Andy Hunter’s report has landed, so that’s it for today’s blog. Thanks for your company and emails. Bye!
The matchwinner Leandro Trossard talks to Sky Sports
It was a perfect lay-off from Bukayo and I knew I had to hit it straight away with my left foot. It went in perfectly and I’m really happy with it. I’ve been practising all my life with both feet and it helps you in the game as an attacker.
We knew we had a poor record here. They always give you a hard time but the boys defended well. [On the short corners] They have a lot of tall guys and are good on set-pieces, so that was the thinking behind it. We work hard on [short corners]; we work hard on everything tactically!
The updated Premier League table
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 5 | 11 | 15 |
| 2 | Tottenham Hotspur | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 5 | 5 | 13 |
| 5 | Brighton | 5 | 8 | 12 |
| 6 | West Ham | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| 7 | Aston Villa | 5 | 1 | 9 |
| 8 | Crystal Palace | 5 | -1 | 7 |
| 9 | Fulham | 5 | -5 | 7 |
| 10 | Brentford | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| 11 | Newcastle | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 12 | Nottm Forest | 4 | 0 | 6 |
| 13 | Man Utd | 5 | -4 | 6 |
| 14 | Chelsea | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 15 | AFC Bournemouth | 5 | -4 | 3 |
| 16 | Wolverhampton | 5 | -6 | 3 |
| 17 | Sheff Utd | 5 | -4 | 1 |
| 18 | Everton | 5 | -7 | 1 |
| 19 | Burnley | 3 | -8 | 0 |
| 20 | Luton | 4 | -8 | 0 |
“I agree the player of the match is Ukrainian,” writes Joe Pearson. “And even though he’ll probably be on the losing side, Zinchenko’s countryman Mykolenko has been really good today.”
Yes, he was excellent. I don’t really understand Everton, because on paper their team is lower mid-table. Maybe such incessant negativity – especially at such a big club – overwhelms you in the end. I never thought they’d go down under Sean Dyche but I’m starting to worry about them.
Full time: Everton 0-1 Arsenal
Peep peep! Arsenal jump to fourth, two points behind you know who, after a hard-fought victory at Goodison Park. The ugliness of the win will please Mikel Arteta, as will the one-touch beauty of Leandro Trossard’s winning goals.
There are boos at the final whistle, though that feels a bit harsh on an Everton team who gave everything they had and stayed in the game throughout.
90+3 min Arsenal are a minute away from their first win on Merseyside since 2017.
90+1 min Four minutes of added time, a calculation about which Sean Dyche is rightly fuming. I suppose the rejoinder is that you could add on four hours and Everton wouldn’t score.
Updated
90 min Patterson’s pass is controlled neatly by Calvert-Lewin on the left of the area, but his poke across the area is neither one thing nor the other and the danger passes.
88 min Pickford’s free-kick from the halfway line is dropped by Raya, but Tarkowski is penalised for breathing the same air. A bit soft, though Gabriel would have cleared the ball anyway.
Updated
88 min: Double substitution Nathan Patterson and the young striker Youssef Chermiti replace Ashley Young and Dwight McNeil.
87 min The other thing that will please Mikel Arteta, if it stays like this, is the clean sheet. They’ve had only three in the last 15 league games.
86 min Havertz’s chipped cross from near the byline beats Pickford and almost drifts into the net. In the end it went out of play beyond the far post before curling back in.
84 min Tarkowski wins a couple of headers from a free-kick, but eventually Arsenal clear. The introduction of Tomiyasu and Havertz gives them more height at set-pieces.
83 min Everton’s upcoming league fixtures are Brentford (A), Luton (H), Bournemouth (H), Liverpool (A), West Ham (A).
That Luton match on 30 September already feels like a musn’t-lose game. Matches played in September really shouldn’t be musn’t-lose. They shouldn’t be must or mustn’t anything.
Updated
81 min Danjuma is now playing as the No10, literally and tactically, with Garner on the right and McNeil on the left.
80 min: Substitutions for both sides.
Everton James Garner for Abdoulaye Doucoure.
Arsenal Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kai Havertz for Oleksandr Zinchenko (probably the player of the match) and Fabio Vieira.
79 min Arsenal look well in control. A hard-fought victory like this would be a nice way to start a very important period: Champions League matches galore, plus Spurs and Man City at home.
77 min: Two chances for Arsenal! Trossard puts Odegaard through on goal with a smart first-time pass. His right-footed shot is well saved by Pickford, falling to his right. Vieira collects the rebound on the edge of the area and laces a shot that is superbly blocked by the sliding Mykolenko.
Updated
77 min “After 70 minutes of increasing prospect of ugh, anxety, déjà vu horror and all the rest of, not excluding uncharitable thoughts of Stoke City, finally the quality tells, finally a goal that counts,” rambles a relieved Charles Antaki.Prayers do perhaps work.”
Prayers and delayed short corners.
76 min Gabriel’s fine long pass almost releases Gabriel Jesus, but an imperfect second touch allows Mykolenko to get round and clear. At the other end, Gueye wafts high and wide from the edge of the area.
75 min Apparently Arsenal took 26 seconds to take that short corner. Sounds like it’s a definite plan.
74 min White’s very deep cross is volleyed wide from a tight angle. It came at an awkward height, and all Vieira could do was wave his leg like an arthritic ninja. Trossard, behind him, was probably in a better position.
72 min Pickford’s 90-yard pass reaches Mykolenko, whose hooked shot from a tight angle hits Saliba and goes behind. Everton’s first corner… is a stinker, straight into Raya’s arms.
Saka took the corner short to Odegaard, who fizzed it infield to Vieira in the D. He moved it back outside to Zinchenko, who found Odegaard, who played in the underlapping Saka on the right side of the area. Saka cut the ball back to Trossard, who opened his body to guide a first-time shot across goal with his left foot. Time stood still as the ball flew across Pickford… and then it clattered off the inside of the far post abefore rebounding into the net. That’s such a good finish, not least because the ball popped up slightly as it reached Trossard.
Updated
GOAL! Everton 0-1 Arsenal (Trossard 69)
A goal from Leandro Trossard is what happens next!
Updated
68 min The corner is cleared, but Saka soon wins another after running at Onana. What happens next?
68 min Saka wins a corner off Mykolenko, which makes it 7-0 to Arsenal in that particular statistic.
67 min Calvert-Lewin’s first touch is a smart layoff to Danjuma, who lobs over from the edge of the box. A quarter-chance at best.
66 min: Arsenal substitution Gabriel Jesus on, Eddie Nketiah off.
66 min: Everton substitution Dominic Calvert-Lewin replaces Beto, who took one for his new team by doing the graveyard shift up front. Calvert-Lewin is wearing a mask to protect the cheekbone he fractured last month.
Updated
64 min Free-kick to Everton 35 yards from goal. Young floats it in, Saliba heads clear. Everton haven’t made the most of their set-pieces today. Not that they’ve had many: just two or three free-kicks, still no corners.
62 min Zinchenko has been terrific today, certainly the most creative player on either side. That Arsenal box midfield must be brain-meltingly difficult to defend against, even when you have three dogs of war.
Updated
59 min Arsenal appeal unsuccessfully for a penalty when Zinchenko’s fierce long-range shot hits the charging Tarkowski on the arm and ricochets wide. He was outside the area, although it probably was a handball under the current laws.
58 min Rice picks Doucoure’s pocket in a dangerous area and pokes the ball forward to Odegaard. He slides it through to Nketiah, whose shot from a tight angle hits Tarkowski and goes behind for a corner. That was very good from Rice, who read the play superbly.
58 min Doucoure floors Saka, who winces as he gets to his feet. He’s nowhere near his best at the moment, and looks a bit worn down by the treatment he is getting from opposition defenders.
56 min Zinchenko again releases somebody on the left of the area with a lofted pass, Trossard this time. His low cross beats Pickford and is kicked away by Mykolenko as far as Vieira, whose shot is blocked. And then play is pulled back for an offside against Trossard.
55 min Eddie Nketiah had only had eight touches in the game, the fewest on either side. Arnaut Danjuma, whose presence on the field I’d sincerely forgotten, has had 12.
54 min Arsenal continue to probe, press and other five-letter words beginning with pr-. Saka’s deep cross is headed dangerously back across goal by Trossard, and Tarkowski stretches in front of Nketiah to intercept. Good defending.
52 min The longer this stays 0-0, the more empowered Arsenal will be if they do win it. It’s football’s eternal dilemma: would you prefer a stress-free 4-0 win or a stressful 97th-minute winner? The latter, clearly, but only if you know it’s going to happen, which you don’t.
Updated
50 min Zinchenko’s long-range stinger is blocked by Tarkowski. The VAR team check for handball but are thwarted when replays show Tarkowski’s arms were tucked into his body.
49 min “Losing Martinelli for any length of time would be a pretty big blow to Arsenal,” says Joe Pearson. “He’s played nearly every minute of every match so far this season (excluding this one, of course).”
It would, though Trossard is a very good replacement. The odd short-term injury might not be a bad thing, as it might help Arteta trust his back-up players more. He’ll have to rotate more in the Premier League this season.
Updated
48 min Gabriel is booked for a foul on Beto. Young’s free-kick isn’t the best and Saliba clears.
46 min: Good save from Pickford! A flying start from Arsenal. Rice slides a careful pass into Odegaard, on ther right side of the area. He cuts inside Branthwaite and hammers a shot that is pushed away to his right by Pickford. On reflection Odegaard should have done better; it was too close to the keeper.
46 min Peep peep! Abdoulaye Doucoure begins the second half.
Half-time reading
Half time: Everton 0-0 Arsenal
The last touch of an intriguing, uneventful half is a niggly foul by Saka, who has temporarily misplaced his joie de vivre, on Onana. That’s another small victory for Everton, who have frustrated Arsenal with their defensive excellence. Gabriel Martinelli had a goal disallowed for a modern offside; that aside, Arsenal created little. Everton created even less, but they’ll hope to change that in the second half.
45+4 min Arsenal have used one of their substitution windows, so I wonder if we might see Gabriel Jesus replace Eddie Nketiah as early as half-time.
45+3 min Saliba goes down holding his face after a challenge with Beto. The referee tells him to get up, so Arsenal kick the ball out of play. Beto caught him with a flailing arm, no more or less, and VAR doesn’t get involved.
45+3 min “Gary Neville’s increasingly tenuous reasoning as to why that was not offside reminded me of how I try to keep face when my kids find out that I’m completely wrong on something,” writes Niall Mullen. “No, I did smash a glass but only because you and your sister were making too much noise.”
45+2 min Young takes a shortcut through the back of Trossard and is booked.
45+2 min Gueye’s cross is chested down by McNeil, whose half-volley on the turn hits Saliba. Some of the home crowd appeal for a penalty but there was nothing in it.
45+1 min Four minutes of added time.
45 min Arsenal must be starting to experience deja vu, though there is an upside to that as well: by winning the game they can change the narrative, the record or whatever we’re calling it these days, thus telling their subconscious that this season is different.
It’s a really important second half for them. If they don’t win today it’ll be a big blow, even this early in the season, and another failure the wrong side of Watford Gap.
44 min Zinchenko’s brilliant lofted pass releases Vieira on the left side of the area. He tries to cut it back to Nketiah but Branthwaite deflects the ball to safety. Vieira might have been offside anyway.
Updated
42 min “Another VAR LOL,” says David Bowen. “Would anyone in the ground or watching on the old telebox really be overcome with righteousness injustice if that goal stood? Or put it another way, if there was a cricket style DRS would any Everton player referred that? Actually they were appealing so they might have done. Oh I don’t know any more Rob. Do you? Does anyone?”
No. One of the most miserable things about VAR is watching grown men - on the pitch and in the crowd – trying it on the moment the ball hits a defender’s hand, even if that defender is on all fours, unconscious, 0.0001 millimetres away from the ball, and two yards outside the penalty area. The hell with it.
40 min McNeil’s long-range shot is kicked away on the edge of the area. Arsenal break but Everton’s back nine get into position very quickly. Eventually White cuts inside, plays a one-two with Odegaard and hits a rising drive from 20 yards that is comfortably saved by Pickford. I think that’s the first shot on target at either end.
39 min Sean Dyche will be thrilled with this first half, which is a slightly odd thing to say given that Everton have barely had a kick. I suppose the same was true of Arsenal at Anfield in 1989; all that mattered was having a clean sheet at half-time.
Updated
38 min “Not that hard,” says Rick McGahey of the disallowed goal. “In an offside position. Yes. Was ball played “deliberately” by opponent? No, a deflection and not off an attempt to play the ball (an attempt would be ‘deliberate’ even if it didn’t go where it was meant to). So, attacker in offside position, didn’t get ball from a deliberate play by opponent, offside.”
Isn’t that exactly what I said? I agree with you, though I’m not sure about the need for a touch to be deliberate. Gabriel was playing the ball nowhere near Nketiah, so shouldn’t the deflection just be part of football’s natural variables? Not sure, I’d need to think about it. It’s befuddled me since that Karim Benzema goal was disallowed in the Champions League final.
37 min Mykolenko is very late on Saka, who goes down in pain. There’s a VAR check for a red card but it wasn’t that bad. He should have been booked though. In fact the referee didn’t give a free-kick so he must have followed the ball.
Updated
34 min The disallowed goal was the only time Arsenal have really opened Everton up. It’s a slightly odd game – the atmosphere is really flat, like a library, and Everton aren’t getting after Arsenal at all. But they are defending very well.
32 min “Ramsdale will always be a fan favourite and he is a top-class goalkeeper,” says Chris Lambert. “Whatever Arteta sees in the background he could never publicly discuss replacement - he’d catch far too much flak. If that is his plan, it’ll be executed by the inch not the mile.”
Surely it’s better to rip the plaster off like Guardiola did with Joe Hart? Then again, I suppose Alex Ferguson was a master of getting rid of players in stages. My instinct is it’s a bad idea, if that is what Arteta is doing. Maybe he does just want two high-class goalkeepers and thinks he can keep them both happy.
31 min Doucoure charges away from Rice, into the area, but then initiates contact with Saliba and falls over. No penalty. Moments later, Gueye’s low shot from distance is comfortably saved by Raya.
30 min Possession so far: Everton 21-79 Arsenal. Of far greater interest to Sean Dyche is the shots on target: 0-0.
30 min A slightly better attack from Everton, but Young’s cross is held comfortably by Raya. That’s the first vaguely signification thing he’s had to do.
28 min Beto is far too isolated for Everton. Gary Neville is still suggesting the offside decision was wrong; it looked fine to me, though I certainly don’t trust the technology 100 per cent. I thought John Stones’ goal against Arsenal last season, for example, looked pretty iffy. “Offside is offside” should be banned from football punditry until we see how the whole process works.
26 min White’s cross is half cleared to Rice, who neatly makes room for a low shot that is kicked away by Branthwaite. It’s still all Arsenal.
Discuss...👇💬 pic.twitter.com/x5W2Bp7eyC
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 17, 2023
24 min: Arsenal substitution Leandro Trossard replaces Gabriel Martinelli, who went down with an injury almost as soon as play resumed after the disallowed goal. Not sure what it is, though it appears muscular.
Updated
23 min Nketiah looks well offside to me; the issue is more with the confusing law regarding a deliberate attempt to play the ball.
A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball, including by deliberate handball, is not considered to have gained an advantage, unless it was a deliberate save by any opponent.
Updated
NO GOAL! Everton 0-0 Arsenal
It was offside. I think the reasoning is that Beto didn’t make an attempt to play the ball when Gabriel’s pass deflected off him, so his contribution was irrelevant. But there is also a discussion as to whether Nketiah was in an offside position; Gary Neville is querying the angle that was shown on the TV.
Updated
Nketiah collected a loose ball and touched it off to Vieira. Everton stopped, thinking Nketiah was offside (he was, but I think the touch was off an Everton player; it’s being checked by VAR). Vieira slid a fine pass through to Martinelli, who opened his body to shape an emphatic finish into the far corner.
GOAL! Everton 0-1 Arsenal (Martinelli 19)
To say it was coming would be an understatement.
Updated
18 min White’s teasing cross is sliced away from goal by Vieira, who was stretching to volley from a tight angle. The Arsenal pressure is pretty incessant; Everton can’t get out.
17 min “As a Villa fan, I’m happy with this season so far,” writes Tony Hughes. “However, growing up in Scotland, this season feel like the SPL for most of the 1990s, with Man City playing the Rangers role, and Arsenal or Liverpool as Celtic. In other words, how far behind City will Arsenal or Liverpool finish and who will finish third? Even as a Rangers fan back then, it got sort of dull.”
Yeah, this feels like the period between 1999-2001 when Man Utd won the league by 18 points (in 1999-2000) and by New Year’s Day (2000-01). But you never know what’s round the corner – that summer they bought two of the world’s best players, and everyone assumed they’d win the league by October. Everyone except Scott Murray. We all know what happened next.
15 min The pattern of the game is as expected, almost to the point of cliche. Everton’s midfield structure is interesting: Gueye on Zinchenko, Doucoure on Rice and Onana putting out as man of Vieira and Odegaard’s fires as possible.
14 min “So, Moshiri leaving?” says Bill Hargreaves. “The tribulations of the unfortunately owned fans. Wasn’t long ago that many Gooners were hoping Usmanov would take over. Now we seem like sheep in clover. The Kroenkes seem to know what they’re doing, and the son at least seems genuinely attached. Was Everton no more than an ill-advised plaything? Man Utf no more than a greed-inspired trinket? Do the pre-match burgers taste better under the right ownership?”
Burger and chips at The Emirates (@Arsenal)
— Footy Scran (@FootyScran) June 10, 2022
💷 £11 pic.twitter.com/ugMv5f8P6z
12 min Nketiah leaves a bit on Pickford, who just beat him to Branthwaite’s iffy backpass. There wasn’t much in it, in truth, though it has stirred the home crowd.
11 min “One of the things sometimes given in defence of Moshiri is that he’s spent a lot of money on the team,” writes David Wall. “But ill-directed spending is no help at all, and in fact can work against the manager (see also Manchester United in the past decade, and Chelsea in the past year). All it does is create an unbalanced squad filled with big names, that supporters expect to see play and perhaps managers feel pressure to play, whether they fit the team or not. And on top of that it creates expectations, that having spent all that money the club should be successful. Perhaps we’d be better off when making predictions and forming expectations looking at the quality of the player signed and how they fit into a squad rather than just looking at the overall outlay.”
There’s more chance of me hitting my head on the ceiling of St Peter’s Basilica.
9 min One corner begets another when Branthwaite’s attempted clearance hits a teammate and ricochets behind. Arsenal work the corner short, back to Zinchenko. He guides the ball into Vieira, who wafts over from 17 yards. Half a chance.
8 min Odegaard’s sliderule pass towards Saka is put behind for a corner by Branthwaite. I forgot to say that McNeil is on the left, Danjuma on the right for the time being.
7 min Nothing much to report. Arsenal are dominating, though Beto has held the ball up well on a couple of occasions.
5 min “I sort of feel like Arteta’s ‘power’ comes from a Napoleon complex,” writes Eagle Brosi. “He feels he was a better player than anyone gave him credit for. This is why he slips up against Everton. He was their captain, he was loved; he doesn’t have that motivation to stay up till 2am studying their weaknesses. It’s also why every time Arteta’s been awarded manager of the month - he loses the next match. At least that’s my theory.”
As somebody who is a long way short of 6ft, I got nuthin to say.
3 min Some nice, rhythmic passing from Arsenal, who win the first corner on the right. Saka takes, Tarkowski heads away.
2 min Onana, not Idrissa Gueye, has started as the deepest Everton midfielder. That’s interesting. In fact, Gueye is basically following Zinchenko when Arsenal have the ball. Has a left-back ever been man-marked before? I think Phil Neville was brought on to mark Inter’s Javier Zanetti in 1998-99, though that was when Zanetti was at right-back.
Updated
1 min Peep peep! Bukayo Saka gets the game under way, with Arsenal kicking from left to right as we watch.
Match report: Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea
“Good morning from Pittsburgh!” says Eric Peterson. “I would urge those considering Arsenal’s title chances to nip all such thoughts in the bud until they show they can actually play like it. Arsenal have, in order: stumbled to underwhelming one-goal wins over Forest and Palace, dropped points by yielding an equaliser to 10-man Fulham, and waited until stoppage time to finally get the winning goal against Manchester United (which may be the most shameful performance of all, come to think of it). The Arsenal I see so far this year is a clear level below the one that looked like the class of the division for three-fourths of last season.”
Yeah, I think only Liverpool might challenge City, though I said the same this time last year.
“So!” says Charles Antaki. “Here we go then with the Raya/Ramsdale face/off. With luck, Arteta will defuse it all with a judicious announcement of a temporary injury of some sort to Ramsdale, otherwise the whispers will begin in earnest. A 5-0 win over Everton will be the happier distraction, but recalling what happened last time, that’s not a given.”
Rotation is hard enough for young managers to master without adding an unnecessary layer. I suspect he’s trying to replace Ramsdale in stages, but that has risks of its own.
Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea was the score in the early game.
Pre-match reading
Team news
Dwight McNeil starts an Everton game for the first time this season, replacing James Garner on the right wing. Vitaliy Mykolenko comes in for Nathan Patterson, which means Ashley Young will move to right-back. Beto makes his home debut and Dominic Calvert-Lewin is among the substitutes.
David Raya makes his debut in goal for Arsenal, while Fabio Vieira is preferred to Kai Havertz in midfield. Eddie Nketiah keeps his place up front for now.
Everton (4-1-4-1) Pickford; Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye; McNeil, Doucoure, Onana, Danjuma; Beto.
Substitutes: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Godfrey, Garner, Onyango, Dobbin, Chermiti, Calvert-Lewin.
Arsenal (4-1-2-3) Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Rice; Odegaard, Vieira; Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli.
Substitutes: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Jorginho, Havertz, Trossard, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Jesus.
Referee Simon Hooper.
Preamble
Arsenal have a love/hate relationship with the north of England. They’ve won titles at Anfield and Old Trafford; they’ve also lost them at the Reebok Stadium, the Etihad and Old Trafford. No team has been called “southern softies” more often; no southern team has had as many euphoric moments the wrong side of Watford Gap.
If Arsenal are going to win the league under Mikel Arteta, they will have to do better in the north. Last season they dropped 11 points in Manchester and Merseyside alone, including a costly defeat at Goodison Park in Sean Dyche’s first game as Everton manager.
Arsenal’s recent record at Everton is woeful, with just one point in the last five visits. Given the overall performances of the teams in those five seasons – Arsenal 340 points, Everton 237 – that’s far from ideal.
Everton’s home form is even further from ideal, with five defeats in the last six games, and their planned takeover isn’t going to plan either. They are in desperate need of a defiant Goodison victory; trouble is, Arsenal need three points every bit as much, for very different reasons.
Kick off 4.30pm.
