Patience is key if Marco Silva is to succeed at Everton. And after a run on managers it’s a game the club’s bosses will want to play.
Despite an inspiring 55 minutes for Everton at the Emirates, Arsenal ran away with all three points thanks to quick-fire strikes from Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The Blues dominated the hosts in large portions of the first half but it appeared that the away side left their shooting boots back on Merseyside. Facing an inspired Petr Cech in the Arsenal goal didn’t help Everton’s cause either.
The 36-year-old stopper has come under scrutiny in the early parts of the season, but he showed his class against the Toffees, managing six saves and being chosen as Sky Sports’ man of the match.
Evertonians will rightly bemoan a lack of quality in the finishing department this whole campaign, not just in North London.
Cenk Tosun and Oumar Niasse are yet to open their accounts and Dominic Calvert-Lewin has proved he’s not the finished product, with the 21-year-old finding himself guilty of spurning numerous goalscoring chances despite netting three in all competitions.
Theo Walcott started the season well but his homecoming at the Emirates seemed to get into the head of the 29-year-old wide-man, letting it severely affect his performance on the day. Richarlison tried, had a number of shots on target but Marco Silva’s side can’t rely on the Brazilian for every piece of magic.
But despite only winning one out of the first six fixtures, it is not all doom and gloom at Goodison.
Silva has to try to fix the mess left at the club by the previous three regimes and that in itself is no easy feat. And that will take much, much longer than just one transfer window.
This is an experimental season for Silva, the former Watford boss needs to know the ins and outs of his squad to see who is good enough and who won’t make the grade and only with games over a long period of time will he be able to do just that.
Silva has had to deal with a nightmare injury list during his short spell in the Goodison hot seat, setbacks for Yerry Mina, Michael Keane, Phil Jagielka and Seamus Coleman alongside the emergence of Lucas Digne haven’t allowed the boss to form a consistent backline that can succeed at the club, instead, he has had to chop and change on a weekly basis.
Andre Gomes is yet to play and based on his quality, would slot right into the Toffees’ midfield, Bernard has had a stuttering start to life at the club too, the three game absence of Richarlison also hasn’t helped.
But when everyone is fit, whenever that may be, Everton will have a squad packed with quality, international footballers.
Before conspiracy theorists claim the FA have some sort of campaign against the Blues, it is more the case of Everton being at the forefront of severe inconsistencies of English referees, from Jagielka’s suspect red at Wolves, to Tosun taking a fist to the jaw in the opposition’s box against Huddersfield.
The worst of it came at the Emirates, when the Gunners should’ve been down to 10 after Lucas Torreira’s high, two-footed lunge on Digne in the first half, not to mention Aubameyang standing two yards offside for Arsenal’s second.
Of course the officials haven’t helped but there have been positives and good signs for the future and beyond.
Silva clearly wants his side to play the right style of football but Everton are still lacking that natural born goal scorer, since the departure of Romelu Lukaku TWO years ago.
This vision Farhad Moshiri has for the football club is a long term project that isn’t going to click into place instantly. It’ll take patience and no knee jerk reaction regarding the future of Silva, despite only picking up six points from six games.
The 41-year-old will need at minimum two, maybe three transfer windows, to mould his perfect squad and with the help of Marcel Brands, Evertonians should be excited for the future.