Andy Hunter’s match report has landed, so I’ll wrap this blog up. Thanks for your company and emails - goodnight.
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That is a mighty victory for Everton - not just the result, but the manner of it. Richarlison had two equalisers ruled out by VAR for Spandex-tight offsides, and Everton had every excuse they needed for another defeat. Instead they fought like beasts to get something out of the game. It wasn’t just about effort, though - both goals came from spectacular curling shots by Demarai Gray. The first hit the bar and was finished adroitly by Richarlison; the second flew into the net off the post.
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Full time: Everton 2-1 Arsenal
My word, what a finish. Aubameyang had a great chance to equalise, but slid meekly wide from 12 yards after Nketiah’s pass was cleverly dummied by Odegaard (I think).
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90+8 min: Aubameyang misses a sitter with the last kick of the game!
90+6 min Ramsdale makes an outstanding save to deny Iwobi, who was put through on goal by Richarlison!
90+4 min Gray’s goal would have been magnificent had it gone straight in the top corner. The fact it hit the inside of the post made it even more exhilarating.
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90+3 min Inconstancy is my very essence, says the wheel.
Andre Gomes, who has been quietly brilliant since coming on, calmly beat two players in midfield and played a good pass out to Gray on the left. He cut inside on his right foot, as he always does, and shimmied past Tomiyasu and White on the edge of the area. As he beat White, the ball sat up just enough for Gray to launch a right-footed shot that clattered off the inside of the far post and flew into the net.
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GOAL! Everton 2-1 Arsenal (Gray 90+2)
WHAT A FLIPPING GOAL!!!
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90+1 min: Great block from Coleman! Nketiah plays a clever pass into Odegaard on the edge of the area. He slips the ball to the side of Keane and shapes a left-footed shot that is blocked desperately by Coleman. I think that was going in.
90 min There will be six minutes of added time.
90 min Doucoure’s optimistic* cross shot is easily saved by Ramsdale.
* And that’s being generous.
89 min In the circumstances this would be an excellent night for Everton, not least because of the defiance they have shown in the second half.
87 min Everton on bring on Arsenal alumnus Alex Iwobi for Anthony Gordon.
86 min Aubameyang is on for Lacazette. The game was pretty poor for 70 minutes but this is pulsating stuff. Saka, who has come alive since Everton’s equaliser, beats two players and hits a long-range shot that deflects through to Pickford.
84 min: Nketiah hits the post! What a chance for Arsenal. Saka moved infield from the right, teased Godfrey and clipped a beautiful cross to the far post. Nketiah pulled away from Coleman, in the six-yard box, and planted a downward header onto the post. The ball rebounded off the post onto Nketiah and dribbled fractionally wide. My days, what a chance.
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83 min I missed an Arsenal substitution in the 71st minute, it seems: Nketiah on for Martinelli.
82 min Odegaard’s shot is blocked desperately by Godfrey, who then falls on the ball. Odegaard appeals for handball but the referee and VAR aren’t interested.
82 min “While I understand John Collin’s skepticism as to my individuality, I can assure your readers that I’m typing this from sunny but cold Chicago,” says Mary ‘Matt’ Burtz. “I will concede the possibility that those whose last names end with “z” think alike though.”
82 min It’s all Everton now. Andre Gomes has been really influential since coming on.
Richarlison and Gomes worked the ball across the edge of the area to Gray. He whipped a lovely curler back across goal that beat Ramsdale and clattered off the bar. It rebounded towards Richarlison, who tensed his neck muscles to lob an instinctive header over Ramsdale and into the net. That’s such a good finish.
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IT’S GOING TO COUNT! HE’S ONSIDE!
GOAL! Everton 1-1 Arsenal (Richarlison 80)
Richarlison has scored for a third time, and this one might even count!
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78 min Gray almost puts Gomes through on goal with a return pass into the area. It’s fractionally overhit, however, and that allows Partey to make a vital interception.
76 min Gordon is lucky not to be booked - at least - for a naughty tackle on Tavares. He caught Tavares at the bottom of the shin after the ball had gone, though it was with the side of the foot rather than his studs. Wayne Rooney used to tackle people like that, and he knew what he was doing too.
75 min “I can assure you that in both ice hockey (‘I didn’t mean to hurt him, I was just finishing my check’) and gridiron football (‘Yeah, it may have been a bit late, but I was already committed when he released the ball’) the speed/momentum excuse was an equally well-entrenched Regrettably Unavoidable Part of the Game,” says Fred Decker. “Oddly, once the rules were changed and officials were allowed to say (in essence) ‘Sucks to be you,’ and issue the penalty anyway, hulking defencemen and linebackers alike hastily discovered that they *could* in fact avoid making contact when suitably motivated.”
74 min Odegaard is booked for timewasting. Arsenal have declared at 1-0.
72 min Arsenal are starting to banter Everton off with fliphousery. Gabriel uses a foul by Doucoure as the cue to waste 30 seconds. As Alan Smith says on Sky, everyone does it, although the Everton fans don’t seem to share that sentiment.
71 min “VAR is technically correct…” says Niall Mullen.
70 min There’s a break in play while Martinelli receives treatment. The Everton fans are not enamoured with the interruption.
68 min It sounds like the blue line is Arsenal and the red line is Everton, which makes perfect sense.
67 min The stats say Everton have had no shots on target, which is bloody disrespectful to Anthony Gordon’s mishit cross.
66 min What am I missing? He’s onside isn’t he?
That is SO close! 😱
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 6, 2021
VAR comes to the rescue for Arsenal once again as Everton and Richarlison are denied by another tight offside call! 🖥 pic.twitter.com/4fkCd2uH0w
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66 min A change apiece: Tavares for Tierney, Gomes for Townsend. I want to see those VAR lines again. This could be a howler for the ages.
65 min Sky keep showing the VAR lines of Richarlison’s second disallowed goal, and he still looks onside to me. The blue line is actually further away from goal than the red line. Isn’t the blue line Richarlison and the red line Gabriel? If so, is this an almighty cock up?
64 min The weather at Goodison Park has turned biblical, with torrential rain and a violent wind.
63 min Xhaka is booked - I know, stop it - for a highly cynical block on Gordon.
62 min Both offside decisions were so tight, and on each occasion I thought the goal would be given because of the slightly thicker VAR lines this season. Wrong!
60 min Martinelli almost makes it 2-0! Odegaard put him through in the inside-right channel with a fine pass. Pickford came out, probably unnecessarily, but at least managed to force Martinelli very wide. Martinelli lifted the ball hopefully towards goal with his right foot and the ball dropped onto the roof of the net.
60 min It was such a good finish from Richarlison, too. The chance came when Doucoure put him through on the right side of the area. Richarlison’s first touch was perfectly weighted - he had pretty much no margin for error with Ramsdale in front and Gabriel coming from the side - and then he sidefooted calmly past Ramsdale.
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NO GOAL! Everton 0-1 Arsenal
Dear me. It’s another ridiculously tight offside decision, but it has gone against Everton.
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VAR CHECK FOR OFFSIDE! Not again, surely.
GOAL! Everton 1-1 Arsenal (Richarlison 57)
Richarlison gets his second goal, and Everton’s first!
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57 min Arsenal are having an excellent spell, perhaps their best of the match. Xhaka almost frees Tierney in the area with a sliderule pass that is desperately cut out by Coleman.
55 min Tierney, who made the goal, shapes another beautiful ball that flashes across the six-yard box. If only Arsenal had a fox in the box to finish it off.
54 min “The problem with not giving a red card to Godfrey is that it encourages dangerous play by excusing for “lack of intent”,” says William Ireland. “Either he intended it — or he wasn’t careful enough. So no card, encourages violent play that is often going to be excused. Giving a red encourages players trying not to hurt each other. It shouldn’t be a close call.”
I agree that walking football is a brilliant invention.
51 min Godfrey is booked for a poor challenge on Saka. He went slightly over the ball - not enough for a red - and put his studs into Saka’s foot. The more you see things like that, the more you think Godfrey meant the stamp on Tomiyasu.
50 min “Hi Rob,” says John Collin. “Not generally one for conspiracy theories, but are US-based Evertonian pessimists Mary Waltz and Matt Burtz the same person? I know I’ve never seen them in the same room...”
In their defence, America’s quite a big place, and the internet is even bigger.
47 min Keane drives a free-kick across the field to Gordon, who mistimes an attempted volleyed cross. The ball swirls wickedly and drops towards the Arsenal goal, where flaps it over the bar under pressure from Richarlison. Good goalkeeping.
46 min Peep peep! Everton begin the second half.
Half-time reading
“I may be wrong,” says Gary Naylor, failing yet another Radiohead module, “but Godfrey’s was the kind of challenge regular matchgoers understand because the players are moving so fast and you can appreciate momentum so much more witnessed live. Of course, television viewers see incidents in slow motion far more often than at full speed, so form a different view.”
The slow-motion doesn’t help, I agree, though in that case I’m pretty sure he knew what he was doing. He had been really fired up before that, which makes me think he just went a bit too far. Most of us have done it on a football field, though not necessarily by putting our studs in an opponent’s face.
Odegaard actually scored with the side of his leg, as he was unable to get his foot high enough. I don’t think it was a complete fluke, though - top-class players have enough skill to control the ball with most parts of the body.
LOOK, GRAEME SOUNESS CLEARLY SLIPPED
Just hand over the award, now ... #Souness #LFC #Rangers pic.twitter.com/9GmZk5ydRY
— Stewart Weir (@sweirz) September 11, 2020
“Respectfully,” says Chris Lambert, “football in general is always parping on about the difficulty of controlling the body at speed. Doesn’t seem to be a problem in other professional sports…”
Respectfully, chess isn’t a contact sport. (You’re probably right about Godfrey - as I said, I think he meant it, I’m just not sure we can be certain enough to send him off. Besides, modern football boots are so sophisticated that they even have a mind of their own.)
The email consensus, by the way, is that Ben Godfrey should have been sent off. Next you’ll be telling me this wasn’t a freak accident.
Today’s the 26th anniversary of Eric Cantona stomping a mud hole in John Moncur’s chest.
— A Funny Old Game (@sid_lambert) March 19, 2020
<makes ball gesture with hands >pic.twitter.com/jJSAYmu4Cq
Half time: Everton 0-1 Arsenal
Hell, bloody football (© Daniel Harris)
Richarlison punches the ground in frustration at the vicissitudes of this thing of ours. It was a good goal, though: Tierney broke down the left and clipped an excellent cross to the near post, where Odegaard adjusted his feet smartly to steer a volley past Pickford.
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GOAL! Everton 0-1 Arsenal (Odegaard 45+2)
Moments ago Everton were 1-0 up. Now they’re 1-0 down!
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45+1 min “Everton better win a trophy in the next 63 years,” says Peter Oh, “because a walkout in the 90th minute just would not pack much of a punch.”
45 min Tomiyasu was slightly deeper than the other Arsenal defenders, though not deep enough. It was extremely close, and I thought Richarlison might get away it. I was wrong.
NO GOAL! Everton 0-0 Arsenal
Townsend curled the free-kick towards the penalty spot, where Richarlison rose to flick an accomplished header into the far corner. But VAR decided he was this far offside, so the goal is disallowed.
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Arsenal (Richarlison 44)
Richarlison won the free-kick, and now he has scored from it!
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43 min Everton are having a decent spell at the end of the first half. Gabriel foulds Richarlison 25 yards from goal on the right wing...
"That is something he could have avoided."
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 6, 2021
Did Ben Godfrey and #EFC get away with one here? 👀
After a VAR check, there's no red card! ❌ pic.twitter.com/XfvUVyPUZa
42 min “If Godfrey on Tomiyasu was not intentional, how about dangerously incompetent?” says Alex Whitney. “Godfrey looked directly at Tomiyasu’s face before he turned away to the right and immediately planted his foot. Piss-poor spatial awareness, or he just didn’t care.”
I’d like to see it again at full speed in the cold light of day. In situations like that it can be hard to stop your body’s momentum; it can also be easy to use said momentum to disguise a snide assault. I haven’t a clue which this one was. I just don’t think it crossed the ‘clear and obvious error’ threshold. I realise I’d feel differently had I been the one whose coupon was almost sliced and diced.
41 min “England’s number one” is being sung proudly by one set of fans, and for once I’m not sure which it is.
39 min Shots on target so far: Everton 0-0 Arsenal.
38 min “As endlessly frustrating as he is, the reason successive managers have picked Xhaka is fairly obvious,” says Norrie Hernon. “In a period of mercurial/inconsistent players, Xhaka will play solidly seven times out of 10, have one very good game, one mystery game in which anything can happen and one sent off in the other one. It’s some reflection of the last five years that this is worthy of certain selection, but that’s where we’ve been and partially still are.”
‘Mystery game’ is a great description, and surely a Netflix series of the future. Participants include Granit Xhaka, Fred, John Stones, Eric Bailly and Jordan Pickford.
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36 min A deep cross from the right is pulled down well by Richarlison, allowing Gordon to run onto the ball and crack a first-time shot that is blocked. He struck that really well.
33 min Gordon and Gray have switched wings, possibly out of sheer boredom. It hasn’t been a great game.
31 min A blow for Everton: Yerra Mina is going off injured. He’s replaced by Mason Holgate.
29 min: No red card for Godfrey! I think that’s the right decision, if only because we can’t say with certainty that it was deliberate. My instinct is that he did know what he was doing, but it would be hard to prove in a court of law, or even at Stockley Park. It was painful for Tomiyasu, though, who took Godfrey’s studs in the face while he was falling over.
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VAR check Ben Godfrey could be off here. He studded the falling Tomiyasu in the face, and VAR are trying to decide whether it was deliberate.
28 min: And they’re off! A number of Everton fans are leaving, though the majority have stayed and are singing with greater gusto than at any stage tonight.
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27 min Richarlison’s shot deflects behind off White. The corner is taken short to Gray, who flashes a glorious ball across the face of goal.
26 min “Happy to see a reference to Sparklehorse in tonight’s MBM!” says Michael Gibson. “I was at a very odd gig in a church on Saturday night. Well crafted and enjoyable as it was, the highlight was talking to my pew neighbours about ‘The Sad and Beautiful World of Sparklehorse’ film. I had watched that, and some bands covering Sparklehorse songs, in another church many years ago. Turning to the football, another heavy defeat for Everton might mean Rafa wakes up in a burnt-out basement, sleeping with metal hands In a spirit ditch...”
I’d love to see that film and wish it would come out on DVD. I know the people involved have been trying for years.
25 min After a poor pass from Gabriel, Richarlison finds Doucoure 15 yards out, back to goal. He turns neatly but then gets too excited and drags a weak shot well wide.
24 min Saka is okay to continue.
22 min Saka falls awkwardly after being fouled by Godfrey. He has stayed down and is receiving treatment, which gives Mikel Arteta the opportunity for a bit of micro-management.
21 min A reminder that the Everton walkout is scheduled for the 27th minute, this season being the 27th anniversary of their last trophy.
18 min Tierney and Odegaard combine nicely to find Saka on the right of the area. He tries to tease Godfrey, who only has eyes for the ball and forces Saka to give it back to Odegaard on the edge of the area. He is swaped by defenders so plays it further back to Partey, who wallops it over the bar with a Jensenian flourish.
17 min “Andrew Mangan summed it up perfectly in his blog this morning, Arsenal are often a kiss-of-life team,” says Abhisek Manikonda. “With our opponents gasping for breath we give them the kickstart they need to get going again. So, expect Everton to get the three points today to kickstart their season.”
That’s a nice phrase. Funnily enough, last December Chelsea were the kiss-of-life team for both Everton and Arsenal.
16 min Mike Dean plays a good advantage, allowing somebody in a blue shirt (nope) to find Townsend in space on the right. He cuts inside but then leaves the ball to Doucoure, who in turn leaves it to Townsend, and that’s the end of that attack.
13 min A half chance for Gray, who shoots over from 22 yards after a lovely run infield from the left.
13 min “Like probably most other Arsenal fans, I don’t know what I feel about Xhaka coming back,” says Charles Antaki. “On the one hand, he’s not as crab-like as Elneny, which is good in some ways (and bad in others); on the other hand he’s not as progressive as Lokonga, which is bad in some ways (and good in others). And then there’s the cards, the cards…”
12 min Arsenal continue to dominate possession, though it’s all a bit slow and safe at the moment.
10 min “Alan Davies’ hatred of Xhaka is pretty funny, he really does not enjoy Arteta either which I think is possibly a bit more controversial,” says Zack. “For me, it’s more bafflement with Xhaka. What is it successive Arsenal managers see in the guy? Arsenal consistently play better when he’s not in the team and he has a pretty astonishing record of red cards in big games.
“What’s more confusing to me is as various names have been sacrificed at Arsenal in the name of the young and the new, Xhaka whose worse moments at the club and poor relationship with the supporters have made him a perfect candidate to be swept aside, as a gesture of renewal if nothing else, has a new contract. I honestly think I’ve seen him play well about 10 times. Two times in a Switzerland top.”
I don’t watch him as often, but I can see why managers are seduced by him. It’s almost a rescue fantasy. He has most of the tools you need to be a quality No6; the problem is that he picks the wrong one too often.
8 min Godfrey gets the crowd going with a crunching tackle on Tomiyasu. That was a companion piece to Phil Neville’s famous reducer on Ronaldo in 2008.
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7 min There’s a short break in play so that everyone in the group can pay tribute to Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, whose murder is one of the most sickening stories we’ll ever hear.
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6 min Everton are playing like the away side, which isn’t a surprise in the circumstances. Arsenal are having a lot of the ball in the middle third.
5 min “Can’t wait to hear Arteta’s explanation for including Xhaka,” says Pete Mumola. “Everton are out of form, but the man hasn’t even played a U23 match for fitness and there’s no shortage of cover across AMN, Sambi or even Elneny. Failure to get all three points today is really going to risk all the goodwill he earned back after the rocky start.”
3 min Richarlison’s touch releases Godfrey down the left. He scoots into the area... and then slips over. Tomiyasu was coming across anyway, so I doubt he’d have had a shooting chance.
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2 min Everton have started with Gray on the left, Gordon on the right and Townsend as the No10.
2 min “I’m no psychologist,” says Ian Copestake, “but if Mr. Arteta wants to keep his team performing then he needs to convince it that Everton are a small side. To that end, perhaps Rafa should have given the Arsenal team talk.”
1 min Peep peep! After the players take the knee, Arsenal kick off from left to right.
The Everton players get a good reception as they stroll onto the field, although they don’t need a degree in Boethius to know what will happen at half-time if they are 3-0 down.
“Hi Rob,” says Gary Naylor. “Boethius was also the hero of Ignatius J Reilly, the protagonist of A Confederacy of Dunces - an apt title for the story of Everton’s boardroom these last ten years or so.”
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“Xhaka to get a straight red in the 27th minute for a two-footer in Bill Kenwright,” says Stephen Carr. “Put a monkey on it.”
I know Xhaka can be a liability, but I doubt even he could manage a two-footed challenge into someone.
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“I woke up today to a foggy, dreary morning here in northern California,” says Mary Waltz, who is more of a Sparklehorse fan than I realised. “The perfect weather for an Everton fan on game day. None of that perky sun to lift my spirits. Until we get DCL back we are going to be goal challenged so I am counting on a low scoring affair and a World Cup-level Pickford performance.”
It’s going to penalties?
“I’m writing this from approximately 4000 miles away, so my perspective isn’t exactly the closest, but Everton are such a mess right now that many in the fanbase are fearing that relegation is a distinct possibility,” writes Matt Burtz. “I don’t consider the situation to be quite that bad (I think they’re better than Newcastle and Norwich, for starters), but I think we can all agree that things are not going great. I fear that the departure of Marcel Brands will give Rafa Benitez too much authority, which is bad in that I don’t think he should even be in charge of the team tonight. However, Everton did the double over Arsenal last season, so maybe three points are on the cards tonight.”
It always tickles me when supporters of big clubs reach for the nuclear pessimism of potential relegation. There is about as much chance of Everton going down as there was of Leicester winning the Premier League.
“Xhaka playing is a huge shock; projected return was January and as late as Wednesday he wasn’t in training,” says John Cox. Arteta must really think they’ll need him.”
I wish someone had a camera on Alan Davies when he clocked the teamsheet. His loathe/hate relationship with Xhaka on the Tuesday Club podcast never fails to tickle me. The reaction to his sending off at Manchester City earlier in the season - especially the haunted “I can’t” at around 5m25s - is wonderful.
Rafa Benitez wasn’t exactly leading the tributes in his pre-match interview
"I just concentrate on the football issues."
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 6, 2021
Rafael Benitez insists he is solely focused on tonight's match with Arsenal, despite some major changes at Everton in the last few days and a fan protest planned for tonight...👀 pic.twitter.com/jA5x1iZllJ
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FA Cup third round draw
In case you missed it, Everton are away to Hull and Arsenal have a trip to the City Ground.
There are two changes for Everton from that derby mess: Yerry Mina replaces Lucas Digne, who isn’t in the squad, and Anthony Gordon comes in for Salomon Rondon. That presumably means Richarlison playing up front.
Arsenal make four changes from their defeat at Old Trafford: Kieran Tierney, Granit Xhaka, Alexandre Lacazette and Bukayo Saka replace Nuno Tavares, Mohamed Elneny, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Emile Smith Rowe. The first three are on the bench; Smith Rowe isn’t in the squad.
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; Coleman, Mina, Keane, Godfrey; Doucoure, Allan; Gordon, Townsend, Gray; Richarlison.
Substitutes: Begovic, Kenny, Holgate, Branthwaite, Delph, Gomes, Gbamin, Iwobi, Tosun.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1) Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney; Partey, Xhaka; Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Lacazette.
Substitutes: Okonkwa, Holding, Cedric, Tavares, Lokonga, Elneny, Aubameyang, Pepe, Nketiah.
Referee Mike Dean.
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Team news
Your Everton team to face Arsenal 💪#EVEARS pic.twitter.com/at77JBYVoh
— Everton (@Everton) December 6, 2021
🚨 TEAM NEWS!
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 6, 2021
🏴 Kieran Tierney comes in
🇨🇭 Granit Xhaka starts!
🇫🇷 Alex Lacazette leads the line#EVEARS
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Preamble
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss an entire managerial reign. Rafa Benitez has been at Goodison Park for less than six months, yet he’s already fighting for survival. There was always a danger this would happen, given his past, but once appointed he surely deserves a fair crack like anyone. Five months and £1.7m do not constitute the aforementioned crack.
Even by the standards of modern football, this has escalated with indecent haste. Everton went into the October international break in fifth place, two points behind the leaders Chelsea, and even Gary Neville was blowing smoke up Rafa’s fundamental principles. Their record since then is unpolishable: seven games, six defeats, one point and apparently no hope. There’s a mutinous atmosphere at Goodison Park. The director of football Marcel Brands left yesterday and supporters are planning to walk out of the ground in the 27th minute in protest at the board.
Depending on your viewpoint, Everton’s opponents tonight are a great advert for giving a manager time, or a terrible advert for giving a manager time. After almost two years, opinion is still split on the merits of Mikel Arteta. He has built a likeable team, full of charismatic young players, but they keep hitting a wall in the biggest games.
Their season so far has been the opposite of Everton’s. They had a hideous start, after which Arteta found himself where Benitez is now, as the odds-on favourite to be the next Premier League manager invited to do one. But they’ve won seven of their last 11 in the league, and another victory tonight would move them up to fifth.
A win for Everton would lift them from 16th to 12th, and they have a decent run of fixtures coming up. After tonight, only one of the next 11 games is against a Big Six team or West Ham, a collective also known in some cultures as ‘the top seven’.
A few good results wouldn’t resolve Everton’s long-term problems, but they might buy Benitez more time to try to fix them. If Rafa’s got anything about him, he’ll let Boethius do the team talk tonight.
Kick off 8pm.
