It’s just under a month since an in-form Arsenal went to Goodison Park and got turned over by an Everton side geed up by the arrival of new coach Sean Dyche.
On the day, the Gunners were second best all over the field and manager Mikel Arteta quickly credited his former club with a deserved victory.
The defeat, our first in the league since September, came hot on the heels of an FA Cup exit at the hands of Manchester City and was followed by a further loss to Pep Guardiola’s side and two points dropped at home to Brentford.
Since then, Arsenal have roared back to form, beating Aston Villa and Leicester away from home to retain the top spot in the table.
When the Toffees visit the Emirates on Wednesday night, revenge will be on the menu, as well as a chance to widen the gap at the top of the table to five points.
In his pre-game press conference, Mikel Arteta called on his players to learn from their mistakes on Merseyside.
“It’s a case of doing things better than we did when we played them a few weeks ago and earning the right to win the game. Hopefully tomorrow we will play much better than we did that day.
“It’s like with any opponent. We showed [the players] what they do, what they are about, what we expect to do to try to beat them and nothing different.
“With Sean [Dyche], it’s quite clear what he’s done and where the success they’ve had is coming from. Tomorrow we’ll prepare the game in an appropriate and similar way [to the away match].”
Speaking to Arsenal.com, right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu revealed further details about the post-mortem that took place following the loss at Goodison and how he and his teammates plan to rectify things.
“We learnt a lot of things, the biggest one was we ran less than them,” said the Japan international.
“After the game, Mikel told us we had to run extra hard so first of all, we have to run more than them. Then we have to compete, and we have to focus on the basics.
“That game they changed the manager and it was his first game for them, so now we know what they want to do. They like to fight, they like to run and they want to put the ball in the box a lot, so we have to defend our box.
“We have to prepare right and be ready for the fight, because we have to take three points.”
Everton have only won once at Arsenal during the Premier League era – the night of the anti-Kroenke protest in April 2021.
At the same time, Arteta’s record against the Toffees isn’t amazing. According to Opta, the Spaniard has lost four Premier League matches against them, a record bettered only by Manchester City.
The stat gurus also reveal that the last time Everton won an away game against the top-flight leaders was way back in September 1986.
…two points “stolen” at home to Brentford.
VAR, Mason etc… basically the modern version of drogba or fowler for us.
We have to be ready for the toffees parking busses inside the box.
Great to have Tomi, such a quality pro
Speaking of which, it is disappointing to her KT is possibly looking to leave for Newcastle if that is true.
It would be nice to have such a quality back up considering how MO and TomiHeros attitude from being starters to back up.
Newcastle can fuck right off.
Arteta needs to sit him down and explain that we’ll be fighting on four fronts next season with the likelihood of Champions League and, you hope, as defending Champions of the Premiership.
We need a big squad of high quality players; WE need KT.
Fuck Newcastle.
I hope so.
Newcastle already have a KT.
Just not our KT.
I’m not scared of a single team when we are at home with the army behind us.
I think this will be a very different game to the last time we played.
Revenge is a dish best served with a cough sweet and a slap on that bald bastards head.
Fully expect Everton to lineup with a 6-4-0 formation tomorrow.
I like to suck on a Fisherman’s Friend!
Fisherthem’s friend according to Sam Smith
If we want to win the title we’re approaching ‘must-win’ territory now with some of these games.
Agreed. We are in the middle of a manageable run of fixtures. So far so good with 6 points from Villa and Leicester away. In the league we now have Everton and Bournemouth at home, a short trip to Craven Cottage, then Palace and Leeds at home before we have to go to Anfield. With all respect to those teams, we need to get 15 points to add to the 6 we’ve already collected. If we can do that, we’ll be at least 5 points clear with 9 matches to go.
Keep it the day my friend, let’s just beat Everton. One game at a time sweet Jesus.
Every game till Liverpool away feels like a must win. City have quality and depth, and united are the in form side in the league right now. This next run of fixtures seems like our best chance to put some daylight between us and the chasing pair.
hopefully dont fall into the trap of playing the opponent’s game the way we did at turf mordor (edit sorry, goodison carpark) and instead dictate the game to a team struggling for goals, chances, and confidence.
Interesting that Arteta has such a poor record against his former clubs as player and coach. Maybe there’s some kind of psychological element. No better time to break through that barrier.
On the plus side, we will have such a massive advantage when he comes up against us one day!
?
4-0 to the Arsenal. Still remember we trashed them 7-0 when they were 4th in the league. Arteta was still playing for Everton lol.
The last time Everton won an away game at the league leaders was September 1987. The main difference though was Everton themselves went on to become Champions. Not happening this time.