Everton

Former Blue Mikel Arteta is now leading the North London outfit in pursuit of the Premier League title and having suffered that shock loss at Goodison, he was ...

Tarkowski saw the games first yellow card for bringing down Odegaard, and Holgate went in strongly on Xhaka as the Blues looked to rattle the home side in a stop-start opening to the second half. Arsenal withdrew Trossard and Xhaka for Nketiah and Vieira for the restart, as the worry now was whether Arsenal would do further damage to the Blues worrying goal difference. Martinelli saw a shot deflected behind for another Arsenal corner that Tarkowski headed clear and we hit the 70-minute mark with the Blues still trying to find a way forward to pressure the home goal. Saka with a poor challenge on Mykolenko escaped a yellow card before Onana again went down claiming an elbow from Gabriel as the Blues countered, the home crowd and Gabriel not happy with the big Belgian who reacted in kind back to them. It was a fine finish but, tough on the Blues who to this point had been defending and competing manfully. Mykolenko up in support got away from Saka to cross low into the box where Saliba cleared hastily, the Blues keeping some good possession with McNeil and Mykolenko pushing forward and forcing Arsenal back. Through the quarter hour mark, Everton were competing effectively, closing down and looking to break forward whenever they had the chance to whilst remaining mindful of the pace in the Arsenal side. Arsenal won the first corner on four minutes as Saka stumbled and the ball ricocheted behind off Mykolenko, the set piece seeing a shot from Jorginho go high and wide. At the end of the day, you can still have good away records by structuring the team and by suggesting the team maybe have to work in different ways, but most of all the mentality is important.” Offering further insight into his preparation, he added, “We have to look at certain matches, what they do and try to get the right tactics to beat them – and as well the same mentality and expectation of what we demand in the game. What we have to do is tomorrow in front of our crowd go full tilt, go to win the game, play well and compete really well against this team.” We showed the players what they do, what they are about, what we expect to do to try to beat them and nothing different.

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Granit Xhaka ...

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Although the first half was patchy at times, our second half performance was exemplary, and was a fine example of how great we can be when all cylinders are firing, which tonight was certainly the case. We composed ourselves and reimposed ourselves on the opposition, and during injury time Bukayo Saka took the ball off Idrissa Gueye, passed the ball through to Gabriel Martinelli, who ran on to it and drove it home to make it two nil to us at the break. The second half started with Thomas Partey replacing Jorginho, and we started the game in the same spirit as we finished the first. Eddie Nketiah and Fabio Vieira replaced Leandro Trossard and Granit Xhaka with about fifteen minutes of the game remaining. We recovered and won two corners in succession, which although went nowhere, the important thing is that we are bringing the game to the opposition.

Bukayo Saka opened the scoring, with Gabi Martinelli striking a brace with a goal in each half, prior to Martin Odegaard netting for the Gunners, who powered to ...

With a regular donation to our monthly Fighting Fund, we can continue to thumb our noses at the fat cats and tell truth to power. The Morning Star is unique, as a lone socialist voice in a sea of corporate media. You have to keep it tight at places like this, work on the counter and find the killer moments. While Saka now has six goals and three assists in 10 league games since the World Cup. Their best chance fell to Dwight McNeil early in the second half, but Aaron Ramsdale gathered easily. Their strikes paving the way for an important victory over Sean Dyche’s previously obdurate Everton on a chilly evening in north London.