{"id":14635,"date":"2026-10-23T23:50:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14635"},"modified":"2026-10-23T23:50:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:50:37","slug":"on-noni-on-max-and-on-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14635","title":{"rendered":"On Noni, On Max and On Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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David Moyes currently being my least hated opposition manager puts me in the difficult position of saying I don\u2019t really wish Everton a terrible outcome in Saturday afternoon\u2019s contest against Arsenal at the Emirates.  I just hope his side loses, and the mighty Gunners walk off the pitch with all three points secured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everton<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Saturday, the Toffees hosted Chelsea and their 0-2 loss dropped them to 5th place in the table with 10 points.\u00a0 That\u2019s still not at all a bad position for Everton to find themselves, considering that they were flirting with relegation in recent memory, and that West Ham, the side that Moyes managed most recently before returning to the Toffees for his second stint in charge, were indeed relegated last season not too long after the departure of Moyes, who, in my opinion at least, had done an excellent job there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing Moyes, against Arsenal we are likely to see his side turn out in a defensive line-up and frame of mind.  It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Everton set up in their usual 4-2-3-1, but to turn it into a 5-4-1 out of possession.  Moyes is likely to employ a back three to maximize his side\u2019s capabilities of blunting the Arsenal attack.  The Scot could use his wide centre-backs to press into Arsenal\u2019s triangles out wide, while also trying to keep tight in the middle, hoping to achieve just that aim. A possible possible starting XI for Toffees could be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pickford, Rohl, O\u2019Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Armstrong, Garner, Dewsbury-Hall, Grealish, Barry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Everton\u2019s right side Rohl could keep his place as he’s able to drop into a right-back role, allowing O’Brien to tuck in more centrally at times.  Despite not playing much recently O’Brien would also help from set-pieces, but Everton are likely to be defending for large portions of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If both those players are in the lineup it could mean that Aynsley Maitland-Niles misses out on his return to the Emirates.  In the four Premier League games AMN has started for Everton at right back, he has yet to end the game on the pitch.   It\u2019s plain enough that Moyes isn\u2019t 100% sold on the former Arsenal man, but Everton\u2019s disappointing summer transfer window has left them without a clearly preferable option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal’s left-hand side is generally considered to be weaker, especially with Tzolis out injured.  Eze started on the left last week at Forest, before Madueke came off the bench to score.  But Bukayo Saka suffered an injury in midweek Champions League play putting him out for several weeks at the very least, meaning that Madueke is likely to start in Saka\u2019s normal place on the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My source for the seriousness of Saka\u2019s injury of course being Trev in the last drinks: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstant sharp pain in a muscle is not a good sign and the quads are clearly integral to absolutely everything a footballer does. I\u2019m guessing from Saka\u2019s reaction it has to be a grade 2 tear \u2013 in which case forget all about 3-4 weeks. At least this break might give his other ongoing issues a chance to repair. My personal instinctive fear is that Saka might be a nice Christmas present for us but we may not see him until early January.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, the rest of our attack needs to step up big time, starting with Madueke and Eberechi Eze who replaced Saka in Munich and made an instant impact by scoring to put Arsenal ahead.\u00a0 Max Dowman is another option, of course, to play on the right side of attack, remembering that Max scored his first Arsenal goal in our 2-0 win against the Toffees in this same fixture last season, but it is not likely that Arteta will put him too brightly in the headlights just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On his options for replacing Saka, Arteta said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They\u2019re all important; we know that. I\u2019m extremely happy with how Ebz reacted to the previous game and the impact that he had on the team and the performance that he put in.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But whether Eze, Madueke or Dowman starts this game in Saka\u2019s place is hard to predict.\u00a0 Madueke does have the most experience deputising there, however, so my prediction for Arsenal\u2019s starting XI in this game is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Konsa Gabriel Calafiori<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard Bruno Rice <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madueke Havertz Eze<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Holic Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am tipping Eze to score in his second straight game and for David Raya and pals to keep a clean sheet giving us the happy scoreline of Arsenal 2-Everton 0.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the watch wherever you may be this Saturday, and may your day be a happy one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Moyes currently being my least hated opposition manager puts me in the difficult position of saying I don\u2019t really wish Everton a terrible outcome in Saturday afternoon\u2019s contest against Arsenal at the Emirates.  I just hope his side loses, and the mighty Gunners walk off the pitch with all three points secured. Everton Last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14635"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14642,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14635\/revisions\/14642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}