Arsenal (a) Many rivers to cross

Arsenal (a) Many rivers to cross

The positives are both our strikers scored again and obviously the return of Andre Gomes, but if this game showed us anything it’s we cannot carry individuals who are just not playing well. Time and tide waits for no man apparently, this feels like even the last chance saloon has closed it’s doors on some.

Gylfi Sigurdsson was horrible today, beyond horrible to be honest. His legs have completely gone. In a midfield 4 containing Delph, Iwobi and Schneiderlin he looked bereft of any attacking or defensive qualities, just a body and a very expensive one making up the numbers. I think he’s played his way out of this team once and for all. It’s astonishing to say Schneiderlin brings more to this team than Sigurdsson, but dead ball delivery aside, what does he bring in this formation?

Sidibe was the Anfield version today. You can see why he plays, but you can also see why we so desperately need a RB that matches Digne’s quality on the left. The first goal we conceded was poor from the whole of the right hand side, but the second goal was absolutely down to Sidibe’s lack of awareness. At 27yrs old I don’t know if it’s something that can be coached, just as the third goal, Aubameyang ghosts past him whilst he’s marking space and watching what Mina is doing.

It’s such a frustrating result, Arsenal were not better than us today, for periods of the game like the first 25 minutes, Everton perhaps showed why they were ahead of Arsenal in the table before kick off. Calvert-Lewin’s opener in the first minute demonstrated his progress under Ancelotti, he was alive to a ricochet off Luiz’s shoulder and scissor kicked us ahead. A great period after the goal saw a very confident and purposeful first half of the first half, Arsenal’s equaliser redressing the balance and the balance of play from then on til half time. The quality of Sako’s cross was the type of quality you pay money to see, unplayable and impossible for Pickford to save or Nketiah to miss.

Aubameyang’s first goal was your typical ‘imagine what an Arsenal goal looks like’ goal. Rank bad defending and a through ball threaded perfectly for the wide striker to run onto at an angle and bend it around the keeper...2-1. Harsh, but probably deserved just for the bad defending.

Then hope!! Late free kick sent into the Arsenal box, half cleared, the ball lofted back in and Mina flicks a back header into the path of an outstretched Richarlison who gets there just before Leno. Obligatory VAR check, but it was given. 2-2 HT

No changes for the second half. 24 seconds in and it’s 3-2. Ancelotti with same look on his face that Deontay Wilder had in the second round last night. That look when he hit Fury with one of his bombs and Fury just looked him up and down. That look of what just happened and what more can I do? Completely avoidable. A ridiculous pass from Pickford to Sigurdsson that saw the latter robbed of possession on the edge of the area that saw the subsequent shot hit the crossbar, Arsenal didn’t threaten a great deal, before or after that. Everton pressed forward, Gomes returning to dictate the last 30 minutes with quality long and short passes. Calvert-Lewin had 2 chances, one a half chance stretching to reach a Richarlison cross and in injury time a glancing header just wide. And that was that.

Disappointed!!, disappointed at a missed opportunity against an average at best Arsenal.
I’m not quite sure what that makes us, but I’d still edge on the side of a work in progress. There are players that started this game that I don’t think will be anywhere near this team next year, namely Sigurdsson, Schneiderlin, Delph and sadly the imperious Leighton Baines.

I can’t be critical of the tactics or how we played today, it’s individual errors and father time that have been the main contributors to todays result, the summer window can’t come soon enough!

Back to the comforts of Goodison next week, and the opportunity to put this firmly in the rearview mirror.

COYB, UTFT 💙