Arsenal win at Goodison

Arsenal end their Goodison hoodoo with a 1-0 win and a comfortable performance to heap the misery on a struggling and still winless Everton on Sunday afternoon.

LINEUPS

EVE XI: Pickford; Young, Tarkowski*, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Danjuma, Gueye, Onana, Doucoure, McNeil; Beto

EVE SUBS: Virginia, Keane, Godfrey, Patterson, Onyango, Garner, Dobbin, Chermiti, Calvert-Lewin 

ARS XI: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Odegaard*, Rice, Vieira; Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli

ARS SUBS: Ramsdale, Kiwior, Tomiyasu, Jorginho, Smith Rowe, Havertz, Nelson, Trossard, Jesus

Action: The game began in a pattern familiar with how it went in February when Everton defeated Arsenal by a goal to nil. Gunners’ dominance with few chances, though, blunted by a very defensive and rigid Everton side.

Arsenal’s first real big opportunity of the match came when Fabio Vieira slid an excellent ball inside Ashley Young for the on-rushing Gabriel Martinelli. The Brazilian international opened his body and finished well into the bottom corner past Jordan Pickford. However, a VAR review determined that Eddie Nketiah had come back to play the ball from an offside position in the build up to the goal and Martinelli’s strike was chalked off.

Things got a lot worse for Martinelli just a couple of minutes later as he went down with an injury, quickly replaced by Leandro Trossard with Arsenal’s opening UEFA Champions League group stage match against PSV Eindhoven coming up in midweek.

Everton continued to frustrate Arsenal but posed very little threat with the occasionally forward dalliance from Abdoulaye Doucoure or Idrissa Gueye being their only real incision.

Arsenal continued to dominate the play in the second-half and Pickford was forced into making some impressive saves, most notably just after the restart as he pushed away a well-hit Martin Odegaard effort.

After some good play in the middle of the pitch, Arsenal did finally break the deadlock via the aforementioned first-half substitute, Leandro Trossard.

Bukayo Saka got a little bit of space on the right-hand side of the Everton box and the England winger was able to pick out Trossard in the centre. The Belgian international opened up his body to strike supremely well across goal and into the top corner. 

With supporters streaming out of Goodison Park before the end, The Toffees offered very little going forward with Arsenal remaining the most likely to score and they managed to comfortably see the game out. 

"THAT IS DELICIOUSLY SHARP!"

Trossard's shot SMASHES off the post and Arsenal lead! 💥 pic.twitter.com/wavixGF3OP

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 17, 2023

The big picture: Everton’s terrible start to the campaign continues with Sean Dyche’s men managing to collect just one point in their opening five matches. Arsenal have taken 13 points from their five games and are alongside their north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, who they face next week, as well as Liverpool, in being two points behind league leaders and reigning champions Manchester City. 

Man of the match: Leandro Trossard. In a game that lacked much excitement or general intrigue, it was one moment of real quality that decided the result and, therefore, Trossard was the standout. 

Expected goals: Everton (0.34) 0-1 (1.16) Arsenal

EVENTS

Kick-off

’21 | DISALLOWED: Martinelli

’24 | INJURY: Martinelli

Half-time 

’69 | GOAL: Trossard (0-1)

Full-time