Arsenal 2 - 0 Everton

Not the most polished of displays from Arsenal, but a vital three points nonetheless.

Everton set-up with a clear intention to clog the midfield and then break quickly through Barkley, Mirallas and Lukaku, but Arsenal, perhaps smarting a bit after their "suicidal" play on Wednesday, weren't keen to press and leave space in behind them. As a result, Everton saw a lot of the ball in the early stages of the game, having upwards of 70% possession, though they weren't going anywhere with it.

It took a while for Arsenal to settle and start putting some moves together, and even then we weren't too fluid. I thought our attacks were predictable as we had a bias to the left hand side where Alexis kept cutting inside where the congestion was, while Chamberlain's service from the right hand side was below par. Not many opportunities were being created. The only one of note before the goal was Alexis crossing towards Giroud, who did well to get on the end of it but steered his header wide.

Thankfully, he put that miss aside and managed to get on the score sheet from a corner. Gabriel's run drew defenders away, and Giroud capitalised by getting his right foot on it and guiding it into the far corner. And that was the extent of the excitement in the first half.

The second half saw Everton apply more pressure on us. There was a flurry of set-pieces from them in the first five minutes that we dealt with well but couldn't quite clear our lines. Although we saw that through, we didn't muster much going forward. Everton weren't creating an awful lot, either, so the second half sort of drifted by a bit. At some point, I think Arsenal settled for what they had and dropped deeper into their shape.

Rosicky came on late in the game and doubled our lead. With the game clearly over, we could comfortably see out the remaining minutes.

Arsenal have had and will have better performances than that, but after Wednesday's disappointment it was important to get back to winning ways quickly. Giroud needed a goal and he got it, so no problems there. Gabriel recovered from a couple of first half mistakes to have a strong performances and will have a good case for starting on Wednesday against QPR. Ospina was also much better in goal. Alexis and Cazorla were a bit quiet but Ozil will be pleased with the two assists he got.

Fingers crossed Coquelin will be able to play on Wednesday, though I doubt it. It seems like he's broken his nose. If he's not available we may see Flamini back earlier or Chambers get another go in midfield.

A mid-week game at crappy Loftus Road doesn't sound fun, but a win would maintain this strong position we've built up over the last two months. With City only being four points ahead, second place doesn't look too unrealistic, though let's not get ahead of ourselves. One game at a time and all that.

Completely agree with the part about second not being far from our sights, especially with the run in we have on our hands. But what's important is to remember that this is a really really tight race, one loss or one draw and we'd be chasing rather than leading this pack. There isn't really any breathing room - and that means we have to keep winning and picking up 3 points.

If we finish trophyless but second, I would still consider this an acceptable return after the start we had to the season, the injuries and the post-WC identity crisis (which we've still not clearly sorted out).

What I would very much like, however, is to see us set things right away to Monaco and away at OT in FA Cup, but that's for another day.

Also with Flamini and Ramsey back in training, it was only expected that someone else took a trip to the medical room in their stead ...................

Good game

Everton need to sack Martinez though. They will be Wigan before he's done with them.

Some gold in here: http://news.arseblog.com/2015/03/arsenal-2-0-everton-by-the-numbers/

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Weird stats

Arsenal conceded possession 48-52
Arsenal attempted fewer passes 393-433 (you would know this if you knew that possession is mostly based off passes)
Arsenal made more tackles 27-15
Arsenal had more interception 24-14
Arsenal had more clearances 44-21
Arsenal committed more fouls 12-5
Arsenal had more ball recoveries 61-53

All of which indicate that Arsenal played deep, invited Everton to attack, and hit Everton on the counter.

But…

Arsenal utterly dominated final third passing 136-62
Arsenal dominated shooting 17-8
and Arsenal passed the ball at the same rate as Everton, 81%

Typically, when we see a defense-first approach, the defensive team does all the things in the first chunk and the result is that the things in the second chunk are flipped. In other words, if you invite the opposition to attack, they will normally oblige and get more passes in your final third and thus take more shots. And we normally see the counter-attacking team have a lower pass completion percentage because they are trying a lot of long outlet passes.

I suspect what happened was that both teams came out to play a similar style: press early then sit back. As a result, whenever Arsenal got the ball, after the initial pressure, they sat back and let Arsenal work the ball around. More evidence for this theory is in the fact that both teams attempted nearly the same number of tackles in the opposition half (Arsenal 11-12 Everton) and that the territory stat was almost dead even at 50.5%-49.5%. Also, both teams had almost the same number of corners 8-9 and crosses 26-24.

Interesting match from a tactical standpoint and I await the analysis of better tactical minds than mine to unpack the data.

Set play troll

Did you know that Arsenal lea the League in goals from set plays?

Yes they do! With 16.

Ok, granted, 6 of those are penalties but Arsenal are also third in the League with 6 goals from corners. Chelsea and WBA have 8, Palace have 7, and Arsenal and West Ham have 6. In conclusion, Arsenal now play defense-first football and score off corners, just like West Ham.

The big difference being that Arsenal are 4th in the League in total passes per game and West Ham are 19th and Arsenal are dead last in long balls per game.

WHEW.

Who is the man?

Who…
led Arsenal’s passing with 43/47
led Arsenal’s final third passing with 29/31
led Arsenal with 5 key passes
led Arsenal with 2 assists
…Özil

Who…
led Arsenal with 7/8 dribbles
…Ox

Ox gathered the MOTM gong from WhoScored.com and to be fair to him, he did have a decent all around performance. He had 3 key passes, 2 tackles, 2 interceptions, and he was only dispossessed the 1 time. Meanwhile, Özil didn’t have any defensive stats and was dispossessed 4 times (led both teams).

Also, Özil was 5/6 crossing and Ox was 2/7, Ox was 80% passing, Özil 92%, and all of Özil’s crosses came from corners, though 5/6 is still impressive considering that Arsenal normally complete just 35% of their corners.

All of that is to say, I’m giving Man of the Match to Santi Cazorla.

1. He was captain.
2. He was second on the team in passes 39/44.
3. He was third on the team in final third passes 17/20.
4. He only created 1 shot for his teammates.
5. He took 3 shots for himself and forced a great save from Howard on one.
6. He was only 2/3 on dribbles, though one was a rainbow dribble deep in his own half to break pressure and start the Rosicky counter attack.
7. He had 6 ball recoveries, just like Coquelin (3rd best on the team)
8. He led the team with 5/8 tackles, just like Coquelin.
9. He had 2 interceptions, both in the Arsenal box.

Basically? He played along side Coquelin in a more conservative role and did a fantastic job! If Arsenal’s game plan was to sit back and counter it was Cazorla who provided a second pivot to Coquelin while also springing the Arsenal attack but staying conservative while doing that. It was the kind of quiet performance that doesn’t gather lots of kudos but was crucial to the final result.

Honorable mention:

Rosicky, scored a goal and made an awesome tackle after Cazorla dribbled straight into the Everton defense.

Gabriel, 10 clearances (2nd on the team), 6 interception (led all players), and a last ditch tackle to save a goal. Also made 87% of his passes but they were all very simple. Had one bad moment where he didn’t attack the ball properly and required a big save from Ospina. We need to see his passing range (and more matches in general) before we can comment on whether he should start regularly but overall it was a good debut from the January buy.

Ospina also had a good match, two good saves, and that tackle mentioned above. He also had a punch which kept Lukaku from getting a head on the ball.

After the horror show against Monaco, we had to win today at all cost. 3 points and a solid performance was needed and we got it.

Thought we started quite poorly but Everton came for a draw so at least they made it easier for us.

When we started clicking, we started playing really well and played the way we normally do. However we did get lucky at times.

Thought Ospina was our MOTM. Giroud started bad but at least he got the goal to lift his confidence. Ozil's general performance ok but he got 2 assists which is what matters. Oxlade needs more game time to get sharpness back.

Bellerin was brilliant.

QPR away next

Watched the replay of the game, I just know Gabriel has in him some brainfarts here and there and at the same time some jaw droppin stuffs, fans will call him Bauss junior soon. Remind me so much of Kozz 1st couple of games, unreal

This was a vital win to avoid Arsenal's traditional week of collapse in all competitions from happening a few weeks early.

Good win.

Gabriel did well. Saved Kos' ass many a times y'day.

Ospina also made some good saves
Might keep him there one game more.

It amazing how Gabriel is a like-for-like to Koscielny on the left side, although he can play across the backline, just as Chambers is to Per on the right.

I still have hopes for Issac Hayden too, though either him or Chambers will also be seen as a DM option. Chambers at RB almost reminds me of days with Vermaelen at LB.

Am I seeing too many patterns?!

I'm still not sure what plan Wenger has for Chambers. I know he's for the future but which position. Maybe he will be that utility man play everywhere at the back and back up DM, just hate that idea.

A slow start and Gabriel is doing his best Koscielny impersonation. It was shaky start bu Gabriel had very strong EPL debut.

I would rest Koscielny next game, I think we are overplaying. Very happy with 3 points and clean sheet but there is still lots of work to be done.

Gabriel's first great moment with us.

https://vine.co/v/O2lK5ZwpnvH

I was wondering what you guys think of lukaku at Arsenal?

lmao No way. Not any better than Giroud.

Even Everton fans are super critical of him.

His head's in the clouds, talking up a move to a top club when he's not even doing well enough at Everton.

As much as people shit on Giroud he's much better than he's given credit for.

Good result, decent display. These sort of games are all about the three points at this stage of the season.

Don't big up Gabriel, I have watched him for a year. Making "heroic" tackles like that only woos people who don't know much about football. The best defenders are the ones that look defending effortless e.g. Maldini, Cannavaro etc.

cebolla wrote:Don't big up Gabriel, I have watched him for a year. Making "heroic" tackles like that only woos people who don't know much about football. The best defenders are the ones that look defending effortless e.g. Maldini, Cannavaro etc.

he definitely made being a defender look hard for the first few confrontations he had with Lukaku or just with the ball by itself but it was a great tackle regardless.

I watched Cannavaro since he was 19, he's king of tackle.