Match date: 6 April 2014

With Arsenal falling behind the three league contenders in Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester City and due to Everton’s recent good form, this game was a match that could go a long way in determining which side would get the final Champions League spot.

Wenger and Arsenal were without both Gibbs and Koscielny, meaning that Monreal and Vermaelen had to fill in. Wenger had both Ramsey and Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench, but was still without Ozil, Walcott, and Wilshere.

Martinez was without Jagielka, but named an otherwise full strength squad.

Martinez’s Changes

Throughout the season, Martinez has set out Everton in a 4-2-3-1 and, when fit, Lukaku has played as the centre forward. To Wenger and Arsenal, there was no reason to expect that Martinez would alter his setup, but instead, Martinez made changes to those absolutes. The first was that the midfield three was shaped in a 1-2, with Barry behind McCarthy and Osman, and just minutes in, Barkley. This made Everton look more like a 4-3-3 than their more typical 4-2-3-1, which allowed the Toffees to match up with Arsenal’s midfield; McCarthy and Osman were able to apply pressure to Arteta and Flamini and Barry was able to deal with Rosicky.

The second change that Martinez made was that he opted to start Steven Naismith, who had seen majority of his appearances from the bench or deputising for Romelu Lukaku. With Lukaku also starting, however, Wenger and Arsenal would have expected that the Chelsea loanee would have played through the middle with Naismith on the right and Mirallas on the left. Instead, Naismith played in the central position, with Lukaku on the right. This was certainly done for a number of reasons, other than to surprise Arsenal. The first, and least influential, is that Lukaku could easily win aerial challenges against Monreal, but less so against Per Mertesacker. The more telling reason was certainly that Naismith’s movement into midfield, acting as a false nine, would allow Everton to overload Flamini and Arteta in that area of the pitch, giving Everton a 3v2 rather than a 2v2 with just Barkley and McCarthy against the two Arsenal holding midfielders.

Naismith’s movement into midfield was not only to overload the Arsenal holding midfielders, but also to open up space for Lukaku by dragging Vermaelen out of position. Everton’s first goal was a perfect example of what Martinez wanted to have happen. The ball was played quickly out to Baines, who was able to dribble at the Arsenal back four. Sagna had to step to the Everton left back as Cazorla was narrow throughout the match and failed to track Baines. Mirallas made a run towards the touchline, dragging Mertesacker out with him and Naismith dropped to receive the ball and was followed by Vermaelen. The movement by Mirallas and Naismith allowed the space in front of the Arsenal goal to open up and for Lukaku to run into latch onto a Baines through ball. In the end, Szczesny saved Lukaku’s shot, but Naismith was there to finish.

Lukaku’s positioning on the right was very high. Most of the time, when Arsenal were in possession of the ball, Lukaku was the furthest forward for Everton, with Naismith dropping into midfield. The ball out to him from Mirallas prior to his goal found him in a large amount of space and allowed him to dribble at Monreal and cut inside onto his left. It wasn’t the only time that a quick switch to him or diagonal run from him found Arsenal’s defense in trouble. As mentioned above, the first goal came after he made a diagonal run into the Arsenal penalty area, this time a diagonal ball found him.

Wenger’s Lack of Reaction, Failure to Learn

One of the biggest problems that Arsenal had was allowing Baines far too much time on the ball due to Cazorla playing very narrow and not tracking back. This made it so that Sagna had to come out to meet the Everton left back, which opened up the space behind him and as we saw for Everton’s first goal and the second goal as well. It was not an ideal situation for Sagna to be the one stepping out and Baines’ freedom gave Everton a constant outlet.

Flamini would sometimes move into the wide areas to do the defense work of Cazorla, but Everton passed the ball quickly all evening, bypassing Arsenal’s press easily, and so Flamini’s absence in midfield was then exposed.

All three of Everton’s goals were the result of quick play, which has been a common trend amongst the goals scored against Arsenal this season against the other top sides in the country. Looking back at Arsenal’s other match on Merseyside this season, a 5-1 loss to Liverpool, the same problems seem to emerge. Liverpool’s quick, more direct play in that match caught Arsenal’s defense and midfield, especially, out of position and unable to react quickly enough. In that match Arsenal were without Flamini, with Wilshere in alongside Arteta, but against Everton, the duo of Flamini and Arteta were caught too high on Everton’s quick breaks and were unable to support the defense.

Conclusion

Martinez’s changes certainly made the difference in the match. Naismith played an incredibly important role in the central attacking role and at times Everton looked like a 4-5-1, except that they had four in the centre of the park and Lukaku was their ‘1,’ but in a high position on the right side of the attack.

Arsenal gave the ball away, without pressure, numerous times throughout the match, especially in the first half. In recent years, Arsenal have become known for putting together a good run of games at the end of the season, improving upon failings at the beginning of the year, however, this year it seems to be different, with the Gunners now in serious threat of losing England’s last Champions League spot to Everton, who are just a point behind and have a game in hand.