Prince Rupert's Tower
Fansided

Arsenal v Everton: tough away day for Blues part 2

By Matt Townsend

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 03: Laurent Koscielny of Arsenal scores his sides second goal during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on February 3, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 03: Laurent Koscielny of Arsenal scores his sides second goal during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on February 3, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

So what can Everton expect from Arsenal tomorrow as they prepare to take on the Gunners?

Unlike Everton, their opponents had a tough start to the season on paper taking on defending champions Manchester City and then Chelsea in their first two games.

They lost them both and were obviously struggling to adapt to new head Unai Emery’s style of play.

In particular goalkeeper Petr Cech and his defence was being asked to play out from the back much more deliberately than under Arsene Wenger. They struggled to make that work, with Cech especially looking very uncomfortable in that system.

Again like Everton, their defensive weaknesses, which had dogged Wenger in his final seasons, seemed to have been transferred from one regime to the new one almost as if nothing had changed.

Gradually though they have begun to adapt and results have improved since then. And despite some early season indifferent form from players like Mezut Ozil, who seemed distracted by his post-World Cup fallout with Germany, they have begun to click more offensively.

And successive wins against West Ham and away at Cardiff City and Newcastle United have seen them climb back up the Premier League table.

They have a potentially potent attack if they can get Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Aaron Ramsey and strikers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette working together.

There are plenty of goals in that team and if the Gunners do manage to improve defensively they can be very competitive.

They will be looking at this fixture and anticipating a win against Everton. So can the Blues beat Arsenal?

Although their attack is potent, they are also continuing to leak goals and show plenty of defensive frailties, once more just like the Blues!

Arsenal are vulnerable in pretty much every way defensively and so given that and with Everton also shipping goals in droves, the money would be on a high-scoring game. That said it will probably end up a goal less draw now!

Fortunately Everton will have talismanic forward Richarlison back from suspension. It shows just how important the young forward is already that Everton have so obviously missed his pace, power and direct running in attack.

And his fellow Brazilian Bernard is also showing glimpses of his talent and work rate so the Toffees should have a more dangerous attack than last week.

Having said that the Blues did create plenty of chances last weekend without putting them in the back of the net and Turkish striker Cenk Tosun was most culpable missing several gilt-edged opportunities.

It may be that he will make way for Richarlison if Marco Silva decides to give his top summer signing a more central role.

I’ve said before I think this could be his long-term position and in the recent international friendly win against El Salvador he played as a number 9 for his country.

More from Prince Rupert's Tower

But it may be too soon for that experiment with Everton and so I would expect him to continue in his customary role on the left of a three-man attack, (including Tosun), with Bernard probably starting on the bench.

Whatever attack the Blues line-up with they simply cannot afford to waste chances the way they did against West Ham.

With Everton’s defensive weakness it’s almost certain Arsenal will score against them. So the Blues are only likely to have a chance of winning this match if they are able to create and take enough chances.