Short corner tactic comes good at Goodison

Everton 0 Arsenal 1      
Premier League   
Sunday 17th September 2023 4.30pm   

Arsenal had to be patient, but the seeming injustice of a disallowed goal in the first half didn’t matter in the end as Mikel Arteta enjoyed a win at his old stomping ground in a largely frustrating game at Everton. The Toffees are due to move into a new stadium halfway through next season. It means that this might prove to be the last occasion the Gunners visit a ground that has provided a mix of good and bad memories over their history – either because Sean Dyche’s side could be relegated or dependent on how the 2024-25 fixture list pans out. 

 

The starting selection chosen by the Arsenal manager had a couple of changes with Raya and Vieira starting instead of Ramsdale and Havertz. You’d imagine there will be some changes as the Champions League gets under way and midweek games become the norm, so rotation needs to happen and different players offer different options. 

 

Raya might not have been tested too much by Everton’s lesser spotted attack, but what was notable was the crisp quality and speed of his distribution, which was a notch up on Ramsdale, who has a tendency to play one bad pass in each match he plays when trying to find one of his team-mates. 

 

There was a fear that Fabio Vieira might prove a little lightweight for this game, but he played his part. His passing was generally accurate and his availability to receive the ball was encouraging. His finishing needs a bit of work. Three decent opportunities all missed the target. This was a contrast to Odegaard, who had a number of efforts that didn’t miss the goal, but went straight to Jordan Pickford. 

 

It was a bit of a surprise to see Everton play the ball out from the back more than we’ve seen before, although they had a limited amount of possession. Arsenal’s dominance seemed to have told after 18 minutes when Martinelli was put through by Vieira and finished wonderfully from the angle. It was chalked off by VAR due to the involvement of Nketiah in an offside position earlier in the move, in spite of his receiving the ball from the Everton forward Beto, who intercepted a Gabriel pass.

 

It was explained at first that his touch was unintentional, although surely he intended to block the pass. Later this changed to the fact that he did not have the ball under control, giving you the impression that they were improvising with the laws at Stockley Park as they went along to try and justify what looked to me a bewildering decision. 

 

Unfortunately, Martinelli did not last much longer and had to be replaced by Trossard due to injury. Everton came into the game a little more and further chances were few and far between until the second half. 

 

After 65 minutes Jesus came on for Nketiah, who’d had a poor game. He needs to be more confident and get his shots away without taking a touch sometimes. Everton brought on Calvert-Lewin, but he had less impact than might have been feared. You can see why Dyche’s team has only scored one goal in five games this season and you have to wonder how long the ex-Burnley manager will remain in the job. His team stayed up by the skin of their teeth last season and you sense they might not get away with such poor displays this time around. Failure on Arsenal’s part to take three points from this match would have put a serious dent in the belief that they can credibly challenge again this season. Relegation zone teams need to be put away both home and away.

 

Justice was done after 68 minutes when a corner routine led to Odegaard and Saka combining to pull the ball back to Trossard, whose first touch guided the ball into the net off the post. It was an instinctive finish that demonstrated the quality of the Belgian. Arsenal took the majority of their corners short yesterday and it made things a lot less predictable. 

 

Suddenly a game of football broke out – something that’s not been seen at Goodison in recent months to the best of my knowledge. The task of playing keep ball suited Arsenal perfectly, and the third and fourth subs arrived in the shape of Tomiyasu and Havertz for Zinchenko and Vieira with just over 10 minutes left.

 

As injury time neared, the home support was streaming out, and at the end of the match the TV cameras showed Everton legends Peter Reid and Joe Royle looking on in disbelief. This once great club has been allowed to decline. They’ve been in the top flight since 1954, the second longest without suffering relegation after Arsenal (1919). They are certainly at risk of dropping down a division, as they were last season, which made their February victory over Arsenal in Dyche’s first match all the more frustrating. 

 

Although you couldn’t see them winning yesterday, they might have denied Arsenal the three points, and held out for well over an hour, but Arteta’s team found a way through. Stubborn defences are going to be a regular obstacle this season, many teams content with a draw even at home. So, the Gunners need to keep working at ways of outwitting such tactics, and the corners were a sign that this work is being done. 13 points from 15 is a cracking start to the season, even if it should really have been 15. 

 

The next seven days sees home matches in the Champions League and against Spurs. Both big games that will present a sterner test than Arsenal faced in Liverpool yesterday. Strange to think the last time the Gunners played a game in the Champions League group stage was 2016.

 

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