Loss Premier League: Everton 1 - 0 Arsenal | Saturday 4th, February | KO: 12:30 GMT| BT Sport

This should be relatively straightforward, the new manager bounce not withstanding.

The starting xi picks itself, unless Partey is not fit enough to start and Lokonga takes his place.

 

[ArsenalInMyHeart]

I didn't watch this game because i was on the plane. But look at the result, i'm very disappointed

 

[field442]

Had some time to reflect on the game. We were beaten by a strong Sean Dyche team with the Goodison crowd at their high. There have been underperforming players in the last few games, but we must continue.

 

[Kingslayer]

Out of curiosity. Who do we think would have been better in the Everton situation? Caicedo? Or Zubimendi? Think the answer is obvious.

Onana

 

[Nunowoolmez]

Had some time to reflect on the game. We were beaten by a strong Sean Dyche team with the Goodison crowd at their high. There have been underperforming players in the last few games, but we must continue.

Yeah they had been well drilled & had new manager bounce.

Ode & Eddie not taking their chances were fairly big factors, but even so, Everton deserved the win.

We have to be more clinical with chances.

 

[avenellroad]

What frustrated me the most yesterday was that with the exception of Saka's one shot that beat the keeper and was going in if it wasn't cleared off the line, the finishing from all our players was dogsh*t. So when we finally did get in a good shooting position we just blasted it off target everytime, it's like we forgot our shooting boots today.

Ødegaard could score so many more goals if he can get his body over the ball rather than leaning back when hitting the ball. Remember a similar chance against Newcastle when he skied it from a similar position. Shooting practice needed for the whole team

 

[BergMan]

Everton created and missed two sitters in the first half, and created other chances, with Partey on the pitch. After Partey came off and Jorginho came on did Everton create a chance from open play? Not putting it on Partey obviously, but the nonsense agendas against Jorginho make no sense.

People saying with Partey we don’t concede from that corner. That’s a stretch, we conceded from a corner against Utd in our last game.

 

[pigge]

Fatigue comes in different ways. We've played Sp**s, United, City and now Everton. The Sp**s game we dominated the 1st half and 2nd half had to focus so much on defending. We had 40% possession 2nd half. That is tiring against what is still a good team in a high pressured high intensity game. Next we play United. A game in which we went behind came back, they equalised and then we put so much pressure to score a 90th minute winner. High energy, high intensity, mentally draining game. Then City. We rotate slightly but all our big players still play, some come on to chase the game. Then we play a tough game against Everton who have a new manager. We see mistakes ane snatched at chances, and we lose.

So yes, i believe some players will be fatigued physically and mentally as a result of that run of games.

It's good that we continue playing them then imo, so they get used to it. Can't have players that can't handle playing once a week.

 

[pigge]

What frustrated me the most yesterday was that with the exception of Saka's one shot that beat the keeper and was going in if it wasn't cleared off the line, the finishing from all our players was dogsh*t. So when we finally did get in a good shooting position we just blasted it off target everytime, it's like we forgot our shooting boots today.

Yeah awfuls shots today, Nketiah's early shot from a hard angle was a poor decision imo, Martinelli would've been free in the middle. He might not have seen him though tbf

 

[MikeVinna]

Having seen it now it’s just mostly dissappointment over our attacking play and finishing for me. Gotta get those shots on goal at least. You’ll always concede a goal like we did occasionally. You simply can’t defend every corner in a season. But to not score here was our undoing.

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Everton created and missed two sitters in the first half, and created other chances, with Partey on the pitch. After Partey came off and Jorginho came on did Everton create a chance from open play? Not putting it on Partey obviously, but the nonsense agendas against Jorginho make no sense.

People saying with Partey we don’t concede from that corner. That’s a stretch, we conceded from a corner against Utd in our last game.

Not putting anything at all on Jorginho. We just historically have a phenomenal win rate with Xhaka and Partey on the pitch. The luck just seems to go our way, even when individually they dont have great games.

 

[Uncle Good-Advice]

My few takes.

Result - disappointing however we cannot play our best football all the time and I expect few more bumps on our road to the title. Good thing that it happened at one of our bogey grounds.

Performance - hard to praise anybody, it was like a ghost from the past when we used to almost forget how to create chances and those that we did create were totally wasted. I expect us to get back on track against Brentford.

Toothless attack - it took a while but looks like our plan A is found out, first Newcastle, then United and now Everton applied similar defensive strategy, doubling Saka and Martinelli. I've been saying this before but Arteta need to find alternative tactical approach. Good thing is that opposition have to sacrifice a lot in attack to try and stop our wingers and not many teams have wide men who likes to help in defence. And they need to be really good at set pieces to score as chances from open play will be limited for them.

Nketiah - as good as he was recently I think we need to involve him more in the build-up in matches like this. He was almost invisible yesterday. Him dropping deeper will confuse defenders and won't allow them to help on the wings. Right now it's rather obvious what we're going to play and even if we try to isolate Saka help is coming very quickly because of lack of threat in the middle.

 

[SuperGoon]

This disappointment suddenly looks good.

Pity we couldn't have widened the gap though.

 

[Red London]

Even a draw here would have been amazing considering City lost tonight.

We move.

 

[jgirolami]

When is our game in hand going to be played? looking at rest of fixtures it seems to be the Everton game at the carpet but when roughly would that be? Helps having points on board rather than just saying we have a game in hand. Would love to be going into a ****ty game knowing we were 8 clear and all pressure would be on them.

 

[albakos]

Having seen it now it’s just mostly dissappointment over our attacking play and finishing for me. Gotta get those shots on goal at least. You’ll always concede a goal like we did occasionally. You simply can’t defend every corner in a season. But to not score here was our undoing.

Everton were the better side than us and a deserving winner with better chances.

But I cannot help but feel disappointed that we conceded the goal from a corner kick that shouldn't have been for Everton in the first place. If you watch the replay, it is very clear that the ball bounced off Iwobi and it should have been a goal-kick for us.

So yes, some may call this sour grapes and what not, but when luck/ref decision is not on your side on these tense matches (similarly a corner kick was not awarded to us earlier with Saka not touching it last), even a small mistake like that Everton non-corner costs you at FT.

 

[SA Gunner]

Jon describes in the video above how you can stop us from playing, and that is keep numbers in central areas at all times. In Dyche’s case it was maintaining 5 centrally.

Ensure that central numbers are always present, and keep our creative 8s occupied. Add to this a high press in certain areas and you become a threat on the ball as well.

We need slightly more technical play sure. But we also need further variety to our game, to give us added options to just creating overloads, because teams will start to track us like this more.

Brentford and City games should be interesting, because I expect us to be marked and closed down in similar ways to what we saw against Everton. We will see what Arteta can come up with in quick response.

 

[GoonerBoy19]

We got dyched, tactics from them was simply spot on. It can happen to seasoned managers like Pep, Klopp etc and Arteta is still learning the trade. But we need to add more dimensions into the game. When our wingers are doubled up and central areas are crowded out we need to find a solution. Off course once Jesus comes back he will add another dimension but with the current team we need to have a solid plan.

Title race is still open, 3 teams can still win it Mathematically ala Wenger. Just take one game at a time and don't think about the title for now, less we think about it more we will win games.

 

[MartiSaka]

Jon describes in the video above how you can stop us from playing, and that is keep numbers in central areas at all times. In Dyche’s case it was maintaining 5 centrally.

Ensure that central numbers are always present, and keep our creative 8s occupied. Add to this a high press in certain areas and you become a threat on the ball as well.

We need slightly more technical play sure. But we also need further variety to our game, to give us added options to just creating overloads, because teams will start to track us like this more.

Brentford and City games should be interesting, because I expect us to be marked and closed down in similar ways to what we saw against Everton. We will see what Arteta can come up with in quick response.

I was gonna post this. It was a great video and rarely what Jon shows on the board is so clearly evident in the video as this. There is also video of Dyche with 5 fingers up at about 7 mins, reminding his players to maintain a line of 5 centrally. Dyche is a great defensive strategist who can implement his ideas quickly. Still to be seen if he can implement a high quality offence.

 

[Tom Mix]

I think it was important we had discipline/ some control against Man City in CM.
The absolute last thing you need is getting exposed & beaten heavily in that fixture psychology with 2 very important league games still to play against them.

Also you have to factor in that Mo was injured so the only other option was Sambi who can struggle as a DM against poorer teams so would be a big concern against City.

Over 7 days until the next game which all pros including TP should be able to cope with.
It was hardly asking him to play Thur in Europa & then Sun in the league.

We've paid the price. Losing 1-0 with a strong team was no better than losing 5-0 with the youth team. But losing yesterday may well cost us the league so for no gain we have really shot ourselves in both feet.

 

[Blankety Blank]

We've paid the price. Losing 1-0 with a strong team was no better than losing 5-0 with the youth team. But losing yesterday may well cost us the league so for no gain we have really shot ourselves in both feet.

We made half a dozen changes against City losing 1-0 is way better than being spanked. Your post is 100% hindsight driven. You seem to think we have a god given right to win every game lol. We always struggle seen to struggle at Everton. Especially with the new manager It was always gonna be tough.
All Teams lose games. We have lost 2 out 20 now in the league.
If in our final 18 games we only lose another 2 I would bite ur hand off.

You say losing at Everton may have cost us the league. It's just like saying losing at Sp**s may have cost Man City the league.

We come away from the weekend exactly the same v Man City as where we started it. I would certainly take that til the end of the season.