Starting XI: Cech, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal, Bellerin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Kolasinac, Alexis, Ozil, Lacazette
Subs: Macey, Holding, Wilshere, Coquelin, Iwobi, Walcott, Giroud
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Arsenal claimed a first away win of the season after bouncing back from Wayne Rooney’s early opener to win 5-2 against Everton. The Gunners created chances at will at Goodison Park but had to wait until the 39th minute before Nacho Monreal found a way past the impressive Jordan Pickford.
Arsene Wenger’s men were more clinical after the break as Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette bagged goals either side of Idrissa Gueye’s red card. Aaron Ramsey’s goal on 89 minutes added gloss to a decent performance before a ridiculous stoppage time mix-up between Monreal and Cech allowed the home side to grab a consolation.
Amazingly, there was still time for Alexis Sanchez to grab a fifth with his first league goal of the season.
First half
Dominate possession. Create chances. Miss them. Concede from the first shot on target. Dominate possession. Create chances. Miss them.
That probably sounds familiar because, the Liverpool game aside, it’s basically how all our away games in the league have gone so far this season.
Thankfully, on this occasion, Nacho Monreal found an equaliser on 39 minutes to ensure Arsene Wenger’s men entered the break on level terms.
This Arsenal team. Bloody hell, they are hard work.
We started very brightly. The interplay between Ozil, Alexis and Ramsey was exactly what you’d want from such attack-minded players and there were four good opportunities to break the deadlock inside the first 10 minutes. Poor finishing, coupled with Jordan Pickford’s alertness, meant we didn’t capitalise.
First Ramsey, racing through on goal, saw his effort tipped wide. Two minutes later Alexis darted into the box and probably could have taken a tumble as the Everton keeper slid out with his feet. The Chile international was put off enough to fumble his attempted cross.
Ozil was a particular bright spark in the opening stages and produced another chance on 7 minutes; Lacazette, after racing behind his marker, chose to shoot from a tight angle but again Pickford stood firm.
Inside 90 seconds the France international again tested the Toffees keeper. Picked out by Ramsey, he spun on a sixpence just three yards out but was denied from point-blank. It all felt a bit familiar.
Naturally, Everton, from their first shot on goal, punished us. And naturally, it was Wayne Rooney who got the goal. 15 years since he beat David Seaman from long-range the striker, with all the time in the world after Xhaka had lost possession, picked the ball up on the edge of the Gunners area, took aim and despatched the ball into the top corner. (0-1)
After a nervous couple of minutes that included a Cech goal kick being charged down, Arsenal again took charge of proceedings.
Ramsey followed up on an Alexis free-kick parried by Pickford, but he couldn’t squeeze the ball home. Lacazette, Kolasinac and Bellerin had further efforts. By this point Arsenal had already had more shots on target than any other away team in a first half in the Premier League this season.
Everton, a side on a terrible run, invited more Arsenal pressure as they sat deeper and deeper. Finally, on 39 minutes, our luck in front of goal finally changed. Xhaka had a go from range and when Pickford’s stop bounced to Monreal, the Spaniard wasted no time hammering the ball home. It was the Spaniard’s second league goal of the season. (1-1)
Given our domination, the sounding of the half time whistle was frustrating.
Second half
After such inefficiency in the final third it was a blessed relief to see us take our first chance of the second period. Everton had actually looked quite bright following a switch in formation and a couple of substitutions but our first counter-attack produced an exquisite goal from Ozil.
It started with Lacazette bounding forward on the break and ended with the German clipping a delightful header past Pickford after his run to the near post was perfectly picked out by Sanchez. It was the first time we’d scored twice away from home this term and also the midfielder’s first goal of the season. (2-1)
Arsenal’s job was made easier when Idrissa Gueye was given his marching orders on 67 minutes for a second yellow card. The Everton midfielder had been walking a tightrope since an earlier booking and when he lunged in on Xhaka it was little surprise the referee reached for his pocket.
The Gunners made their extra man count within seven minutes. Bellerin and Sanchez freed Ozil down the right and the German set up Lacazette to spank the ball home from eight yards. (3-1)
Having bagged his first away goal of the season Lacazette made way for Wilshere. Not long after Ozil was replaced by Coquelin. By this point, the men in black were enjoying themselves in possession against the backdrop of a frustrated home crowd.
Every time we broke we looked like we might score. Sanchez hit the side netting with a diving header, Xhaka rattled the bar with a thunderbolt from 25-yards before Ramsey finally put the result beyond doubt with an 89th-minute strike. (4-1)
There was still time for Niasse to grab a consolation when Cech failed to deal with a short back-pass from Monreal. The Spaniard, having earlier swung the game in the Gunners favour, looked disgusted at himself. (4-2)
The fun wasn’t quite over. Alexis, who’d been knocking on the door all afternoon, finally got the goal he deserved with a ravishing right foot finish after dribbling across the box. (5-2)
The three points mean we move up to fifth, level with Chelsea on 16 points. After a week on the road we can now turn our attention to three home games in a row.
A bit scary at the start when Rooney scored but a well-deserved win in the end. I reckon Everton will pull it around eventually (possibly with Koeman, possibly with a new manager), they would only have been two points behind us had they won. Xhaka helped on the first goal and hit the bar later on, Alexis and Ozil combined well on the second, Ozil and Laca on the third, Wilshere assisting Ramsey to a deserved 4th. The Alexis the fifth! We stretched them for most of the match so no surprise when they went down to 10. Ozil looked… Read more »
Aaaaaand of course I missed this game
Surely, given your name, that should say : “I did not see it”.
No offense, but would you mind terribly missing the next few as well? You know, just to be sure.
Our best 1st team when everyone is fit, in this formation would have Cazorla in for Ramsey and then Merts/Mustafi depending on the opposition. Wilshere and Giroud can swap in at any time imo. Xhaka is lucky we don’t have a world class DM or he would have been dropped a while ago.
Great win. Despite all the talk about our disappointing start to the season, we’re only 4 points behind a good but overrated Man united . City might be running away with it, but it’s a still a long way to go. It’s all to play for…
Who gave a thumbs down? Curious
C.B. has a nemesis. Just come from the “Ozil & BFG happy” blog, same thing there. Hope it’s not personal.
Mesut was running the show today. Lovely stuff. Going to need to bottle that for the rest of the season
Most likely to score a crucial goal: Nacho Monreal
Taking over from Koscielny, it seems…
Who in turn took over from Bac
Most likely to give away a non-crucial goal: Nacho Monreal
bet you it says that in his high school year book
He had definitely overtake Ashley Cole in the all time arsenal best lb listing.
And hopefully when all is dust and settled, the first on that list is kolasinac.
I telly but like Monreal bu I wouldn’t o putvhim quite in the ckass of Cole as much as I hated the way he left us.
Sorry about the errors.
Dunno, maybe not as flashy but nearly always solid
We looked like Arsenal today. Some of the silkiness is back. It is no coincidence that we finally manage to do that with our first choice front 3. I know ozil and Alexis won’t be sticking around and man it is bittersweet.
I doubt Özil will leave
I have no idea what makes you doubt it, but ooooh blimey I hope you’re right…
joyeux anniversaire Arsène 🙂
One team assisted all the goals.
Well played the team.The one dark cloud. Why do we allow teams to score ridicolous goals against us?
Xhaka needs a kick up the Arse at times.
Jack looked good.
Those 2 goals annoy me simply because we would be 4th (above Chelsea) based on goal difference if it wasn’t for those two silly mistakes.
Our season isn’t terrible… yet. Draw against Stoke and win against Watford and we would have been 2nd right now. The league this season is tight af; Spurs, Man U and Chelsea above us can easily produce two similar freak results this season and all of a sudden we have parity. Arsenal just need to keep winning and fighting.
5 really good goals and 2 mistakes. That’s the way it goes. Best that way round, I guess.
That’s the beautiful game.
why is it that we start scoring once opposition is down to 10 men ! Anyway… good to see Jack Rambo clicking… + Goal diff
we scored two goals when they had 11 men and we were playing decent. tbh its no surprise we started scoring freely when they had 10 men kinda just easier with the mood arsenal were in.
I think we scored two before going down to 10 men.
We had enough shots on target before the card to be confident of scoring more (although we sometimes don’t 😀 )
Apologies… went back and saw the match again in a less inebriated condition… We were good..
Great win. Such an important 3 points. I thought Ozil was excellent. Montreal’s goal was so crucial to our fight back!
COYG!
Whenever I see Monreal on this pitch, his reactions, his expressions, his fight, it reminds me of the old Arsenal. He’s a fighter and a Gunner! He just needs to iron out the brain farts.
Well then, I guess Quebec’s goal wasn’t so crucial
You mean Ontario
hahaha.. Green Thumb..
Brilliant attacking performance, notwithstanding the fact that Everton were absolutely shite. Wouldn’t have been an Arsenal game without some ridiculous defensive errors, but fuck it. COYG!
without Pickford could’ve been 10. Nice to see Jack on the pitch too
Keepers tend to gulp down some Spinach and go Popeye on us before they face us. They always up their game when they play Arsenal. It’s remarkable to witness…
I hope Jack plays on Tuesday against Norwich!
Jack was buzzing again today. He should really be in the starting lineup but really torn who makes way – Ramsey and Ozil were superb and both scored. If only he could do the Xhaka role but that’s really just wishful thinking, isn’t it?
Good show of cojones, let’s hope it continues.
This game had Everton red card written all over it after the first half. Bad decision by Koeman to leave Gana on. I’ll take it! Glad to see us with our shooting boots on today!! COYG!!!
tbh he had to take one of Gana and Williams off as either one was 1 challenge away from a second yellow.
I probably would’ve taken Gana off rather than Williams. He had continued to foul after getting booked in the first half and his role in midfield meant he would have to keep making those challenges. As a CB, Williams might’ve had a better chance at not being forced to commit himself. Oh well, water under the bridge and 3 points in the bag now!
Great game! Our best this season. I think it’s high time we admitted that Monreal has been our best player for quite some time.
Great win and a good win even though Everton are rubbish. The one thing that needs to be done is dropping Xhaka for anyone who can move faster than solid rock.
Don’t say that! I enjoyed watching Xhaka and Koscienly kick Everton players off the pitch.
Xhaka does it again..an epitome of Arsenal and Arsenal really. Generally solid, capable of producing brilliance but oh so prone to moments of “what are you doing?!!”
Whew! When Fat Shrek scored, for a moment I thought it was gonna be the demons of Watford all over again. But great play by the attack-bit unlucky with Pickford seemingly being in top form every time he faces us, crucial 3 points and adds +3 to the goal difference. All in all, a good result and Mesut and Alexis get flowing. Level with Chelsea now. Lets hope Spuds slip up against the Mugsmashers
Brilliant performance with the usual lackadaisical moments at the back.
Thought Monreal was brilliant other than the mistake at the end.
Some of the one touch passing from Ozil and Alexis was sublime.
seem some of the good and the bad from Xhaka, what I like though is he never seems to let it effect him, keeps his head up and keeps going
Exactly, like he did in the last minute of watford game, right? He truly kept his head up.
Spot on mate. Whatever Xhaka’s flaws may be, He never lets his head drop. That kind of character is essential in any team.
And the way Monreal celebrated his goal with Xhaka… Two players who never give up and are always encouraging team mates.
That’s what we should be doing every week
its not every week we face a team playing like this Everton team, do we?
Most weeks we face worse teams, at least on paper
On paper, this Everton team cannot NOT be half as bad as it was today. They were billed to be Europa contenders at the start of the season ffs
Everton tried what most sides without quality do to us. Being physical. Calvert-Lewin was shoving our defenders, Gana made contact with Xhaka and sort of went through him to the ball right before Rooney scored. What impressed me was our comeback. We kept playing good attacking football and forced their errors. Idrissa Gana was very impressive in one of our games last season VS him, but this time around he got his own team in big trouble.
It’s not every week we have had our 2 best players on the pitch together
And that’s the problem
Well, that was fun.
Best game for a long while….
Good performance all round. Brilliant goals and good link up play from Ozil, Laca and Alexis. I am glad each got a goal. It made me wonder what those 3 could achieve together if…(sigh). Can we do anything, I mean anything, to keep those two?
Yeah pay them what they want, our fault that it has got to this far, but to replace them with like for like players with transfer fees and wages combined would probably cost around £250mill.
Win the league. Hard to do with City smashing everyone.
Managed to watch this game finally. A first for this season. Smashing game, thoroughly enjoyed this performance.
Class throughout. Noticed Sanchez stop throwing a strop after he did to Ramsey earlier on (to that missed pass from wilshere, even gave him a thumbs up). Lets hope they keep this up! COYG!
It was a great pass from wilshere, alexis didn’t take it first time. Probably thought if he let it run, the grass will slow it down as per emirates.. He acknowledge the great pass from Jackie Boy!!
“the Spaniard (…) looked disgusted at himself”
Nah, he looked disgusted at Cech, and rightly so.
Monreal had the ball and started to move up-field. That caused Cech to relax a little and start backing up into a better position in the box. Then suddenly Monreal did a 180 degree about-face and passed without looking properly so didn’t know how far away Cech was. Cech was caught on the back foot while the pass itself was desperately under hit so he was left with a 50-50 with the attacker. That is NOT Cech’s fault. It was another one of those stupid not-as-clever and not-as-well-executed passes that Arsenal have become prone to doing over the last year.… Read more »
That’s very hard on Cech. He couldn’t possibly have expected Monreal to make such a hash of it
Was on a Skype call with parents during the second half (sigh), but had to laugh when I saw Calvert-Lewin’s bloody nose because he was shoving our defenders constantly in the first half. Can someone please tell me Mertesacker elbowed him in the mouth? 😀
Even better, it was one of Monreal’s boots which accidentaly hit him in the face.
Monreal tail kicked him in the face
alexis laca özil for the first time this season and what do you know, we look potent going forward.
It was a foul on Xhaka by Gana but he took a bit of a heavy touch either way.
Nice to see Jack back. Like a new signing.
I thought we were great!
As much I want to hate him for not wanting to play for us. As much as I want to keep telling myself we’ll be fine without him! Alexis Sanchez is just too good to hate!
Yeah I agree. The guy is a pure footballing machine so at least he’ll keep playing to the max for us
Xhaka needs to be dropped.. gets away with too many mistakes and costs us alot.. First time i watch us this season and i actually enjoy the game very very good performance
I really hope we can nick a solid DM in January. Coquelin is alright but strikes no fear in opponents and can be reckless.
I’d like to see Coquelin watch N’Golo Kante for like a month, be a bit more like him, and be a savage
And who would you replace him with. I like Coquelin but he’s a liability receiving the ball deep in possession. Elneny is too lightweight, AMN too inexperienced, and Jack+Ramsey way too attacking. If we replace Xhaka, we pretty much have to replace Ramsey too (or switch formations), e.g. bring in Coq for Xhaka and Jack for Rambo to approximate Coqzorla.
Failing that, we should keep Xhaka in the side. Had a good game overall, just prone to costly mistakes. It’s as much Wenger’s fault and the fault of our squad-building (which is Wenger’s fault) as it is Xhaka’s.
He was for used fouled for first goal and had a an excellent match. There are not many midfielders with his creativity.
For used not needed
I know we outplayed them but that Monreal/Cech thing at the end really fucked me off.
Hahahaha..
The fifth goal nearly made up for it??
It wasn’t funny.
Cech not blameless here, for sure.
Ppl are quick to demand for ozils head. This is the first season him and Sanchez actually have a mobile, quality striker to play with (Lacazette). The day we lose Sanchez and Ozil, our club will be going back ten paces.
Hoping for similar wins to come, especially in the chaotic winter run of games. COYG!
That fuck sitting next to John Champion is really a fucking prick. Why doesnt he just get the fuck in the fucking pitch and fucking play for them. Fucking prick
Great to finally see Alexis Laca and Ozil play together. Those guys are good at football! COYG!
Could/should? have been 10. Great for the long suffering away supporters to have a good day out.
The most exciting game of the season so far. This formation suits perfectly the movements and exchanges between Ramsey, Ozil and Alexis when they are in form.
Happy Birthday Arsene! Happy to see our front three start together for the first time! Looked dodgy at times but seems like Arsenal of old is coming back. COYG
Did you get him anything??
I didn’t but the 3 points = worthy present imo.
Nacho day Rooney
Montreal motm for me
Rooney may have scored, but I must say I didn’t notice him for the rest of the game. Does anybody know if he reached double figures for touches of the ball?
Thought that Monreal played very well too
Well done today boys! That’s more like it.
Not that I wish Ox much luck at Liverpool but let’s hope his team thumps Spuds today. And why not make that via a goal from Ox himself. A Spuds loss via proxy!
I don’t want either team winning. Its 2-1 to the home side at the moment and the Ox has actually been allowed on in the first half for once so hopefully he’ll do just enough to get his new friends a draw and no more.
Sure but Spuds are above us in the table and a loss for them would be more to our advantage than a win for Liverpool.
If we can have the 3 Zs* playing together more often we’ll have high scoring games, cos it’ll be great going forward, but clearly we’ll let in a lot too, but heck it’ll be entertaining!
* sancheZ, lacaZette, oZil
First time we played a fully fit front three of £130 million…..AMMMAAAZING!!
Need to fine tune the play to make most chances ending with lacazette shooting.
This was a good performance. Ozil was brillant. Not sure about Xhaka tbh. Great to see Jack back in the PL.
This is the best football we’ve played so far this season. The first 15 minutes was sensational till we conceded. Ozil created 7 chances in the first half alone. We can challenge for the league if we keep playing like this and cutting out cheap errors.
Wenger got his selection spot on. I just hope we can keep Alexis and Mesut. Lacazette link up play was great with those 2. Great 3 points and never been happier this season
Jack was outstanding. We have really missed Wilshere and Cazorla. Their short passing and ability to get out of tight situations gives us complete control over possession. I just hope Alexis and Mesut extend their contracts with us. 3 more years of togetherness and I can see a CL. However, league is always going to be hard. It’s all about defensive concentration in the league.
We’ve beaten the worst Everton side I’ve seen in watching football and, for my sins, supporting Arsenal for some 63 years.as man & boy just like my now deceased father before me who supported Arsenal from 1936 until he died in 2012, The question I pose to all true supporters of the football club know as Arsenal FC and not the football club known as Arsene Wenger’s Director’s Dividend is this: Just how far have we fallen behind the Scum & the Scousers and how many years will it take for a new Manager (Henry?), when he is eventually appointed,… Read more »
didnt you feel sorry for Leighton Baines?
The spuddies beat the toffees and apparently they trashed them and didn’t let Koemans team get into their game. But when we beat them it’s the worst toffee team ever…
We had better numbers (except the actual scoreline) before they were reduced to 10, than the whole of the toffees vs spuddies game…
We played Alexis+Laca+Ozil and we won!
Who would have guest it?
Good to see a win away from home, picking over the bones, low confidence side The Toffees and we should be dispatching them really !, maybe we have improved….. a bit, I still think unless tasked to do so we look fragile defensively, Laca looks isolated at times and he has good movement which isn’t picked up…thought the midfield got the wrong side a few times, against better sides and we will need to be tighter, good to mr sulky and mr tiny grumpy man playing well though
BONUS points: Jack Wilshere with an assist. Get in lad!
… That take by Nacho though… ?
On Arsene’s birthday, all the big boys came out and gave it some. Coincidence? Maybe the boss is respected more than we realise!
The narrative is that most players are tired of playing for him
Xhaka did not “lose possession” in the buildup to Everton’s first goal, Gueye fouled him. Last time I checked, if you go through an opponent to get the ball, it’s a foul. Gueye clearly kicked Xhaka on the knee, bringing him down, before his foot touched the ball. Foul, which the referee should have given, but did not for some strange reason. It feels good to have navigated the usual weirdness from a Premier League referee and come out unscathed, but let’s not start blaming our players for errors they didn’t make.
I didn’t feel massively upbeat after the win. A win was a bare minimum. Of course I’m glad we got it. But I couldn’t help but feel after losing to the shite that is Watford last week we could be in third now. And we need those points against “lesser” teams. We looked wobbly as hell today and our defence was shaky as usual. We only started looking like “The Arsenal” when they went down to 10, and it just makes me think against better teams we will continue to struggle. And even when doing well we still contrive to… Read more »
I’m quite happy for us to be ‘wobbly as hell’ if it means we only allow the opposition team one shot on target (as it was before they were reduced to 10) whilst having more than 10 ourselves at that moment…
Great game from the boys. Some lovely attacking. Rrally warming to Laca and happy to see Ozil produce a good performance. The only negative for me is Cech’s kicking…worse than Joe Hart. Along with his non-existent penalty saving I kinda hope we have our eyes on a top class keeper for next year. Oblak for me if we could get him
Fun game. This team with these players and Wilshere back if he can stay fit, should be able to beat any team on their day.