An away day to forget for the Everton fans and Sean Dyche as the blues lost at the Emirates to League leaders Arsenal 4-0.
The first 40 minutes were promising for Sean Dyche’s Toffees as they kept Arsenal at arms reach and were nullifying the deadly attack of Saka, Martinelli and Trossard. Everton’s attack of McNeil, Maupay and Iwobi were not as inspiring when Everton were breaking Arsenal down on the counter attack. Neal Maupay had multiple half chances where he ‘tested’ Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale but it didn’t even make the keeper break a sweat.
Arsenal took advantage of Everton’s mistakes and made Everton pay. Questionable defending by Keane and Mykolenko allowed Saka all the space he would want in the Everton box to smash it in Pickford’s net. The biggest mistake of the night however goes to Idrissa Gana Gueye, the Senegalese midfielder returned to Goodison in the summer and is yet to consistently show the player that Everton waved goodbye to in the Summer of 2019. Gueye on the edge of the Everton box lost possession and Martinelli didn’t waste his chance. After a quick VAR check it showed that Gueye did touch the ball before Martinelli got the ball and Everton were 2-0 down at Half Time.
Mason Holgate replaced Idrissa Gueye, you can only imagine what Dyche must have been thinking when Gueye lost possession for Arsenal’s second.
Multiple subs in the second half including Godfrey replacing Coleman at Right Back, Davies replacing Doucoure and Gray upfront instead of Maupay didn’t make that much difference for the blues as the defeat was already on the cards and the players head’s had dropped. Arsenal went on to score 2 more goals from Odegaard and Martinelli and that was the game.
Sean Dyche is faced with what is looking like an impossible task, getting Everton to score goals and win games in a system that requires a Calvert-Lewin style forward without their number 9. Farhad Moshiri’s words in January “We need a striker? We’ll get one.” become more damning with every match that brings us closer to the end of the season.
Everton have 13 games left to save their season, save their history and save their future. The season is by no means done yet, Everton aren’t down yet but they simply have to be doing better than they did against Arsenal. Here’s hoping the wins come sooner rather than later.
UTFT
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