Lightning could not strike twice for Sean Dyche’s Everton side despite a stubborn and hardworking opening forty minutes. From the moment that the rapier sharp Bukayo Saka smashed a right-footed shot over his England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford the result of this one was, in true Arsenal fashion, never in doubt.
Everton did well for most of the first half, and we were not at our incisive best, the final ball being somewhat lacking from us, and the Toffees even managed a couple of shots on target before we got our first. They were everything Baff told us they would be in his perfectly-judged preview (note: as I type this, Sheffield Utd have just knocked the spuds out of the FA Cup – hahahahaha!)
I haven’t got it in me to do anything other than doff my cap to Dyche and his ability to turn a team playing without confidence or purpose into one that looked solid, organised and a decent outift. They were physical, but they didn’t take the piss like some have, although I could do without a unit like Onana (what’s his name?) falling on the floor and getting play stopped for a head injury every time anyone disturbed his aura.
The first half was intriguing, despite a lack of goal-mouth action. We saw some lovely fluidity from our front four with Trossard and Ødegaard getting out to the wings, allowing Saka and Gabigol to head central, albeit nothing came of any of it. Jorginho and Zinchenko provided the midfield platform, spraying the ball about, whilst Xhaka drifted around and occupied pockets of space. We were patient and it was all pretty good – except we had no end product.
Until, suddenly, we did.
Fed up with making clever runs only to find two blokes marking him, Saka drifted into their box and donned his invisibility cloak. Of course, Oleksander Zinchenko has magic in his veins, so, unlike the Burnley Everton defenders, he could actually see our number 7 and duly threaded the ball through to him, where he stood unmarked. With his weaker foot he leathered the ball past the near post and into the roof of the net. The faithful went wild. The lad himself looked rather happy too.
Moments later we had another. Ødegaard’s level has been immense this season but this was absolutely outrageous and the boy was taking the mickey today. Five moves ahead of anyone else in the stadium, and sensing that Gueye could be lured into an error, our captain pretended to get the ball stuck under his feet and fall over. To any but the most observant eye it looked like he had done just that, and Gueye took the bait hook, line and sinker as he ambled in and poached the ball. However, like some sort of Premier League Derren Brown, the Norwegian maestro had confused him into dawdling on it like he was Pickford taking a goal kick, and his brain froze as he did nothing and still nothing and a bit more nothing until Saka nicked the ball off him and Martinelli swept it home.
The lino immediately ruled it out for offside, but we had time for a quick round of VAR Pot Luck, and it turned out that we had the winning ticket on this occasion. Frankly, I’ve got no idea what decision they are gonna make even after I’ve seen the freeze-frames, but I liked the one today. More of those please.
We brought on Partey at half-time. I’ve been really impressed with Jorginho every time he has played and his signing looks to me like a very canny piece of business, but it isn’t fair to a single player in this squad (or league) to ask them to do what Partey does, because he is simply the business. That bloke is just one hell of a player. He does the job of two people, a bone fide monster.
Also, while I’m at it, Ben White looked so good today. No goals or assists, and he wasn’t up against much from an offensive perspective (“Neal Maupay… The prosecution rests, my lord.”) but he looked consummately in control.
As the half wore on, we turned the screw, ratcheting up the pressure, which told in the 70th minute when our captain made the most of a lovely cross from the dangerous Trossard, who had been left in far too much space on the left wing, to side foot a right-footed shot home for our third.
By this point we were purring, an absolute Rolls Royce performance. The excellent crowd gave us a few oles, which I’m no fan of, but hey, they’ve earned the right with the support they have shown this season, which has been as phenomenal as the team.
We really could have had more. Trossard and Gabi could have scored, before Xhaka and Leo were replaced by Vieira and Eddie, who both could have scored too.
Nketiah did grab an assist, after making a nice run into the inside left channel and squaring for our young Brazilian tyro to boost his excellent numbers further as he nipped in front of the defender and slotted a finish through the keeper’s legs. Timewaste that, Jordan.
All you need is to add some punctuation and ‘Timewaste’ is an anagram of ‘See? I’m twat!’
I’m just saying, Jordan. Just saying.
Zinchenko and Ødegaard went off, job done. KT3 came on for the Ukrainian and decided that his way of playing left-back is much better than the way the Scot has been doing it all these years. He promptly took up a position in the centre circle and showed repeatedly for the immaculate Gabriel and Saliba, who for some reason seemed less inclined to give him the ball in that area than they do Zinchenko, and funnelled it out wide, much to Tierney’s chagrin.
I am not a composer, and I can’t play the bagpipes, but if we don’t win the league this year then I’ll have to spend some time brushing up my skills and coming up with a pibroch to lament the occasion, because “Tierney’s Chagrin” is too good a title to waste. Or, failing that, I’ll invent a cocktail. I may be on safer ground here. Maybe a single malt mixed with Baileys? That’s enough to make any reasonable person cry.
I was chuffed to see our captain replaced by our number 10. I love ESR, and although he will need a few more cameos, and perhaps some Europa League game time, to get fully up to speed, he is a player whose goals and guile will be vital before this season is over. Welcome back into the fold young man.
Michael Oliver let Everton off the hook with a mere two minutes of injury time and then blew up a few seconds early anyway, the crowd roaring at a job well done as the final whistle sounded.
We are five points clear at the top the league, and our goal difference also got a boost. We played well and have three out of our next four league games coming up at The New Home Of Football.
Game by game. Step by step. That’s what got us this far, and it’s a great place to be…
But how much further can we go?
Until next time, have a good one ‘holics.
Lightning quick GSD, like Saka’s foot speed as he crashed home the opener. An amusing and well-written review to round off an almost perfect start to the day in Osaka.
That’s the game I saw, Dino. Great performance. Great report. Loverly jubberly.
As you say, one game at a time. It’s just like skiing down a terrifying black run. Don’t look down the slope. Just concentrate on your next turn, then the next one, then the next one….
Come on up to town, Bournemouth.
A superb and amusing report out of the Faber stable of lightning quick and very insightful analyses . I have seen the game only on the highlights as I was at a food bank function today which I could not miss .Those highlights and this excellent report have filled in the gaps for me although mixing single malts with Baileys will be a capital offence when I come to power !
I’m soooo impressed with Zinchenko who plays with such personality. Saka is close to the best wide player in the world and Partey is a beast .
How sick must the Spuds be feeling ahead of their clash with Milan. It’s their fifty sixth transitional season in a row , or is it sixty one or sixty two. Do I care ?
We really do have chances of something extraordinary this season .
Well done GSD
To all.
We are just bloody awesome.
That is all
Poor Tottenham, I remember when they were a big team, MO actually I don’t m’wahahaha
Top drawer report, GSD. Drove home from the Canadian border ski lodge as the game was being played, then watched the recorded game without knowing the score so experienced the tenseness of those first 40 minutes but thank you Saka and friends for that breakthrough and clean sheet. Say we are top of the league and headed nowhere else fast.
Great going, GSD. As others have said, lightening fast and on the money.
Superb report, Dino. Loved the anagram. Let’s do the same to Bournemouth and hope that Stokecastle do on Saturday at City what they did at the Emirates – time waste and act their way to yet another of their draws.
Great stuff, GSD. It’s always nice to read reports after such an emphatic win.
Also yes, 2 minutes only of added time in the second half is pretty much unheard of these days. This time I was actually disappointed by that, fancied improving our goal difference further.
Also a word for Ramsdale at the end making sure we/he kept the clean sheet (on top of another very important save at 2-0).
There is amazing spirit in this team.
Cheers all. It was a fun one to write up.
Ollie is right to mention those Ramsdale saves. They were good stops. If we’d conceded at the end, he would have been furious, and he’d have let his team mates know about how unacceptable it was to concede. The dressing room mood would have been less jubilant with Rambo on the warpath!
Morning Dino. A great and very funny report. Last week I mentioned the fact that our Ukrainian left back, Zinchenko, kept popping up at inside right. Well he did it again last night, from whence he slid in Saka for his wonder strike, our first. I also loved the way that Tross and Gabi were so fluid on the left centre, constantly swapping positions.
GSD’s anagram game is fierce.
Great game. Great report. So many kudos, so many who deserve flowers.
Win the next match.
MCMBD.
Cheers GSD!
Applause, applause GSD – continuing in your own style – laughs, jibes, marvellous metaphors and a few facts ! 🤣
And all in time to cheer up TTG after his other engagement – but if you believe that man uses a food bank ……
Trev,
You’ve outed me ! I’m really a trustee. Actually it was a very nice evening. Lots of great people . It’s just a pity in 2023 such places need to exist. I sneaked a look at my phone at half-time so I didn’t suffer last night !
Not everyone who remembers the 71 Double team remembers that we won the Youth Cup that season . We are in the semis this year. It follows that a healthy club is one with a conveyor belt of young stars coming through .
Imagine this tranche of players who haven’t figured at all ( or very little ) coming back next season to develop into the first team squad asap.- BNC, Kiwior, Lewis- Skelly , Nwaneri , Flores , Balogun, Biereth, Cozier – Duberry , Marquinhos, Trusty and maybe even Nuno ? This club is being run well and since the ESL debacle the Kroenkes appear to be increasingly good owners . But the driving force is Arteta
There will never be another set of Invincibles but look at that side and you can see developing players who are doing a superb job of growing into their shoes . Particularly I’d highlight
Pires- Saka
Vieira- Partey
Bergkamp- Odegaard
Henry – Nobody yet but Jesus might step into his shoes one day
Cole – Zinchenko
Campbell- Saliba
Kolo- Gabriel
Ljungberg-Martinelli
Our lads are nearly all three or four years from their peak . It’s a very healthy situation especially when you consider the conveyor belt of talent behind it.
I shall look forward to the CL in 2026!
If anyone wants to start a campaign to ban musical instruments from all football grounds, and all sports arenas come to that, but especially drums, you would have my whole hearted support.
That is all.
Hey Cynic, I think Bath is the founding member of the drum banning club, as of a few months ago.
I read that as ‘drum banging club’, bt8 :-O
And I’m back in the North Bank on Saturday for the first time in a while.
Mind you, I don’t remember being too bothered by the drums at the Brentford match, I think I manage to filter the noise out.
I filter it out by not watching any game where some ego maniac is clattering away, as it’s an attention seeking device and nothing more. It means I miss far more football than I watch, but I can live with it. Whoever decided to let a drummer into the Grove ought to be sacked.
Now.. get me a John Bonham with a full kit on the terraces and I’d be more ok with that*, as at least he’d have a sense of rhythm and would drum appropriately for what is happening on the pitch.
*Although I’d still much rather he pissed off, obviously.
Enjoyable and amusing review as always GSD! Thank you.
Will this free-roaming extra midfielder “nominal left-back” Zinchenko role go in the history books as one of those lasting tactical innovations that after a while becomes mainstream? Even Tierney — an old-school left back of a very high quality in its traditional interpretation— now plays more like Zinchenko whenever he enters the fray, as he did yesterday. It Will be instructive to see what he is instructed to do when he starts the match as he is expected to do in Europa.
While Zinchenko’s technical level and tactical intelligence allow this possibility, I find he wouldn’t have been able to play with such freedom if not for the quite extraordinary defensive performances by Gabriel, the relentlessness of Martinelli’s defensive work off the ball and Xhaka’s astute covering of space. One assumes Kiwior has certain qualities that would allow us to carry this on even when the big Gabriel needs a breather.
The unpredictability of our football now on our good days is something to marvel. For our first goal whereas Zinchenko’s pass and Saka’s spin, sprint and finish got the main kudos, I loved Martinelli’s silent role in that. He somehow popped up on the right wing, and Ødegaard moved in centrally. It overloaded the right side without opening us up on the left, and as Gabi and Martin dragged two away from Saka he had a relatively “easier” (but not easy at all) job of spinning, receiving and finishing. That is a perfectly orchestrated tactical mayhem.
Lots of enjoyable moments in the match, the goals included, but I think the one that will stay in memory most is Ødegaard’s sliding tackle to steal the ball right off Iwobi’s feet and then the back heel scooped pass in the same movement. Elegance and efficiency in a breathtaking pas de deux.
In the last 10 league games Manchester United have gained 23 points. Arsenal 20 points. Not a lot in it really then apart from the 11 points and 20 goal difference we have over them.
@22 SP
Yeah, I don’t really get this media bollocks about Manure being in the title race either.
No chance.
TTG@14: I heard it described today that the key for success at a football club is the perfect alignment of the ‘holy trinity’ — chief executive, sporting director and manager/head coach. We seem to have that.
Yeah Osakamatt….I was at a pub showing both our match and theirs simultaneously, when they fell behind,I was willing them on to equalize.After the equalizer, I was willing them on again to win the match. To them the quadruple dream is still on…..they believing the media hype. The more extra match on their plate takes them away from the premiership which they don’t really have the quality for bare Rashford, Martinez and the ex- Madrid man.
Tim Stillman with a good piece yesterday about the fluidity of our front line in recent matches. Worth a look…
Also, Blogs nailed it this morning with a summation of Arteta’s showings in front of the cameras since he’s been the boss and how he talks straight and then backs his words up with actions.
It sounds so simple, but if there were more people who spoke honestly and then did what they said they were going to do, then this world would be a lot better place.
I’m glad we’ve got a man like that in charge of our team… it is certainly in a much better place than when he took over!
Yep GSD!
Mulerise 14,
Yes, I don’t mind Manure going a little further in the cup too but not much further as I think they are our nearest pursuers for most FA Cup wins…..
M14@26 & OM@30: Three morale-sapping semi-final defeats would be the order of the day for the red Mancs in my book.
Goodbye Wayne.
Eddie is a doubt for tomorrow. He took a challenge from behind by that serial diver and cheat, Onana, in added time on Wednesday. The thug went through his ankle from behind probably raking his Achilles with his studs as a minimum. Of course no foul was called let alone a card. Eddie went down and was hobbling thereafter, collapsing again at FT. I’m surprised that Onana didn’t collapse holding his face after his challenge.
There appears to be a groundswell among the Red Devil fraternity in the media ( which is huge ) to anoint ETH as manager of the season.
I may be biased but should Mikel lead us to title glory there is only one candidate for that title . He’s also got nicer ( more ) hair than ETH !
We are at the stage of the season where rotation is very important. We don’t want to go to Fulham a few days after playing an EL game with the players that I’d battle against Sporting . We need the sort of eleven that played against the Toffees for league matches and hopefully an EL eleven ( at least for the next two rounds). How about -?
Turner
Tomayisu Holding ( White) Kiwior Tierney
Jorginho Xhaka
ESR. Vieira Trossard
Nketiah
Plus a very strong bench .
I suspect Arteta will go for a more experienced side
Oh no no no Onanana oh no no no.
This stat floating around that the win over Everton at the weekend was the first time a club has beaten another 100 times only applies to league games not fixtures in all competitions. The red Mancs have beaten us 101 times overall, for example.
TTG@34: Sporting will be no pushover. I suspect you are right in your assessment that Arteta will start a stronger team than the one you suggest.
TTG. I am not a fan of rotation for rotation’s sake. If someone is in the red zone, or is losing form, no problem. But over rotation encourages poor performance and puts back the natural rhythm of the side. I would encourage Arteta to play a strong team. I’m sure he will.
C100
It’s a very difficult decision which you highlight. You can’t switch between teams willynilly or you lose rhythm and momentum but Arsenal have made fewer changes than anyone and some players will need a rest whether that comes from starting on the bench or leaving the game early . The Thursday / Sunday pr
I’d regard this round of the EL as a chance to give some minutes to players who need them. If Gabriel got injured it would be useful if Kiwior wasn’t coming into league matches without first team experience . Similarly it’s a chance to sharpen up ESR and to give more opportunity to Vieira . Reading Arteta today he seems to be a big fan of Vieira but realises that he can’t slot in automatically for Xhaka and produce the same elements . But we have good choices and the addition of flexible players like Trossard and Jorginho has considerably increased our range of options
I failed to finish the point about the Thursday/ Sunday programme because I’m an old fella with failing faculties ! I was going to make the point that travel complicates the choices. If you play in Lisbon on Thursday night, arriving home on Friday morning very early and then play in London on Sunday you must rotate a bit.
I think it is key that we prioritise the League while we are in such a strong position . I’d love to win the EL but not if it severely prejudiced our title chances
Maybe Trev could comment on the type of physiological measurements they will have. If they’re not approaching the red zone or have muscular knocks I soo no point in rotation. The modern footballer is measured to a degree never known before. Number of km run, no of sprints made etc etc.
Apologies to GSD and CER and everybody else who take the time to create such wonderful prose before and after every match, I read them all but rarely have enough energy to reply.
You do Dave proud and it is always a pleasure to read the fine words so elegantly written.
There is also the psychological element. You have a lot of pissed off players if they never play . City ( champions in four out of five seasons) seem to manage rotation well.
You also run the risk that if you play the same players in the same positions you get worked out by other teams .
I’d be upset if Saka starts against Sporting Lisbon for example but very disappointed if he didn’t start tomorrow
Hang in there, DG. Always a welcome for you here when you can make it in. On behalf of my fellow scribblers, we appreciate the kind words. Good to know someone is reading the waffle we write. 🙂
gsd, a marvelous review. even just watching the highlights has the same kind of feel and humor as your post. thank you.
dg@41, keep on breathing, every day is a new day for you to progress towards health even in the smallest of increments. hands together for you, head bowed, and be well…
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