Gunners move into third spot

Everton 0-1 Arsenal

Arsenal recorded a sixth straight league win at Goodison Park yesterday and moved into third place, above Tottenham, as their North London rivals could only muster a draw against Stoke thanks to a last minute equaliser.

The Gunners came into this game full of confidence following their last gasp win against Newcastle as well as their recent positive run of results and improved performances. In the first twenty minutes against Everton last night, Arsenal simply picked up where they had left off against Newcastle as they utterly dominated the game, creating several chances which should have enabled them to kill the game off at an early stage. The Gunners’ passing was crisp and slick as they effortlessly moved the ball around the park with Thomas Rosicky’s incisive runs creating mayhem for the Everton defence. A wonderful chipped pass by the returning Mikel Arteta found Van Persie in the box; however the Dutchman did not try to score himself, but unselfishly headed the ball down for Aaron Ramsey, who found himself with acres of space. Yet the Welshman could only fire the ball high and wide on the half volley. This is the main aspect of his game which Ramsey must work on to improve as far too often this season his teammates have created wonderful opportunities for him, only for the Wales captain to shoot high and wide. Soon after his dreadful miss Ramsey would have another opportunity to open the scoring against the Toffees. Bacary Sagna’s through ball found Walcott in space on the edge of the box, however the young Englishman could not get the ball out of his feet, enabling the Everton defence to recover. Walcott turned and laid the ball across the box for Ramsey, whose shot this time may well have been on target, but was deflected away by an Everton defender for a corner.

At this stage Arsenal were in complete control and deserved a goal for their efforts. It duly arrived from Van Persie’s corner. A lovely in swinging ball from the captain, saw Thomas Vermaelen, hero against Newcastle, rise high above the Everton defence to head past Tim Howard and into the net. Having scored the early goal and with the Gunners playing so well it seemed only a question of how many goals Arsenal would score as the chances continued to arrive, Van Persie spurning the best of them, shooting too close to Howard, enabling the American goal keeper to make the save when really he shouldn’t have been given a chance. Had this gone in, the game would have effectively been over.

Vermaelen heads Arsenal in front

Yet the match changed dramatically after David Moyes made a shrewd tactical switch mid-way through the first half. Up until this point, Everton had uncharacteristically sat off Arsenal, enabling the Gunners time and space to pick out their passes, leaving Moyes seething. As the television cameras zoomed in on the irate Scotsman, he could be heard bellowing to his players, ordering them to “get stuck in to them.” The home side duly responded and began to press Arsenal high up the pitch. Every time Szczesny had a goal kick, he was unable to play the ball out to his defenders as Everton’s players lay in wait just behind them, therefore forcing the Polish goalkeeper to kick the ball high and long. As he does not possess an extremely long kick, the ball would always fall into the midfield, where none of our players would jump to try and win a header. As a result Everton were regaining possession far too easily and Arsenal were continually on the back foot. In circumstances such as these, I wonder if Wenger should instruct Van Persie to fall into the midfield when the goal kick is taken, as he is capable of winning the ball in the air, and then midfielders such as Walcott could anticipate this and push on ahead of him in an attempt to collect any flick-ons from the Dutchman.  

Everton’s high pressing game, which had been extremely effective in enabling them to gain a foothold in the game, almost directly led to their restoring parity through Royston Drenthe. Szczesny played the ball forward to Song, whose own forward pass was easily cut out, under pressure. The ball was then quickly spread wide to Drenthe, who fired into the back of the net, only to turn around and see the linesman had adjudged him to have been offside. Television replays immediately proved Arsenal had been extremely lucky as the Dutchman was actually clearly on side at the time. I feel in situations such as these Kieran Gibbs tends to get attracted to the ball and forgets about his defensive positioning. In this instance the English left back moved towards the ball, despite the presence of Arsenal’s two centre backs in this area, allowing Drenthe far too much space on the wing.

The first half ended with Thomas Rosicky’s powerful shot being well saved by Howard, but this did nothing to galvanise the Gunners and the second half continued with the same pattern of Everton causing the visitors problems through their pressing game. Although the home side did not really trouble Scezney’s goal throughout the second half and indeed Arsenal created the better chances, hitting the post through Van Persie, the fact the Gunners only possessed a 1-0 lead meant that they were living on their nerves. It seemed as though the fight from the midfield players, which had been so impressive in recent weeks, had gone, as Arsenal continued to be outmuscled and outfought in the centre of the park. However the centre back pairing of Vermaelen and Koscielny were magnificent, cutting out any danger and standing strong and tall against the likes of Fellaini and the persistent diver Jelavic. At the final whistle Arsenal could reflect on another fantastic result away from home, but they had been made to work extremely hard for it.

The players should take great credit for the wonderful run of results they have managed to put together in recent weeks. Hopefully they can keep up the good work and look to press home their advantage in the coming weeks as we face some extremely though encounters before the end of the season, in particular the home match against Manchester City. Even the next game at home to Aston Villa will be difficult, with Alex Mcleish’s side having had a long rest and surely seeking revenge for their FA Cup elimination at the Emirates, having enjoyed a 2-0 lead against the Gunners. As Arsene Wenger will surely tell the players, we can only take one game at a time.

Get well soon Fabrice Muamba