Everton-Arsenal: Goodison Park, 29th December 2007

Arsenal have found it hard playing league games at Goodison Park over the last two seasons. On both occasions they have been beaten 1-0 and Everton would feel confident that they could keep that trend going.
 
After winning against Bolton Wanderers on Boxing Day, David Moyes kept faith with the same team.

Arsene Wenger didn’t have that luxury.

After a disappointing performance, away at Portsmouth, the Arsenal manager decided to shuffle his pack in an attempt to regain the top spot in the league.

The most notable change was the inclusion of Da Silva Eduardo. The exciting young striker has been making the headlines when playing for Arsenal’s Carling Cup side, but has found it hard getting chances to play in the Premier League.
 
So on a cold, rainy, windswept night (sparking a few memories of this fixture last season), the match kicked off.

And it was Everton who got the upper hand. Arsenal are known as one of the best footballing sides in the country. No long punts up field for them. They are a team who will pass the ball around in an attempt to create an opportunity, and when in full flow they are a joy to watch.
 
Only it wasn’t Arsenal who were doing all the passing, it was Everton.
 
But there was a problem. In much the same way they had controlled large parts of their last game against Bolton, Everton were still finding it hard to create a descant goal scoring opportunity.

In fact it was a mistake by the Arsenal defence that let Everton in to score.
 
Having failed to clear their lines, the Arsenal defenders then left both Yakubu and Cahill unmarked at the far post.

1-0  Everton.
 
It was hard to tell who had got the final touch, but the suggestion was it came off Cahill’s boot and not Yakubu’s head.

Never mind who had scored the main things was Everton had taken the lead. Against teams like Arsenal you don’t get many chances, and it’s important you make the most of the ones that come your way.
 
Many were expecting an Arsenal fight back-it never came.

Everton’s high tempo play was keeping Arsenal pined back. The best footballing team were being out played.

But as already mentioned, though Everton were controlling the game, they were not producing any real attempts on goal.

No more was this evident then when some great play down the right saw the ball fall to Neville who, unmarked at the edge of the area, blazed his shot over the bar when he had only Almunia to beat.
 
The first half came to an end and the fans were happy with the score line. But you knew Wenger would have a few words for his team in the changing room.
 
Those words didn’t take long to have an effect. With barley 90 seconds gone in the second half, a long ball forward by Clichy should have been easily cleared by Jagielka.

But he completely miss judged his jump and allowed the ball to fall to Eduardo who cleverly flicked it past the stranded Howard.

1-1.

Though the goal had given Arsenal more confidence, Everton were still playing some good stuff. And only 10 minutes after the equalizer a ball in from the left found Yakubu unmarked 6 yards out. With the whole goal gapping he put his bullet header well wide.
 
You never know how a goal could have changed the outcome of a game. At 2-1 maybe Everton would have pushed on, or maybe Arsenal would have fought harder. But speculating is pointless as it only took a minute for Arsenal to score at the other end.
 
Another long ball forward found Bendtner, he passed inside to Eduardo who controlled the ball with his hand before firing his shot past Howard. It seemed the handball was seen by everyone in the ground-except the referee or the linesman.

2-1 Arsenal.
 
The game continued but there was something missing from Everton’s play. Where was the pace? Where was the passing and the movement? Where was the team from the first half?

If Everton couldn’t lift their heads they were never going to get anything from the game.
 
A glimmer of hope came 25 minutes from time when Bendtner caught Johnson high on the shin with a late dangerous tackle.

The challenge was bad enough for a straight red, but the second yellow he received had the same effect. He was off and Arsenal were down to 10 men.
 
Everton needed to take advantage of the extra man. They needed a bit of composure and a bit of leadership.

What they didn’t need was a mix up between Yobo and Howard that allowed substitute Adebayor to race in on an open goal.

3-1 Arsenal.
 
Two mistakes and a handball had done for Everton.

In the first half they could have beaten anyone, but as Jimmy Greaves likes to say, it’s a funny old game.

In the second half Everton were a totally different team and had let Arsenal back into the game.
 
Any lasting hope for Everton vanished when Arteta was sent from the pitch. In an attempt to shrug off Fabregas, his arm brushed the side of the Arsenal players face. Fabregas threw him self to the floor like he had just been assaulted with a cricket bat. Arteta was given a straight red.
 
What annoys still is that referee, Martin Atkinson, saw this coming together of 2 players as more dangerous then Bendtner’s high challenge on Johnson, for which he only received a second yellow (the same out come, both off, but technically making Arteta’s foul the more dangerous one).
 
The game was more or less over, but there was still time for Diaby to find Rosicky who’s well hit shot beat 2 defenders and the keeper.

4-1 Arsenal.
 
And just in case you were wondering, Fabregas managed to overcome his grievous bodily injury and participate in the rest of the game.

I hate it when I see a player trying to con the referee in to giving them a free kick/penalty, and yes that goes for Yakubu and Neville’s pathetic diving attempts. But Fabregas’ performance was for one reason only, to get a fellow professional player sent off.

Many times games between the big four teams, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, degrade into a farce as players fall to the floor and constantly argue with the referee in an attempt to get one up on each other.

Maybe its some sort of twisted complement that Arsenal felt they had to resort to this type of tactic against Everton.
 
Although they will feel hard done by, Everton can’t really blame anyone but them selves.
One half of good football isn’t enough against a team like Arsenal. Hopefully this will be a lesson learned as they go into games against Middlesbrough, Oldham and Chelsea.