Everton 1-0 Arsenal
Unai Emery’s Arsenal failed to take a firm hold of a top four place in the Premier League today, losing to in-form Everton at Goodison Park.
An early goal from Toffees captain Phil Jagielka was enough to seal the points, and it was a worryingly lacklustre performance from the Gunners, so impressive at home, but so flaky when they are on the road. Their sixth defeat away from home means they could well drop of the top four when Chelsea plays West Ham tomorrow.
And the win lifted the Toffees to ninth place and just one point behind Leicester City in seventh position in the race to be ‘the best of the rest’. It was fully deserved win for Marco Silva’s team and it could easily have been by a bigger margin.
Highlights of the game
Everton had a superb home win against Maurzio Sarri’s Chelsea recently and they got off to the perfect start today, when veteran defender Phil Jagielka helped on a long throw from Luca Digne and when the ball landed back at his feet he poked home.
It was Jagielka’s first Premier League goal for two years, and he was only in the side because centre back Michael Keane felt unwell in the run up to the game. It was a great moment for the Everton stalwart who was wearing the captain’s armband.
Everton had the better of the first half, playing at a higher tempo, snapping into tackles and getting the ball forward quickly. The Toffees no nonsense approach was paying off and they had a good chance to double their lead, shortly before the break when Gylfi Sigurdsson had space to shoot but Bernd Leno saved.
The Toffees’ goalkeeper Jordan Pickford has been under pressure after a series of mistakes and a lively night out in Sunderland which hit the front pages of the UK press, but he kept his place and had a mercifully quiet first half.
Unai Emery isn’t slow to make substitutions and he brought Arsenal’s top scorer Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang on, alongside Aaron Ramsey. And the Welsh midfielder almost made an immediate impact when he met a weak Pickford punch but volleyed over the bar. Arsenal was playing with more intent and Ramsay had another chance for a corner but sliced his shot well wide. He had twice as many efforts in five minutes than the whole Arsenal team had in the first 45!
Marco Silva’s side was chasing three consecutive clean sheets for the first time this season and the early second half exchanges suggested they’d have to work hard for it. But Everton came back on the attack and when Bernard latched on to a poor header from Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Leno had to be out quickly to deny the Everton man.
The game began to get stretched and Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan beat Seamus Coleman but curled his shot just wide. And then Everton had two great chances to put some distance between them and the Gunners, but Sigurdsson’s first time effort was straight at Pickford, and then Richarlison fired wide when he had time to pick his spot.
Bernard had another opportunity but, once again, shot straight at Leno. We waited for an Arsenal onslaught, and waited.
But it never came.
Key statistics
The recent Everton vs Arsenal results were very much in the visitors’ favour, but that mattered not one bit to the 39,000 fans packed into a sunny Goodison Park as they watched their team run out deserved winners.
The Gunners had won four on the bounce against the Toffees and so most Everton vs Arsenal betting tips pointed to an away win, but there was no sign of that in a first half as they registered just one shot, while the hosts had six attempts on goal.
Everton’s first win against Arsenal in three years was never in much doubt as they ended up registering 22 shots to the Gunners’ seven.
Arsenal still hasn’t had an away clean sheet this season, and if they don’t remedy that I can see the Gunners missing out on Champions League football.
What’s next?
The Toffees have a very winnable game away to relegated Fulham next week; and then it’s one of their fans’ favourite fixtures, a home game against Manchester United. We’ll be watching that one so keep it here for the latest SBOBET tips and updates.
Meanwhile, the Gunners have a home Europa League tie against Napoli to look forward to and that will be a fascinating clash between two of Europe’s most attractive sides. Napoli will be in the Champions League again next season where Unai Emery’s team will hope to join them. But they’ll have to play better than they did today.
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