Everton 1 Arsenal 2
The Gunners went second in the table with victory over David Moyes’s side and closed the gap on leaders Chelsea to two points. Goals from unlikely source Bacary Sagna and captain Cesc Fabregas were enough to take all three points from Goodison Park with Tim Cahill’s reply coming too late.
Toffees fans can feel aggrieved and should feel they could’ve got something out of the game for a number of reasons. Whilst many commentators will say Arsenal looked solid defensively this for me was not the impression made. Young Seamus Coleman was nothing short of a revelation, whether on the wing or at full back later on in the match. He showed a willingness to run at Arsenal’s defence, a tactic that other teams might do well to emulate. With just ten minutes played he practically ran and dribbled the length of the pitch, breaking from an Arsenal corner and delivered a delicious cross that Cahill ought to have buried. His endeavour and pace frightened Gael Clichy and Everton deserved a goal from such a spellbinding piece of play for one so young. The only disappointment about his performance today was when he got booked for dissent late on/
Arsene Wenger’s team rode their luck, whilst the home side seemed devoid of it. You could get odds of 66/1 for Sagna to be the first goalscorer but no Everton player closed him down in the box with ten minutes of the first half remaining and he fired into the roof of the net beating Tim Howard at the near post. This opener for the Gunners all came from a parried Samir Nasri shot and the retrieval of the rebound by Andrey Arshavin. Only good fortune on Arsenal’s part meant the sides didn’t go in level at the break. Mikel Arteta’s deep corner in first half stoppage time was headed goalwards by Louis Saha and just hit Lukasz Fabianski without crossing the line.
The second goal was vintage Arsenal. Fabregas, who had already had a sighter just minutes after the restart, finished off a move involving Marouane Chamakh, substitute Denilson and himself early in the second half. Again luck played its part however as the ball deflected through Phil Jagielka’s legs before the Gunners captain slotted home. Next came the big decision in the game which for me referee Howard Webb got wrong. Sebastien Squillaci fouled his fellow countryman Saha who was through on goal. The match official blew his whistle and gave him a booking, nullifying the advantage which would have resulted in Everton pulling one back as the ball had broken to Coleman who was one on one with Fabianski. I never advocate the ruining of any football match by brandishing a red card hastily, but it makes a nonsense of Laurent Koscielny’s sending off against Newcastle last week to not punish this similar challenge and situation with the same sanction.
David Moyes went for broke sending on Jermaine Beckford and Yakubu from the bench to go 4-3-3, sadly the gamble didn’t really pay off. The former had a good chance, buoyed by his midweek display which saw him break his Premier League duck. He took down a long ball superbly, turned and shot but found Fabianaski equal to it with a fine save. Late pressure only afforded the Toffees a consolation when with a minute of the ninety to go a short corner routine saw Stephen Pienaar cross, Saha head it back across goal and Cahill poke the ball into the net from a couple of yards out.
John Heitinga playing in the holding role seems ill-advised. It appears liable to get him sent off. Moyes subbed him at half time for the returning Jack Rodwell for the Dutchman's own good. To be successful in that position I always compare players to Claude Makelele and the less obvious example of former Czech Republic international Tomas Galasek. These were two players who were both good at breaking up the play which Heitinga did, but they also got away with fouls sufficiently for a full ninety minutes which is clearly something he won’t do on a regular basis. With Marouane Fellaini suspended and other members of the squad carrying bad injury records they can ill-afford to lose more players through this means. Jagielka and Sylvain Distin put in some tremendous tackles this afternoon and with the news of John Terry likely to miss the friendly with France the former in my eyes sits unopposed in filling the central defensive berth on Wednesday.
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