The Opposition – Arsenal
Many peoples tip for the title at the start of the season, the Gunners have responded to the surprise opening day defeat to West Ham with 6 wins from 8 games, leaving them second in the table. In Europe, their form has been quite perplexing. Defeats to Dinamo Zagreb and Olymipiakos was followed by this week’s win over Bayern Munich. Pretty infuriating stuff if you’re a Gunner.
In Alexis Sanchez, they have arguably the best player in the league right now. After a slow start, the diminutive Chilean has 6 goals in his last 3 league games.
It was a quiet summer on the transfer front; in fact there was only one senior incoming. But the arrival of Petr Cech from Chelsea, for a lot of people, has turned Arsenal into genuine contenders.
Despite the limited activity in the transfer market; the Gunners boast a wealth of attacking options. Sanchez, Ozil, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Giroud, Ramsey, Cazorla. Theo Walcott in particular has been finding the net with both Arsenal and England in recent weeks.
What the managers say
Roberto Martinez – “We need to get back to having our normal dynamic, positive approach. The understanding of what we need to do at the Emirates is clear.
“We are going there with a clear mentality of wanting to win the game. We are not going to go there and try to see what happens.
“More importantly, we need to react from the disappointment at the weekend and to do that we need to get a positive result.
“At the weekend we all felt deflated and were very disappointed with our performance. But there is a belief that if we are as strong as we can be, we can compete against anyone on the day.
“Clearly we have to react straightaway against Arsenal who, in my eyes, are in the best moment of their season so far.”
A team as experienced as Arsenal with those European nights aren’t going to suffer a hangover. I would say that isn’t going to be the case.
“I don’t expect Arsenal to have any negative effect, because they have got the experience and right mentality. They have been in these situations many, many times.
“If anything, firstly they have got incredible momentum from that victory and, secondly, they have got a big enough squad to find fresh legs if they need to. Arsene Wenger is the best man in doing that and knowing his squad.
“Understandably, after beating a team like Bayern Munich, you will expect them to be buoyant and full of belief. But we are looking forward to that challenge.”
Arsene Wenger – “We always have a feel-good factor in our club unless the results are not there, We have always a togetherness but not always the results that we want.
“Overall we are in a good run and that can help the level of confidence and belief going into the next game.
“We have a big game in front of us against Everton and we can extend our run. Our focus is on our next game.
“You know that if you want to play at the top of the Premier League you want to do well in the big games at home.
“Everton is another big game so the target is for us to take advantage of that. We play in front of everybody so let’s take advantage of it.
“You gain credibility through consistency and when people think this could be a game where we people think we could slip a bit and you respond in a positive way.
“I believe that [at the] top level, you come out of a big game and show you can focus again and produce the same performance again.”
Team News
Tom Cleverley played an hour for the u21’s this week and is likely to return.
Bryan Oviedo and Steven Pienaar also played and could be in contention for the bench.
Baines, Hibbert, McGeady and Besic are also not far away.
Previous Meetings
Everton’s most recent win against Arsenal was the 3-0 dismantling of the Gunners at Goodison in 2014, as the blues chased for a top 4 spot.
Away from home, the blues record is pretty dismal. There have been some highlights in recent years though. Gerard Deulofeu secured a more than deserved point by scoring a memorable goal in 2013.
The blues came oh so close to a victory in January 2010, only to be denied by a last minute Tomas Rosicky equaliser.
Expected Starting XI – (4-2-3-1) –Howard; Coleman, Stones, Jagielka, Galloway; Barry, McCarthy; Mirallas, Barkley, Naismith; Lukaku
