Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta both praised Everton as the best side Arsenal have faced this season after Roberto Martinez’s came from behind to grab a late draw at the Emirates on Sunday.
In an end-to-end game Gerard Deulofeu, the 19-year-old Spaniard on loan from Barcelona, cancelled out Mesut Ozil’s opener crashing home a bullet of an effort with six minutes remaining as the Toffees reaped just reward for an energetic performance which had the Gunners on the back foot in the first half.
Speaking after the game, Mertesacker told Arsenal Player: “I think that was the toughest game we have been through the whole season. They pressed us high up, all the way through from the start until the end.
“We couldn’t play that much and in the second half everything was possible on both sides, with chances here and there so I think it was a fair result.
“We have tough games coming up over the next week and over the Christmas period. We just want to go one game at a time.”
Arteta, who spent six-years at Goodison Park, also tipped his cap at the improvements made by his former club; the 31-year-old adamant that the Gunners had just faced their biggest domestic test thus far.
“Everton are the best side we have faced this season in the Premier League,” he told the Mirror. “It was a really tough game, a really high tempo game.
“They dominated the first 35 minutes or so but after that we had three clear chances. In the second half we were the better side.
“They [Everton] been getting results because they are doing things right. They have a good mix of players and are hard to deal with.”
Meanwhile, Laurent Koscielny takes Romelu Lukaku out of his pocket and releases him back to Everton with a benignant smile.
Martinez said “Draw at Emirates better than win at Old Traford”
I am trying to control very hard…….hahahahahahahahahaha
Van Persie – fuck off!!!!
I though this might have escaped many people but Kevin Mirallas is a cunt.
he is just an irritating RVP clone
Yeah and I quite agree.. I doubt any team will come to the Emirates and play like that again.. They have the ability, high on confidence and really had nothing to lose. It was a good game,just disappointed as am used to Arsenal winning everything these days..
I just love it how none of our players mention spuds in the biggest test of this season. Haha.
I just love it how none of our players mention spuds in the biggest tests of this season. Haha.
They have never been a big test?
Everton were a great test and good perpetration for the next few games. City away will be the biggest one as we’ve all seen what they can do at home, but with our defense we could get a result.
My money is on Liverpool (being carried by the bitey racist) and Everton fighting it out for 4th place. Everton have been quietly getting results on some excellent play this season and I was worried before the game yesterday. A draw was hard to take after taking the lead so late but we’ll look back on results like this as premier champions in May and say it was good point earned. Looking forward to the City and Chelsea games as opportunities to get 3 points from each and really pile the pressure on the rest while sticking the ‘they’re not… Read more »
Without wishing to sound like any number of pundits….I don’t think they have the squad to compete, they keep the work up like that and add in a few injuries and I’m not sure they’ll maintain it but we all know how bad their competition is so, who knows?
Lads we will beat Napoli, you heard it hear first.
I ‘here’ you.
With the way Everton played yesterday, they will cause problems for any team. The intensity of their pressing game was unbelievable. Played as if they had 4 Ramsey’s in their team.
It shows the mutual respect we had to the Evertonians. Even though we’ve lost to Manure and Aston Villa it’s fair to say that we lost those games because we failed to win it (as opposed to them being superior). The Everton game is very much like the Merseyside derby last month, where both team played entertaining football and tried to win the game. On a side note, I really felt that the likes of Clichy, Nasri, Song, Cesc, RVP who have left for pastures new and won trophies — they did it the easy way. I am sure the… Read more »
For some reason and very a good one at that, i don’t share the trepidation most people have for Chelsea and Mancity. I say the worst i expect is 2 points dropped from the 2 matches.their defences are ripe for the picking. And one more thing i noticed. I don’t know why but it seems on the average the commentary over here is highly matured and knowledgeable. Far from the useless whinning and calling for wholesale team change and ridiculous buying spree to fix fictional problems.
City have been spanking all-comers at home. Just look what they did to Spurs and Norwich. It’s a shame for them that they’re so bad away from home. I would take a draw right now from that game next week. But I think we’ve got to beat Chelsea now, and that won’t be easy either.
Blogs, Arteta clearly says “Everton are the best side we have faced this season in the Premier League,” doesn’T say anything about it being tougher than Champion’s league opponents.
Wow how insightful. Perhaps you should start your own blog as the standards are cleary slipping here…
Whatever tightarse, there’s a big difference in it being the toughest game of the season in any competition or in the Premier League. Arseblog and Arseblog Newshound tend to get articles up very quickly and can lose a little bit of accuracy; they tend to comment about inaccuracy in the mainstream media also. They do strive to keep this blog as honest as possible when not being hyper satirical, sarcastic, or parodying. I have the utmost respect for this site and for the bloggers on this site, with that respect I chose to point out something that I thought made… Read more »
Borussia Dortmund lost 0-1 to Leverkusen, who lost 0-5 to ManUtd, who in turn lost 0-1 to Alan Pardew.
I suspect Marseille (desperate to avoid the ignomy of ending with 0 points) will get a result (draw?) against Dortmund on Wednedsay, which would mean we’d finish top of Group F regardless of the Napoli.
It’s a gamble, but would prefer Sczechny/Mertesacker/Cazorla/Arteta/Ozil/Giroud were all exempt from travelling to Italy mid-week so that we can be firing on all cylinders against Man Sh!tty on Saturday.
If Dortmund don’t win, then we can finish top by avoiding a 3-0 loss.
If Dortmund win, as they’re likely to do, we’re only top if get at least a point, which is why we’ll need a strong team out there. May as well do our darndest to not get a bad draw like the last few years.
Still disappointed by the goal we conceded. Gibbs should have got tighter to Deulofeu to stop the shot, and Szczesny should have save it. If Szczesny had just done a Schmeichel and stood tall then he would have pushed that shot over the bar; instead, he tried to anticipate by going down and the ball loops over his head because he couldn’t readjust in time.
If only, if only.. I agree he was expecting a low shot/pass across the goal. That’s why he had that kind of body positioning. Not complaining though.. that’s the only goal we’ve conceded in the last 450 mins of football.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
If Flamini had punched Deulofeu really hard before he came on the goal wouldn’t have happened then either. Let’s just move on, it wasn’t a massive defensive calamity that we’ll learn much from.
From what I saw fats, Gibbs couldn’t have got any tighter to him if he tried and Szczesny trying to anticipate where the shots going is part of his (and every other goalies) job….yeah he anticipates wrongly this time, but he’s got plenty right so far so I’m willing to cut him some slack.
Despite all this, you* have to also say it was a cracking shot and goal which not many would have stopped.
*not you personally FG, just mean in general.
David Moyes to Manure was the best business Everton ever did.
I hope Moyes stays at Manure until they scrap for the promotion playoff places in League 1
a very organised performance from a very organised Everton side…watch our for this side..if they’ll continue like this
3 key battles , kos/aguero . per/negredo and flam/yaya will decide the result
Everton remind me of some Spanish teams (Valencia, Ath. Madrid) that keep losing good players and yet somehow manage to compete every year by coming up with other talented players. There was a lot of skill and fortitude in their side yesterday.
Its a very very fair result. And I love this game so much.