Match date: 23 August 2014

As last season inched closer to the end, Everton and Arsenal were both in a bid for fourth place. Arsenal will have higher ambitions this year, but Everton will still be hoping for a fourth place finish as their main target. Both of invested large amounts of money in the transfer window so far, with Everton signing two of their loan players from last year, Lukaku (£28m) and Barry (free). Arsenal have made three significant moves, bringing in Alexis from Barcelona (~£35m), Calum Chambers, and Mathieu Debuchy.

Roberto Martinez set his side out in a 4-2-3-1, with Seamus Coleman returning to the side. While Wenger started the match with Alexis Sanchez as a “false 9” type ply, with Giroud on the bench.

Arsenal’s Midfield, Alexis False 9

Arsenal started the match the better of the two sides. A good amount of this was because of the midfield battle, with Arsenal starting Flamini, Wilshere, and Ramsey in a 4-3-3ish shape. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Özil starting on the left and right, respectively, with Alexis through the middle. Özil’s best, and preferred position, is through the middle and put in some good performances for Arsenal last year on the right, but tends to struggle on the left. Alexis dropped onto Gareth Barry when Everton had possession of the ball, limiting the Everton midfielder’s touches and dropping in to look for the ball when Arsenal had possession of the ball. With Özil and Oxlade Chamberlain playing a bit narrow when Everton had the ball in the centre of the pitch at the back. You can see this below, as well as Alexis on Barry and Pienaar in a deep position as well, forced to go looking for the ball.

In the opening stages, Arsenal were able to eliminate the passing lanes for Everton into the middle, which is good, but not as effective as it could be considering Everton’s full backs are two of the best attacking full backs in the league. Below, you can see the spaces in which Everton were able to play prior to their goal, as well as McCarthy’s positions of receiving passes prior to the goal. Notice that just one of the passes he receives is a forward pass, an indication of Arsenal’s midfielders getting behind the ball. Following their first goal, Everton were more comfortable and were able to draw the Arsenal midfield out, allowing Barry and McCarthy, in particular, to find more space in the middle third.

Arsenal’s good play to open the game was aided by the extra body in midfield that Alexis provided, in what was a ‘surprise’ tactical decision by Wenger. Unfortunately for Wenger, Alexis was rather anonymous in a centre forward position, from an offensive perspective, regardless of his role. He failed to use his pace to stretch the Everton backline, thus not allowing space between the Everton midfield and back four for the likes of Özil and Wilshere to play in and exploit. Everton were comfortable enough in dropping off and allowing Arsenal to play in front of them. A player like Özil was certainly in mind when Wenger spent £35m on Alexis. The former’s ability to break the lines with his passing makes the pace of Alexis an incredible prospect, but only when there is space in behind. Without a consistent presence in the box, however, Everton were able to keep play into front of them and limit Arsenal from shots around the edge of the penalty area in the first half.

Everton Counter

Everton’s first goal came after an Alexis foul and the build up play that followed, as well as Özil switching off while marking the run of his full back, Seamus Coleman. Everton were certainly more comfortable than they were prior to the goal, but still conceded the possession statistic to Arsenal, meaning that their best chances came from counter attacks in the wide areas as both Debuchy and Monreal looked to get up the field and support the Arsenal attacks.

While Everton’s second goal was scored through a counter on the right, Everton looked increasingly dangerous on the left side of their attack, mostly thanks to Debuchy’s eagerness to get up the field. There were certainly questions over the signing of Debuchy this summer, especially with Arsenal’s first choice centre back pairing including Mertesacker on the right. Debuchy isn’t as sound on the defensive side of the ball as Sagna and struggles in transition, which Everton were able to exploit for much of the first half. Although Mertesacker played as the left sided centre back for Arsenal on the night, his lack of pace and Debuchy’s struggles in transition could easily leave Arsenal open to counter attacks on the right side of their defense throughout the year.

Mirallas was a consistent outball for Everton, but Chambers was able to cover for Debuchy rather well and Everton’s outball began to focus on Lukaku. The Belgian international and club record signing was deployed on the right for Everton, as he was in last year’s equivalent fixture which saw Everton win 3-0. In both cases, the combination of Steven Naismith through the middle and Lukaku on the right seemed to work well. The two combined for Everton’s second goal, after Lukaku was found on the right and beat Mertesacker.

Changes

As mentioned earlier, following Everton’s first goal, the Toffees were able to play into midfield with much more ease and began to take control of the game, but mostly through their counter attacking play. When Arsenal had the ball, the Everton midfield harassed the player with the ball and cut off the passing lanes in and through midfield well. Everton kept their discipline well until Wenger’s second change in the 74th minute, bringing on Cazorla for Wilshere. This allowed Özil to play centrally and Cazorla to play on the left and immediately, Everton were pushed back, rather than holding a midblock.

But the most important change for Wenger and Arsenal was the removal of Alexis for Giroud at half time. The substitute gave Distin and Jagielka more to worry about and made it harder to allowed Arsenal to keep the ball in the attacking third with the threat of crosses now a concern. This is exactly what Arsenal ended up doing as well, with their first goal coming from a low cross by Santi Cazorla to find the late run by Aaron Ramsey. The second was a wayward cross collected by Monreal, who then crossed again for Giroud to head into Everton’s goal.

Giroud offered Arsenal a bigger, more desirable target for crosses than Alexis did, giving Arsenal a different option than build up play around the Everton penalty area.

Conclusion

Both sides had good spells in the match, but Arsenal will undoubtedly be the happier of the two sides. They were able to bounce back from a two goal deficit against a side that they struggled against last year. Wenger’s changes set his side of up the turn around as well, something that was not said too much last year.

Roberto Martinez will be very disappointed with how his side lost. They could have easily gotten a third goal in the first half through their counter attacks, but failed to create chances after promising breaks.