A guest post from @Labo_Goon this morning
After being edged out of the Transfer Trophy by the City of Abu Dhabi in the final days of August, Everton seem to haave slumped into a bit of a meltdown that has now turned into full depression two months on. Perfect time for a visit to Goodison?
With all the attacking purchases Everton has made its hard to believe that they’ve only scored 5 PL goals and are 8 points after 8 games. 4 points coming in their opening 2 fixtures (including a draw at the Etihad) and the other 4 in the 6 since.
Anybody looking at that and the quality we have in our Arsenal team, would expect this being a routine 3 pointer. But then there’s the other side of the coin: Arsenal is yet to win an away PL game this season. Which should give us pause for concern.
Of cause many of the pundits, looking at our away form, said the best we can hope for is a draw as they bought into the “no cajones” jibe and has offered Everton unsolicited advice to put the boot in and get in our faces. Something Ronald Koeman is not shy asking of his players.
And if today is gonna be one of those games, my only hope is that the referee officiates the game even-handed, because I know Arsenal can give as good as they get if allowed.
Going back to the Chelsea game and what we did then, we will need to give Everton due respect and stay on top of them from the get go, not give them any opening. Playing against a team so short of confidence, our biggest obstacle could be complacency. We will need to be focused for the entire 90 and need to get our shots away on target, need to keep Pickford and the Everton defence honest.
Team news is that Alexis, Ramsey and Özil are all expected to start, giving this team a huge transformation attack wise from the one taking the field last weekend.
Could this be the first game we see Lacazette, Alexis and Özil starting together? If they ignite they can be just as potent as Man City’s front 3. Jack Wilshere making a 10-15 minute cameo can also be expected. Hopefully by then the ref would’ve put Ashley Williams and company in their place who still had the stamina for a mass brawl in the dying minutes of their game vs Lyon.
And with Koeman edging closer to doing the walk of shame and there being 3 red cards in the last 4 games between these two teams, this game has the potential to turn quite nasty. So prepare for fireworks Gooners!
Enjoy and good luck to all wherever you’re watching the game today, and don’t forget to keep them fingers crossed
Positively Arsenal 
koscielny rightly booked
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Ramseyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy after a spell of possesion, coquelin passes to wilshere who puts ramsey in on goal and he finishes very well indeed
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FT: Everton 2-5 Arsenal
Rooney gave efc the lead, Monreal, Ozil, lacazette and Ramsey with out goal, a late cock up by cech handed lookman a goal for efc, then Alexis added a fine finish for the 5th
we played our best flowing football of the season in this game, fully deserved the win, odd to say after scoring 5 but my only real gripe is that we were not clinical at all, it really could and should have been 9 or 10 or more
two defensive blips for their goals, 5 fine goals scored, controlled game from start to finish, missed a hat full of chances, ozil easily man of the match, enjoyed that big time.
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Everton now in bottom 3, Koeman set for the sack, couldn’t happen to a bigger cunt
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Ozil is just so majestic
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Lovely game of football
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So the prevaling feeling on Sky Sports is sorrow for Everton.
They were a bit unlucky
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Niiice.
Look forward to seeing, injuries permitting, whether that line up, esp front three, can do more of that. Quite a prospect
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WwwB the view on BBC radio is that Everton were shite and made us look good, you know the usual downplaying of a good AFC performance. That football today from us was as good as anything Man City have played this season, yet Pep has reinvented football where as Arsene is outdated
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Is Karma when Calvert-Lewin pushes Naco into the stand Then Nacho catches him accidentally in the face with his heal (Claret)?
Nacho Monreal showing his Technical Leadership
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Ed. Share that Koe sentiment but find I’ve no appetite for his sad post-match interview.
Still, cynical guy who has been a jerk to us. Adds nothing positive to game. Won’t miss him
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Ozil created the most chances of any player from open play – 7- since he created 7 chances in December 2016, but some idiots tell us he is a luxury and should spend his time tackling and chasing the ball like a demented cat
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Looking at that image Ed posted at 3:27pm, no doubt MÖ’s haters will come hard down on him for not looking like he’s enjoying his football, nevermind that he was the orchestra master today.
So glad we got our first away win and in doing so kicking the chair from under Koeman. Did I mention we scored goals, lots and lots of them. I can only hope it will come now in clusters.
Absolutely love the AöL front 3.
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Mad ending, but we were brilliant at times. Great response to the early setback, hope this gives them confidence and belief going forward
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I know what Everton done wrong today, they were not aggressive enough, they did not get in our faces enough, they did not kick the shit out of us and most of all they showed us too much respect, they didn’t want it enough, they lacked balls, they are soft like their manager and koeman needs assistants that confront him
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near the end of the game the camera panned to moshir and kenwright, stayed on them long enough for moshir to wave at someone, bound to see some one use it to say he was waving goodbye to koeman,
it will be so wrong if EFC sack koeman, its only a couple of months ago that he won Everton their first trophy in years – the transfer window trophy.
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Koeman, not my favourite character in the game , has been very disrespectful to Wenger, but they have a lot of new players who need time to blend in, they all deserve more time. Just glad we didnt sell OG to them this summer .
Maybe he needs a strong , mouthy in your face assistant to let the players have it, then all would be ok for them. Duncan Ferguson is such a shy meek figure, lacking presence , would hurt a fly, unless of course it burgled his house.
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Wenger’s after game comments – from football.london, sorry comments in reverse order
Wenger on reports saying Ozil has told teammates he is heading to United
We live in an environment where we have to deal with wrong news.
16:02
Wenger on Ozil
He was superb. Agile, quick, intelligent. Always at the service of the team with the quality of his passing.
When he is at that level he is an exceptional football player.
15:59
On Sanchez
He was on fire. I believe he has now come back from injury, he has worked very hard. Ozil as well.
The two of them were sharp physically and very mobile. If you have that individual quality it makes them dangers against any defender.
15:57
Was it Arsenal’s best performance?
It was maybe the most complete defensively and offensively yes.
I felt that we dominated the game at Stoke, at Watford as well -but we were punished for every mistake and we couldn’t finish our chances.
Today we created more. We had 28 shots on goal away from home which is an impressive number.
15:53
Wenger on the win
I feel the whole team played well.
We were tested mentally when we went 1-0 down after a very god start when we couldn’t finish and their keeper kept them in the game.
That was a test but we kept going, kept our focus and the quality of our movement and quality of passing caused them problems.
After that the offensive strength we have made the difference.
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More of a foul on Xhaka then the pen last week unfortunately as BK wrote it does not even out.
Defend the pgMOB structure if you desire but please there’s no need to fall off the cliff like that! Not sure how the official missed stupid pull on Sanchez early on by their keeper (ball was going out anyway).
Great football from the Arsenal. From the off.
Poor effort from such an expensively assembled Everton squad (after Winning the transfer window they aren’t allowed a bye for having played midweek!).
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Well I thoroughly enjoyed that. I was a bit worried that I was going to be punished (again) for skipping church to watch the game, but I needn’t have worried. Some beautiful football from us, and not only did the boys not let Everton’s rotational fouling plan throw them off, we had some bites of our own. Good stuff. And a Rambo goal to boot. Lovely day.
Thanks for the preview, Labo, but I might have to slap you if that AÖL thing catches on. Oh dear. (banned smiley)
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Great win today and overall a good performance but as Arsene has said in the past don’t go overboard with victories or defeats.
There was alot right today and our positive attitude was brilliant but there was still some poor play we need massive improvement on.
Just like Thursday the throw across the pitch deep in our own half put us in trouble, also Xhaka fowled or not must learn to use the ball quickly in areas centrally where we just can’t afford to lose possession. Add Per not closing down Shrek and the balls up for the last goal we have to concentrate harder.
Going forward we were good but still not clinical and although it’s sounds strange after scoring 5 we need to improve our finishing to close up games earlier and improve on our GD which will be so important at the end of the season.
All that said it was a good performance and thoroughly enjoyable and we’ve broken our away duck, Jack’s back and so is Wengerball.
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Second goal the Liverpool keeper gifts to the 5pur2s.
Plundit: “what a goal Kane!”
Of course he’s a decent footballer but Theres no getting away from it: the hype for a footballer who played three matches in an international tournament without netting against giants like Iceland, who’s biggest contribution in Europe to date was not an own goal for Real Madrid but his own own goal against Gent (Ghent?) which knocked his own team out of the Europa league (after getting knocked out the CL), it is properly hilarious
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Highlight for me was Wilshere’s assist for Rambo. Great stuff.
It wasn’t guaranteed that we’d see that again (eg Ramsey’s wonder goal against Norwich, I think). Hopefully they’ll both re-sign!
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< though seeing another Sanchez cross to Ozil for another headed Ozil goal was also a highlight.
If only these two WC players could be convinced to take a relative (to others) pay cut on the last contracts in their careers! It is unlikely…
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How many of these Tottenham players were on the field against the giants from Iceland? Or the Europa cup legends Ghent (or Gent?).
Asking for a friend…
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Shearer had only two international tournaments in close succession which he played at I think. He managed to show his quality as a goal scorer, emphatically. Against good opponents.
Failing against Iceland is comparable?
Am I confused here?
Perhaps we should wait till England win the WC next summer, I’ve made my bet (on England winning!).
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I’m just glad I’m not English, Fins, so I don’t have to pretend to like Kane and Alli. Bless all you who have to do it.
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Alabama, am with you there.. LOL. not English so can safely safe I cant wish Alli and Kane well, esp cos they don’t even strike me as such great players.
I am not German but can safely say Ozil is a joy to watch! long before he was an Arsenal Player.
In fact, I followed DB10 from watching him on the Dutch team to know his club and he led me to arsenal….
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An afternoon of despair, followed by delight for the malcontents
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I mentioned a comment on Match of the day 2 from this morning, I forget to mention one of the panel saying something along the lines of “no matter how long of a winning run, or how good of form Arsenal are in, ARSENAL ARE ONLY 1 GAME AWAY FROM A CRISIS, its our go to point”, – its a disgrace, and when you see a journo happy to admit it, in the knowledge that no fault will be found with, and that Arsenal fans, blogs and twitteratti will not be up in arms over it, in fact many of them indulge have it as their starting point too.
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Dimi M @DimiMAFC 2h2 hours ago
Poor ox. Copping beatings left right and centre at Pool. Well not centre. He doesn’t play there.
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Its a good day.
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not so much for the asb, what with superior managers klopp and koeman getting thumped, they still have trophyless poch to cling to
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Arsenal scored the most headed goals last season with 17. They already have six this season and again it’s the most of any team.
but we like to walk the ball into the net
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I feel like I’m George’s scriptwriter tonight, ha ha ha.
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its alright though as I’m in the credits
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I’m a benevolent thief Eddy.
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I’m not sure why I’m seeing comments along the lines of “finally played our best IX and look what happens”? Do they really believe that if the manager had his best IX available he would not have played them earlier?
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I’m sick of saying that Pass.
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Ramsey’s running in to the area was excellent today and nobody could touch him. He nearly got on the end of loads of through balls and took defenders away for both Ozil and Lacca’s goals before getting his reward with a goal of his own.
When packed defences are trying to cope with an attack like we have aaron is the straw that breaks the camels back.
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Spent the weekend in London.
Watched the match on my iPad then left for home.
Listened to the Spurs vs Liverpool game and then the post-game call in during the drive back the Chesterfield.
Everton fans calling in sounded just like Arsenal fans. Liverpool fans calling in and complaining sounded just like Arsenal fans.
These forums are for fans to let steam off, there is no attempt by pundits to educate with facts and figures.
I have no interest in hearing frustrated fans…..
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Shotta has gone to ground.
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passenal what the believe and what the tweet are probably a lot different, they know that a dig at Wenger gets likes and retweets, it attention they crave.
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did shotta not say something about not having internet coverage for a while
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3 home games in 3 different competitions up next
Tuesday v Norwich in CC
Saturday v Swansea in BPL
Thursday v Red Star in EL
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Resting our big players in the EL is working out quite nicely. Interested to see where it leads come February or so when we normally crash.
But before then we go to Man City four days after their away match at Napoli, The timing couldn’t be better.
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one blog has taken our 5-2 win very badly indeed, Daily Cannon, it has spewed out article after article today, listed below are the titles of some of them(7 articles), not all there was more, you can see from the title of the articles that Daily Cannon has gone into a bit of a meltdown, can’t be having a positive feel after that performance today, now can we. – really sums up the poor caliber of blogs that piggy back on the name of Arsenal.
Did Arsene Wenger only sign this player to appease the fans
Should Arsenal be looking to replace this senior player
Arsenal’s back 3 offers nothing but an illusion of change and security
Why selling this player paved the way for arsenal’s spineless performances
Why this £60M decision was the right one but only if they don’t buckle in January
Why history tells us Arsenal will disappoint in the January window again
What would it really take for Arsenal to sack Arsene Wenger
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GoalVerified account @goal 8h8 hours ago
Arsenal have become the first team to score 100 Premier League goals against a single opponent (Everton) 💯
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great to see more than 3 pts come to from a great match like today…. nice record to have too
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