Arsenal vs Everton Preview

Resident Blogger : SimonSEEZ

Great weekend Gooners, tough match we have got and another opportunity to stamp a huge feet on what we intend to achieve this season in the league especially on the back of the victory against Hull and Cardiff. Some of the football we played against Hull especially in the first 30minutes was just simply out of this world. The quality of our passing, the pace of it hugely helped by the presence of Tomas Rosicky, the way we carved out the first goal must have been very frustrating for any opposing defender.

We welcome Roberto Martinez and his well oiled Everton team to the Emirates this weekend. They have lost just once this season and have kept 3 consecutive clean sheets on their recent away trips. They visit us on the back on a huge victory at Old Trafford, a feat their former manager could not achieve during his ten year spell at the club. Martinez has proven to be a good appointment and honestly I was one of the people who felt he wasn’t a top manager. After perpetual relegation battles with Wigan over the last few seasons and finally suffering relegation last term it had to take courage to appoint such a manager to a club that was on the rise when Moyes left. .

Opta did this comparism and though it’s early to start comparing the two managers but we can see the Martinez ideology is already been forced on the team. They are keeping the ball better, pass a whole lot better (up by 5%), and they don’t cross the ball much even though they have an excellent target man in Lukaku this season.

Arsenal have come against top quality strikers in different competitions this season already, Lewandoski, Rooney , Dutch Cunt, SAS (Suarez and Suarez) but Lukaku is of a different type, he sure is more physical than any attacker we have faced so far and would prove a stern test for our centre backs. Why Chelsea let him go considering the quality or lack of quality they have in the lead striker role begs for questioning but that’s not our problem. I read somewhere that Lukaku was allowed to join Everton because Mourinho felt he would be in a better place to take points off Chelsea’s rivals this season, if that is true playing us would be a great time to test that notion.

Spent too much time talking about Everton, Arsenal going into this game is in awesome shape and  dropping a few players for the Hull game means we have Giroud , Walcott, Wilshere and Arteta fresh for this encounter. Ramsey and Ozil played a huge part in the game against Hull and would be expected to do so against Everton too. Going into the game Ozil was speaking on the spirit in the team and how it was the right decision to join the club

“It’s actually what I said right when I joined Arsenal. When people tried to convince me when I came here, it was that family spirit at Arsenal which convinced me mainly. This is exactly part of that, what we’ve seen here.

This is the kind of attitude that wins trophies and we hope our top signing would help bring that to us. Everton are without Baines, good thing especially since we don’t have Sagna in the team but Oviedo has come on and done an amazing job scoring two goals in the last two games. How our defence would cope with Lukaku might determine how we do in this game and I have a feeling Wenger might return to the ‘Flamteta’ midfield formation to keep him quiet. Giroud should be well rested for this one and I would love to see Walcott get a start, we would need him at Naples and this should give him some need game sharpness.

Prediction : Arsenal 2 Everton 1

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The manager and players are donating a day’s wages to charity this weekend. Show your support too and find out how you can suppose a good cause. Click this link http://www.arsenal.com/thearsenalfoundation

If you were offered a draw against Everton and a win at Napoli to top our Champions League group would you take it? Interact with us on the Comments section or on Twitter @canoncrested , Like us on FaceBook www.facebook.com/canoncrested