Everton Vs The Arsenal (EPL) 4 Feb 2023

I repeat, an Everton manager last lost a home debut 50 yrs ago. It is what it is I would have taken a point and bit your hand off prior to the game. Not sure why people are shocked it's not so much a bad Arsenal performance as a relegation threatened side fighting for their lives

 

Well, that happened.

Everton were really really good today. Dyche, man, dude knows how to get the most out of players.

 

Good luck with that. Not long ago I lived through a burst pipe and a big mess/rebuild after that. Hope your outcome is much better.

It was -15F windchill here when I woke up.

 

I didn't notice too much from him. What did I miss that prompts your comment of his attitude?

 

His interplay with Xhaka that led to a turnover right outside our penalty area around 85:00ish. Threw his hands up and complained rather than cover.

Like man you've been here for 5 days, put your head down and work.

That absolute waste of a pass at the end put a bow on his performance.

 

They locked up Odegaard. He is the key and he couldn't contribute today. It left everything to Xhaka who has been out of form for a while.

That Jorginho sub was terrible.

 

I didn’t watch the game, thankfully.

dyche’s first game, at home was going to be hard but stil disappointed.

sounds like it was the execution that was bad not the game plan? Or was it both?

either way I think the team will respond positively and Mikel has to learn that all bottom teams will try to replicate this.

 

Hmm. Given the strength of your comments, I went back to look for that. The only thing I found was at 83:00 when Jorge's lame pass to Xhaka was blocked/intercepted, afterwards he put his hand up to Xhaka to say "my bad" and Xhaka did something similar to say "it's OK".

If that's the play that makes you hate Jorginho, you might wanna rewatch it. Kinda like I did for the cheek scrape on Martinelli?

 

We didn't have any creativity, they locked off Odegaard and Saka as well. It happens, we didn't have anything off the bench. This is IMO where Jesus is missed the most, he helps in the buildup. It is what it is. We move

 

Are you just a tad surprised that your MD thread duties lasted only 1 game?

 

I thought so.
I saw our possession stats but given that we were doing zero with it assumed that Everton was happy to let us have the ball.

 

Weak performance, lost a lot of battles and the passing was poor. Couldn’t handle the physicality and the pressure. Have to quickly get back on track as if we lose again it could be a shitty downward spiral we all love so much

 

I agree completely.

 

Mikel's tunnel interview with the NBC studio crew wasn't fantastically revealing, only 2 comments that stuck with me:

1. "We were especially poor in the final third, plus how we gave up the goal"

2. (when asked about the importance of the response after this, especially for the younger players) "The way to respond is to tell them how much I love them"

Not surprisingly he was not a happy looking coach, but he looked calm and supportive.

p.s. One more comment he made "He (Partey) is fine, he just didn't train all week so I decided to take him off (after 60')"

 

This was a good lesson. Mentally after the intensity and highs from January it's no surprise they thought they could get a breather here. This squad needed a reminder you need to put away every team in the league with the same intensity you take on Man U and the NLD with.

 

Yeah man, the closest to that kind of role is ESR, picking up space in btw the lines, driving forward, etc. is he still getting up to full speed?

 

no idea.

I thought he would play today, but was ruled out yesterday.

 

Sounds like he had a setback

 

I thought Troussard would do that sort of thing.
Guess he can't if he's in the LW role.

 

Yup, I think I heard it was a thigh strain for ESR. At least it was not his knee again but probably not completely unrelated.