Match Thread Everton v Arsenal - Preview, Match Report and MotM Poll

[Pilks]

Where I am in the LG they stand up throughout almost every game - gets a bit annoying sometimes for an old git like me who needs a sit down occasionally! But I digress. Today was bizarre because rather than standing up owing to being excited they simply seemed to be standing for the express purpose of enjoying complaining loudly.

Sake lads. If you're going to moan, let's sit down and do it so at least we're comfy...

 

[Rooney_Tunes]

Must be honest that handball in the area still riles me. Momentum on the ball was on its way to the goals, sticks up a hand which deflects it away from goal and just one look and No penalty. Who was the VAR official?

 

[Disgruntledgoat]

Actually good point this....altho not very good players can run hard, can give it there all....didnt happen today

I don't agree it was half-arsed. A reduced squad have been asked to run hard 3 times in a week, some of them are sick. It's just the commitment and effort to overcome our limitations in the last few games has caught up with them.

 

[Bluebonic]

I thought Sidibe was MoM, with honourable mention for Mina, I thought Holgate, Davies, DCL and Richy at least showed they give shizz, even if their play wasn’t great, there was effort! However, Digne stunk the place out again, Pickfords distribution was gash again, although he gets out of jail because of that fine save, Siggurdsson spent most of the game avoiding getting the ball, Iwobi is not worth a carrot unless he is played as a no10, Tosun is utter, utter cack, Keane, needs to go and see a hypnotist to work on the terror he displays each time he he faced with an opposition player and last but not least Kean.

Young Moise has so far shown me nothing, absolutely nothing to hint at the talent that made us shell out for him. I do get that he is a kid in a foreign country, playing sporadically in a poorly performing team. However, I expect any 17 year old, even one off the back streets to be able to run around for 20 minutes, but he seems to have sub-Deulofeu levels of lung capacity?

whatever we are paying Ancellotti, he is going to have to earn it!

 

[Jeff Jones]

If this Iranian has the dough he says he has, he's got to back Carlo in January to replace as much of this squad as possible.

The trouble is that there usually aren't many top rate footballers for sale in mid season. This season is a write off, but Carlo will probably be able to
get enough out of this squad to get a respectable finish to it.

I must admit that this has been a horrible, disappointing match, but with my glass half full hat on what was supposed to be a nightmare December in
the league hasn't turned out that bad, results wise.

 

[Gaffa]

People talk about fatigue but can I remind you out of the 11 that played the majority of the game. Digne Gylfi Delph Sidibe and Tosun were fresh....

 

[Jeff Jones]

"Moise Kean having been brought up in Italy"


You mean born in Italy and being Italian you daft racist.

It's inaccurate, but it's not racist.

 

[PhilM]

Politely, have you seen the state of our team. Multiple injuries. We didn't play well today but hung in for a point. We need to do more of that.

Yes I have and it’s a fair point. Nevertheless when you compare our makeshift XI with their’s, I would still expect a better performance than yesterday’s.

Arsenal were there for the taking, but our lack of tempo (urgency?) coupled with dreadful passing and movement meant we couldn’t take advantage.

 

[BlueInNZ]

Can

I am not sure our brave lion hearts will take too kindly to a regimen that is a bit demanding. I would expect they’d ‘lay down tools’ if the friendly, ‘family first’, luvvy-dovey ethos that directs Everton is ever replaced with one where results matter .
I cannot see our brave lion hearts taking to this new manager if he expects them to put the importance of winning above visits to kids’ hospitals and orphanages, dressed in silly Blue Chrimbo outfits...

NSNO

Do you think you could ever manage a post without refering to our players as "brave lion hearts"? Its like every post you say it, kind of weird.

 

[Cameron Manning]

The odds of us winning 20+ coin tosses per season are astronomical, I think out of Courtesy most teams let us stay as we traditionally are.
But any snidey ex rs like Rogers or the snidiest little spaniard we know, will take it as a way, however small, to upset us.

Fair enough Degsy,but kicking into the Gwladys Street end in the second half has a pyschological advantage to Everton.

 

[GwladysBlue]

Still can’t believe we never got a shot off against that Arsenal defence. Appalling from us yesterday.

 

[degsy]

Fair enough Degsy,but kicking into the Gwladys Street end in the second half has a pyschological advantage to Everton.

Which is why the previously mentioned snides...and anybody else who is chasing each and every advantage...did it.

When the team is 'Up' The Gwladys St. suck it in - advantage to us
When the team is 'down' and the groans are, literally, audible - who's advantage is that?

It is traditional though and long may it continue.

 

[catcherintherye]

Yes I have and it’s a fair point. Nevertheless when you compare our makeshift XI with their’s, I would still expect a better performance than yesterday’s.

Arsenal were there for the taking, but our lack of tempo (urgency?) coupled with dreadful passing and movement meant we couldn’t take advantage.

They definitely were. It's a below par result, but maybe if Arteta has a bit of an impact there, a bit like the Spurs point at home we may look at it as an ok point.

We looked really tired, with a very stretched squad. I don't believe Mina, Sidibe, Digne are fully fit. I think Davies, Richarlinson, DCL are running onempty, and Sigurdsson and Delph are feeling their way back in. Probably one Holgate at present who looks sharp enough, and that shows a bit.

What we have done, is avoid losing when we are not at our best. We need to do this more, primarily to just keep some distance between us and the sides at the bottom. That has to be our first priority.

 

[catcherintherye]

Yep, sometimes you just gotta stuck it up and grab what you can. Sounds ridiculous but a but of game management/steel would have seen us walk away from Leicester and Brighton with a point apiece and just one win away from the top 10 instead of needing 2 wins.

Today was poor, but a clean sheet was had today, we take that positive and we move on to Burnley only this time we have someone we can all get behind.

Yes wholly agree with that, I'd add in to that Aston Villa and Bournemouth. We should have got out with one at 0-0 and another at 1-1. You can also throw Burnley in their too. Thats 5 extra points, from dong something unglamorous and just staying in games while drawing. Take 2 points off all of the sides mentioned too and we are clearly ahead of many of them (we'd be 11 points clear of Villa for example). There would be no fear re relegation whatsoever.

 

[PhilM]

They definitely were. It's a below par result, but maybe if Arteta has a bit of an impact there, a bit like the Spurs point at home we may look at it as an ok point.

We looked really tired, with a very stretched squad. I don't believe Mina, Sidibe, Digne are fully fit. I think Davies, Richarlinson, DCL are running onempty, and Sigurdsson and Delph are feeling their way back in. Probably one Holgate at present who looks sharp enough, and that shows a bit.

What we have done, is avoid losing when we are not at our best. We need to do this more, primarily to just keep some distance between us and the sides at the bottom. That has to be our first priority.

The (lack of) fitness and mounting injuries are almost certainly an issue and is for me another unfortunately legacy of the Silva era: we never look truly fit.

It reminded me of the Martinez era where pre-season wasn't given a priority and players were expected to gain their fitness over the first few months of the season.

For far too long, we've struggled to impose our selves for an entire forty-five minutes of a match, let alone an entire game; injuries mount up if you're not fully fit.

When you consider the injury list and our lack of physical preparations, it is no surprise that a by-product of Ferguson's more imposing tactics is we look exhausted.

Digne looked unfit and unprepared, and Delph and Gylfi slowed the game down even further with their lack of sharpness or perhaps that is something else entirely.

It worries me that we have a run of fixtures close together and we look exhausted already, so I hope that Carlo has something special up his sleeve.