Hello my fellow Gooners, the international break is over and it’s a warm welcome back to the real football. For those of you who can’t remember, we signed off before the break with a cheerful 3-1 win over Man United. However, as is often the case in football there is good news and bad news as we prepare for a trip to Goodison Park this weekend. The good news is of course that Everton are, not to put too fine a point on it, rubbish. The bad news is that they were rubbish last season when we went up there and yet we somehow dropped all 3 points. On that occasion it was put down to a new manager bounce as it was the dreary Dyche’s first game in charge. This time I suppose Everton will be hoping for a new owner bounce as the highly suspect Moshiri has sold the club to some highly suspect new crooks owners. Anyway, I suppose I should clarify that it is only provisional as the new owners have not passed the fit and proper person test yet. Yes, I know, I laughed too as I typed it. A murderer aced that test not long ago so drugs and dodgy dealing should be all in a days sweeping under the carpet for the billionaire boys and their oppressive klepto-state chums.
The Arsenal
Enough of the depressing business of football governance or utter lack of it, let’s move on to The Arsenal. Good news yesterday at the presser as MA reported a clean bill of health among our returning busload of internationals – only TP5 is off games this weekend it seems, even Mo’neny is on his way back. Very good news in truth, as after a relatively calm start to the season we will now face Everton, PSV, Spuds, Brentford and Bournemouth before the end of September. It is a run of games that we will certainly be looking to win though that is so easy to say and so difficult to actually do these days – I am watching Liverpool losing 1-0 to Wolves at half-time as I write (annoyingly they rallied to win and inconsiderately failed to make my point). There are sure to be a few nerves as we make our return to the CL, then factor in a tricky match against a good quality London rival, and there’s the Spuds too – time for our new, improved squad to start earning their hay. Even this away game at Everton is not without its worries, we have after all managed to lose to the poorest Everton side that I can remember on our last 3 visits. Honestly, I have no idea why but MA is fortunately way smarter than me and had this to say:
Everton’s quality is not physicality, it’s what they do. They play really well the game that they play, really, really well, and Sean is extremely good at doing that. And I think just talking about physicality, for me, doesn’t reflect the quality they have. The reason why they do, the intention that they have, how they build sequences and momentum in matches, there’s a lot of work there, so it’s much deeper than that in my opinion.
There you have it. Personally, as I mentioned in the title to this piece, I am heartily sick of losing to this shower, let’s try winning for a change.
Our starting XI
It is generally tricky to predict the XI after an international break and MA will have a much better idea of how the players are feeling than any of us – information which he generally doesn’t share (and nor should he). In the circumstances I will go with who I think he will choose if everyone is truly fully fit. Although it is generally the type of game where you might choose to rotate one or two it may be that the previous seasons losses see MA lean to a stronger selection. Something like…
Aaron
Ben Willy Gabriel Alex
Declan Ode Hav
Saka Jesus Gabi
There are several players who are pushing hard and I may easily be wrong – Tomi or Jakob in defence, Vieira on the left, Eddie or Leo up front. All of those would be popular selections with some supporters I believe. Even David Raya in goal anyone? I did wonder if we might see further tinkering with the defence but I hope we will go with some stability for the next few league games.
The Opposition – Everton
They are an object lesson in poor leadership and they have a board that doesn’t attend games as their safety cannot be guaranteed. Sad times for them and with that I think we have said enough about Everton already. Congratulations to Alex Iwobi, long of this manor, on his successful escape to Fulham.
The ‘Holic Pound
As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, based on what I saw of Everton against Sheffield United they are a poor side and we should give them a good rinsing and certainly not repeat the mistakes of previous seasons. I would like us to get our foot on their throat early with a couple of Gabriel goals and don’t let up – 4-0 to The Arsenal is a 20/1 chance. I suspect it won’t be like that but it is certainly possible if we get near our best. As always, any win will do.
That is about it for this preview folks. For any of you attending, I hope you have a safe trip and for all of us near and far I hope we have a much better result than last season!
Come On You Gunners!!!
Good work, Matt. FWIW I’ve had enough of it too.
COYG
3 points and a disgruntled Dyche certainly would not go amiss.
Thanks for your entertaining preview, OM.
Excellent preview Matt
I’ve had enough of it too Matt but I think we need a plan rather than clinging to hope
I suspect your team is very close to the one that will start and we will need to boss the game against a side low in confidence. Last season Onana was very dominant in midfield and we conceded from a set piece .
This year hopefully Declan will enable us to control possession . Gabriel Jesus has an incredible record against Everton . I suspect if we can get the first goal we can dominate the game but we don’t want to fall behind at a very passionate place .
I went to Gillingham v Morecambe today and really enjoyed it until the result game through from the toilet bowl . Morecambe had a very bright young striker on loan from Burnley, Mellon, but he got sent off after scoring, having a goal disallowed and hitting the bar. In a better team he would be an interesting prospect
Cheers Matt! Lovely preview. My son and I are travelling up to the Old Lady of Goodison for our first away day of the season. Here’s hoping that we see a better performance than the last two we’ve seen there. Could be our last visit to a historic stadium – let’s make it a good one!
A bright and breezy preview, OM. Your team will be very close to Arteta’s, I suspect. As you said, any win will do as long as it breaks the dismal sequence of defeats.
You can always bank on Mellon, TTG. I will get my coat…
A very enjoyable preview Matt, thank you!
Your team is ideal (though I wonder if Mikel will ever be tempted to play Tomiyasu as left back with Zinchenko as the left side 8 ); hopefully Gabriel isn’t carrying any knocks from his first ever national duties. I expect it will be a physically challenging match where we will need to be patient but probe consistently and take the very few chances that will come our way. I expect to see Fabio and Reiss coming on earlier than usual.
Time we win there again, as we mostly used to do.
Come on Arsenal!
Thanks gents, it was a pleasure as always.
Safe trip C100, looking forward to the away day lowdown!
Good stuff, Matt. Last season’s performance was a low point for that aspirant group and I hope they are determined to right that wrong. Fingers crossed we can garner all three points and a boost to the GD wouldn’t go amiss either. COYG.
Cheers Matt.
Let’s just win. I think MA’s words were probably uttered just to confuse Dyche.
Safe trip, C100!
Thanks Matt
They sold us MA so thanks for that. Otherwise I’ve never really liked them and having Dyche only makes it worse. A good performance and a 2-0 win will do nicely thanks.
UTA.
Cheers Matt for an enjoyable preview.
There must be something in the air at Goodison as we seem to have inherited the hosts level of mediocrity. Time to shake that off and put on a positive winning display. 3–1 to the good guys will do very nicely.
COYRRR
Cheers Matt, enjoyable as ever.
Dyche is apparently favourite to be the next manager given the old tin tack. Doesn’t look like there should be any new owner bounce today as the deal is in danger of falling through, if reports are to be believed.
A good win today to set the record straight – 4-0 did you say ?
Cheers Matt! Great preview mate. Fuck Everton. Blue scouse cunts.
Team – as yet not confirmed.
David Raya (GK), William Saliba, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard (C), Fábio Vieira, Declan Rice, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah.
https://twitter.com/Arsenal/with_replies
Was correct. Not sure why Raya comes in.
Beyond the reports of ‘fit and proper owners concerns related to 777’s investment in British Basketball, there are also reports that MSP Sports, a New York private investment group that failed to strike a takeover deal with Moshiri earlier, is considering activating a change of control clause to call in a $350 million loan it made to Everton to finance the new stadium.
If it did pull the loan, that would probably scupper the 777 deal, as I doubt that 777 has the money to hand to replace it, and refinancing might prove too difficult and/or expensive for its taste.
777’s capital sources are a bit of a mystery. Its acquisitions model has been to pay sellers a nominal sum upfront and to backload the deals with payments if and when the club meets future financial performance targets. Reportedly, that is how it is paying Moshiri the rumoured and likely overstated $550 million for his 91.4% stake.
Conceivably, killing the 777 deal could let MSP go back to Moshiri to reopen negotiations with Usmanov’s old chum even more desperate to sell.
Incidentally, not one player in the GHF Predictathon nominated Dyche for getting the first tin-tack.
Ramsdale and Havertz dropped? Or being rested for CL?
The latter I’d say, Ned. Guess we’ll find out midweek!
1-0 and A few minutes to go.
Take the win lads
That will do!
A win’s a win but I really didn’t enjoy that much. Everton are absolutely fucking dire and with that amount of possession/dominance we should be putting them to the fucking sword.
Not awe-inspiring, but job done. Three points and the losing run broken.
Esso@23: 👍
Well, given the last 3 seasons I will take the 1-0:to The Arsenal very happily,
Nice finish from Leo
A thumb’s up also for Trossard. A top-draw finish for his goal and an impressive performance all-round after coming on for Martinelli.
I wondered if Rammy would pay the price for the Manure goal and other errors.
My own opinion honestly is that it is harsh but MA is not a man to fuck about.
Yeah given previous few years results I don’t want to sound churlish. Its just – Everton are complete fucking shite, must be nailed on for relegation.
Your theme was spot on Matt but I can remember us winning 6-1 twice ( a long time apart !) , 5-2 , and 4-1 at least twice at Goodison . Modern media think the world only began five years ago but our bad form at Everton is a comparatively recent phenomenon . Wenger had a very good record there .
I was very confident we would win but at the same time scared we would fail to score and concede from a set piece or something . The offside VAR decision might be right by the letter of the law but was utterly ridiculous.
But we were solid defensively and Raya , although he had little to do looked very calm and controlled
Raya caught well and kicked well, but wasn’t tested much by way of shots. Arteta was ruthless in shedding Leno, a Premiership quality keeper, because he saw Ramsdale adding qualities the team lacked. Is he doing the same again?
TTG@30: Wenger lost only six of 23 matches at Goodison.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>