{"id":8355,"date":"2023-09-16T16:44:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-16T15:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8355"},"modified":"2023-09-18T07:42:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T06:42:36","slug":"i-have-had-enough-of-losing-at-everton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8355","title":{"rendered":"I have had enough of losing at Everton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/865082510\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.32997% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/865082510?et=mA4EpzI-QrpNeZxwITfDpA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=XnF4LGPxTTnEdc1eXpIby8f_RQu--BNeGIKBYDN1iSU=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"394\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Hello my fellow Gooners, the international break is over and it\u2019s a warm welcome back to the real football. For those of you who can\u2019t 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.&nbsp;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\u2019s 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 <s>crooks<\/s> 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. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enough of the depressing business of football governance or utter lack of it, let\u2019s 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 \u2013 only TP5 is off games this weekend it seems, even Mo&#8217;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 &#8211; 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). &nbsp;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\u2019s the Spuds too &#8211; 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p> Everton\u2019s quality is not physicality, it\u2019s 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\u2019t reflect the quality they have. The reason why they do, the intention that they have, how they build sequences and momentum in matches, there\u2019s a lot of work there, so it\u2019s much deeper than that in my opinion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>There you have it. Personally, as I mentioned in the title to this piece, I am heartily sick of losing to this shower, let\u2019s try winning for a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Our starting XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 \u2013 information which he generally doesn\u2019t 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\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Aaron<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Ben Willy Gabriel Alex<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Declan Ode Hav<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka Jesus Gabi<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several players who are pushing hard and I may easily be wrong \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Opposition &#8211; Everton<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are an object lesson in poor leadership and they have a board that doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The &#8216;Holic Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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\u2019t let up \u2013 4-0 to The Arsenal is a 20\/1 chance. I suspect it won\u2019t be like that but it is certainly possible if we get near our best. As always, any win will do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Come On You Gunners!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Hello my fellow Gooners, the international break is over and it\u2019s a warm welcome back to the real football. For those of you who can\u2019t 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8355"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8355"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8369,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8355\/revisions\/8369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}