Arsenal (h) The Game has changedAn instantly forgettable match that in truth neither could afford to lose, and both equally happy to take a point. Rightly or wrongly the news that broke at 11:20am was always going to overshadow what came afterwards.
It was a relief to see Sidibe and Digne return into the back four, and Delph and Sigurdsson back into midfield. Fresh legs! But still the fragility of what remains available to select from is defying the odds in regards to it’s points return.
It was a game too far today, the third in six days. Where the legs were heavy on Wednesday night, they were dead weights today. Most of the game, effort but not quality. Iwobi off for Tosun fairly early meant our mobility was further hampered. Why not Kean? Although the prospect of him being a substituted substitute twice in a week may have just been too much for some people!
Personally it was a relief to see Michael Keane benched. He’s such a divisive player, he can be excellent when confident, but he can be the polar opposite when struggling, and the beating that Jamie Vardy gave him midweek, left him as bad as Deontay Wilder left Luis Ortiz a few weeks ago, completely on his backside.
The hi-lights for Everton, a wonderful save from Pickford, a clean sheet and returning players, and a reset for the whole squad with a new manager. 5th point out of the available 9 in the 3rd of the hardest games in a sequence that we will have this season.
In truth, that’s the politest I can be without unjustly criticising players. They’ve given their all for 2 weeks.
I spoke briefly about Duncan Ferguson last week, whatever your thoughts are about him he has singlehandedly brought this club back to a semblance of what we know it to be. He deserves praise, he deserves thanks and he deserves a prominent role in Ancelotti’s staff.
So about Mr Ancelotti
But Everton don’t deserve Ancelotti.
Why would Everton throw money at such a vanity project?
Why would a manager of his calibre go to a leaderless, rudderless, club in chaos like Everton?
The audacity to even try! Everton need to stay in their lane, after all David Moyes is the best they can get!
That’s a few things that the likes of Paul Joyce, Dominic King, Mark Ogden & Phil McNulty have written in the past week. All senior writers, some chief writers for their respective employers. When people talk about media perception and bias, that’s it in a nutshell.
The funny thing is, the mainstream press don’t know what to make of this. They have no idea how to read or interpret what is going on at Everton. They have been locked out, and are only drip fed information when the club decides it wants to leak some out. The journalists don’t like it, long may it continue! Let them continue to cosy up to our neighbours, we all know that’s their club of choice anyway.
Whatever they write about Everton is with spite and contempt. One of the many things I wish for is to read an article penned by one one of these ‘journalists’ of how we’ve just won a trophy, the amount of bitterness that will be in every word will be a joy to absorb.
What Don Carlo would have seen over the past week is a squad with talent, potential & dross. There is plenty of work to be done, but also from a players point of view, you cannot cut corners with this man. He will have standards that the majority of this squad did not know existed. I have no reservations at all in him already knowing who’ll make it and who wont in ‘Carlo’s Everton’. For my money there are eight that I believe are safe. Pickford, Mina, Digne, Gomes, Richarlison, Kean, Bernard and Gbamin.
Marcel Brands wont be getting a lot of sleep this January, he has fully supported and endorsed Ancelotti’s appointment, and by reputation alone, is not the type of man you disappoint. He isn’t here to retire, he’s here to empire build, he’s here to drive the Everton chariot from Goodison Park to the gates of Bramley-Moore dock and further beyond.
The owner has delivered on his promises of money, a new stadium, and now the world class manger we have so long sought after.
The game has changed.
December 21st 2019, the day Everton FC woke up from an almost eternal sleep.
UTFT 💙