Sky Sports’ Peter Smith insists Arsenal had no answers to breaking down Everton in their Premier League game today.
The Gunners took on the struggling Toffees in a game that fans expected them to win, but with their new manager on the touchline, Everton secured a 1-0 victory.
Sean Dyche has been their latest gaffer for just a few days and the players enjoyed a new manager bounce with that win.
Arsenal struggled to make the kind of impact we are used to seeing from them and they could not break down a Toffees side that looked well-drilled.
After the game, Smith said on Sky Sports:
“They had no answer today. They were well off their best. But championship-winning sides don’t stay down for long. They must bounce back at home to Brentford next weekend. A huge week ahead for Arteta at the training ground.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
This loss is a major blow to us and shows we still have a long way to go in our bid to win the title.
In the last few weeks, we have put in some tremendous performances and this defeat would be a reality check that will prepare us to do better in the next few matches.
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It’s one of those moments, we have to live inorder to fight another day. I know it’s a bitter pill to swallow.
Come on Gunners, let’s move on.
Everton players were playing to impress the new manager and we couldn’t protect our goal.
When teams start packing defences against you, you need to have an answer.
In the past City and Chelsea have seen this problem emerge and their answer was to buy a player with close ball control and dribbling skills (e.g. Eden Hazard) to unlock the defence. Guardiola commented on having to buy that type of player to use versus park-the-bus teams.
I kept quiet when people were suggesting Eddie could replace GJ although I didn’t see him as a replacement in any sense of the word. Eddie is an old-style striker who can make a bit of space for himself if necessary to apply the finishing touch, whereas GJ unlocks defences. When you’re a side that’s good enough to scare the opposition into an ultra-defensive approach, you need a key to unlock the gate.
Even GM and Saka don’t quite have the same skills, GM needs a bit of space, more a of “push it past him and get there first” style of dribbling whereas GJ has the ball glued to his feet and doesn’t go head-down like Mudryk, he can lay off a deft touch to a team mate while in the middle of a dribble.
Eddie had at least one gilt-edged chance today and failed. If you’re going to be the bang-it-in-the-net goalscorer type you can’t miss those in tight games.
We’ll miss GJ until he comes back if teams continue this approach – and Everton’s success today will have done nothing to persuade anyone to come out of their shell when they play Arsenal. I hope our main striker gets back very soon.
Or it was just a bad game. Saka and odegaard have very good close control that they can use to open up defences, not unlike jesus, and martinelli has shown that ability on occasion as well. We also have trossard, who I think will probably take martinelli’s place for the next game – he might make a difference in the way you’re thinking.
Setting the bar too high for Eddie though imo – should have done better with his chance, but it was just one chance. He’s proven himself good enough to play in this side, but to expect any striker to replace GJ’s dribbling/playmaking skills is asking too much – we have other playmakers in the side who should have enough for us to make chances.
GJ is class. He is our best dribbler, and he *might* have helped us make a couple more chances on the day – and we might have missed them, who knows.
We’ve ground out a few results this season but were unable to do it yesterday. If this is the start of a bad run of form, I’ll change my tune, but for now I’ll just say we can’t and won’t play brilliantly and win every game. We’ve shown we can bounce back from disappointment before and I’m confident we will do that again.
But I’m not expecting any striker to replace GJ’s skills, I’m saying that other people said that but my view is the opposite – that GJ is essential in games like this and that Eddie can’t do what he does for us.
GJ had a habit of unlocking the opposition early on, which makes them come out of their defensive posture. The best remedy for park-the-bus tactics is an early goal.