’s Yaya Toure.
In the second half we improved and Fellaini wilted, and without him continuously involved, Everton lost their axis. Jack Wilshere is looking better and better, in the warm up, he was scampering across the turf, always looking for the ball in the short passing drill and his range of long passing in the second half should have been converted into at least one goal. Arteta competed more efficiently in the second half and young Theo seems to be “getting it”, he’s timing his runs better and he took his goal well, though there was a slight deflection. Kieran Gibbs looks recovered and Vermaelen seems to have got over his wobble and is obviously far more comfortable at centre half than at left back. Szczesny looked sound, he could have been closer to the equaliser perhaps, but atoned with a great reflex save in the second half (Fellaini header needless to say…)
Quite a number of encouraging signs.

However, as a half empty sort of supporter, it’s also necessary to consider the concerns. As a unit, Arsenal are trained, selected and instructed to keep possession and make the ball move, nothing wrong with that at all, that’s why neutral fans love Arsenal. However, I’m concerned that the remorseless pressure to do that sometimes leads to situations where the team seem to create problems for themselves. No other side is less likely to “hoof the ball clear” and in the Wenger era, we’ve had great fun pointing out when other teams resort to that tactic on a regular basis (Houllier’s Liverpool anybody?) Sometimes, however, it’s right to just get rid and clear your line; it’s actually a quality in its own right. Furthermore, and this is being picky, but I’ve noticed more than once, that our centre halves have a tendency to try and nod the ball down to a team mate, as opposed to pushing their neck through the header to clear the opposition players around them. It’s risky and unnecessary; last night, in the first half we gave the ball away far too often in dangerous positions because of our relentless adherence to possession football – is it a price worth paying?

Lastly, Gervinho – why? We could see that his body language was dreadful before he came on! His shoulders were slouched, he obviously didn’t fancy it and we missed a trick when introducing Alex Chamberlain could have made a difference, in the last ten minutes when Everton were struggling, Fellaini was cooked. Is Alex Arsenal’s Darren Bent, frozen out of contention and unsure as to why?

All in all, two tough away games and two points, looking forward to playing a real passing team on Saturday.

By Ian Byrne

Everton 0-1 Arsenal – Gritty Gunners Gain 3rd

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Mar 222012

Yesterday evening turned out to be quite a successful one after a nail biting 83 minutes at Goodison Park. Having not seen the game I can’t deliver a full detail match report, but from what I gather via match of the day, it was a very solid performance at the back. The Verminator deservedly put us ahead after a dominant performance from the off, a great ball, curled in from a corner, combined with some great movement in the box proved too much for the Everton defence to handle. After that I gather we played at a reasonable tempo for much of the half, scuppering a handful of chances that should have gone in. There was also an Everton goal wrongly disallowed for offside and the officials had a nightmare. In the last 15 minutes Everton woke up and started to come into the game but we held them off until half time.

The half time team talk had clearly revitalised the Everton camp as they held a lot of the ball and made it difficult for us to play our own football after the break. It did sound as if we held on a little towards the end but were denied a clear penalty when Drente hooked Rosicky’s foot away in the box. That’s football though, I think it evens it out after the disallowed goal, but it’s a shame to see such inadequate officiating. Van Persie spoke before the game about how we may have to ‘win ugly’ and we certainly managed that yesterday!

With Tottenham slipping up at home to Stoke, the hard fought win let us overtake our north London rivals, and open up a slender one point gap with nine games to go.

Arsene spoke post game about how he would have preferred it if we had killed the game off by scoring a second, but expressed his happiness with the end result.

“I thought that if we scored the second goal then maybe, we could [have] given a psychological blow to Everton. We had a brilliant start and slowly Everton came back into the game after about 30 minutes, we could feel that in the last 15 minutes of the first-half.

“Second-half, for the most we did hang on, until the last 15 minutes we started to create chances again, but it was all Everton. We were resilient, focused with a great desire to defend and our defence played very well tonight.

What he says about the defence is right, they had an extremely solid match last night and I though Verm and Kos combined very effectively. It is also a massive boost to have two first choice full backs in place, they offer much more of an attacking threat than centre halves. It does pose the question, is Vertonghen necessary? There has been an interesting debate online about the difficulty of keeping four centre halves happy, when all want to play. This will be a very difficult decision for Arsene Wenger to make over the summer.

Aaron Ramsey has spoken about how our desire to beat the Spuds to 3^rd place shows in the performances and our current form. He is quoted in the Mail saying:

The results went our way,’ Ramsey told Arsenal Player. ‘We carried on our good form and I hope we can keep it up until the end of the season.

We have proved what we can do and how motivated we are to finish third. We are doing that at the moment, hopefully we can keep going.’

‘It was great. We battled well and it came off. It was always going to be a tough place to come but we dealt with it well.

It is clear that the team show the desire to finish in that important 3^rd spot, I think the Arsenal players have smelt blood, and are going in to seize their prey as they march up the table above the Spuds. Anyway, enjoy the rest of your week until we play Villa on Saturday, and enjoy the sweet taste of 3^rd in the Premier league.

Till next time

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Arsenation #04 – Everton Preview

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Mar 202012

Good afternoon,

Finally we’ve almost reached the night we’ve all been waiting for, after a long 9 day break, Arsenal kick off against Everton tomorrow evening. It will be a relief to many Gooners, who have been suffering from withdrawal symptoms! Anyway I expect, providing all of the players are fit we will see a line-up similar to this,

———————-Woj—————–

— Sagna—–Verm—-Kos—–Gibbs

——————–Song—————–

————Arteta———Rosicky——-

—–Walcott——-RVP———–Ox

It looks as though it is our strongest possible line-up at the moment but, I wouldn’t be surprised if Arsene rested The Ox in favour of Gervinho. Hopefully Rosicky will deliver another impressive performance in the middle of the park, as he has started to show some attacking promise in the past few weeks. We have won 7 of the last 11 meetings with Everton, and they are coming off the back of two recent games including a draw. You could say the stats favour us, but underestimating the toffees could cost us dearly.

Mikel Arteta has spoken about how there is ‘no reason’ why he should receive any abuse from the Everton fans. He hopes the fans can forget the nature of the move away and focus on all he gave in his many years there. In my opinion, there is little they can be angry about, he moved due to his desire for champion’s league football, and it’s hardly like we stole him for pennies!

“I really can’t wait to go there, and I hope I’ll get a good reception because I gave Everton everything I had in my time there and I love the club.

“Everyone there was great to me and, even though I left, hopefully people understood.

“There’s no reason for any of us to be unhappy with each other.”

Next up, Kieran Gibbs is confident that tired legs could prove a major factor in the game tomorrow. He thinks that Arsenal are starting to pull out of the so called injury ‘crisis’ and want to move forward and continue the run of good results.

“It is a relief to have a break until the next game and it was important for us to get that because we have played quite a lot recently in a short space of time,”

“We should have players coming back from injury now so we should be getting some fresh legs looking to go for the rest of the season strongly.

“Football changes so much. We’ve seen over the last few seasons that anything can happen now and it is important for us to cement our place [in the top four] and keep winning.”

I am with Gibbs, and i think the last two games Everton have played will have drained them somewhat; this should tip in our favour after a prolonged 9 day break.

Finally to Finnish on a good note, Abou Diaby is expected to start in the Arsenal Reserves clash with Liverpool this afternoon. It seems that Wenger has started to use this as a method to ease players returning from injury, back into competitive football. He has also used it to give some of the fringe players a run out in recent weeks, and I think it is a good move. It is just such a shame that a player like Diaby, who showed so much promise before his career was plagued by injury, has to go through this. If he cannot gain some consistency in the near future, I’m not sure we can keep hold of him. I expect he has a fairly sized dent in the wage budget.

Anyway, tune in tomorrow for more team news before the game.

Til then,

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