Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video
Mikel Arteta cut a frustrated figure during his post-game media appearances, and you can understand why. It will have been multi-faceted, I think. Not just the frustration of conceding a goal to a penalty that should never have been awarded, but also at his own side’s inability to respond to that setback early in the second half in the shape of more goals.
That has been a running theme throughout this season, and it was further evidence that dealing with games like this must be at the heart of the next evolution for Arteta’s Arsenal. Everton did what Everton do, which is make it very difficult for the opposition with a rugged, physical approach. They did what we have see David Moyes teams do for a long, long time, and unfortunately, we didn’t have the answers.
After a fairly even start, we got hold of the game. It seems clear that the changes to the starting XI, which everyone understood with Tuesday on the horizon, were a bit of an issue, but we were the better side. Raheem Sterling had an early shot blocked, while Everton caused some danger from a free kick. There was a heavy tackle on Ethan Nwaneri which probably should have led to a yellow card, but was mostly ignored. A lovely pass by Jakub Kiwior sent Leandro Trossard in behind, but he didn’t make the most of it. He had squared the ball, Nwaneri was being fouled in the box and I think we would have had a penalty (haha, as if).
A mistake from Everton brought about the opening goal. Sterling drove through midfield, played it outside to Trossard, and his left footed shot fizzed in beyond Jordan Pickford. That was a transition we made the most of. There was another Trossard moment when he skipped into the box, James Tarkowski came sliding in and made no contact with the ball. The Belgian stayed on his feet, but off balance he could only poke his shot at the keeper and Rice’s follow up was blocked.
Should he have gone down under the challenge? When you see what happened later, probably so, but I don’t mind a player trying to do what they’re supposed to do (stuff with the ball) and I can more easily imagine a yellow card for Trossard than an Arsenal penalty. I’m sure I’m not alone in that this morning.
As for the Everton penalty, I can sort of see why it was given in real time, because Myles Lewis-Skelly does make a small error, and you often see a player in that position panic and make a foul. However, he doesn’t make any kind of foul, and as much as people might have their knives out for the referee (who was quite weird I thought), my biggest gripe with this is that VAR didn’t tell the ref to go and look at it again.
If there was even the slightest hint of a foul, I’d accept it’s a decision that couldn’t be overturned, but there isn’t. It’s a dive by Jack Harrison as the picture below shows:
What is the point of VAR if it can’t overturn a decision like this? Mikel Arteta said afterwards:
After seeing it 15 times, there is no way that, in my opinion, that’s a penalty, because if there is, then O’Brien has to be out, and Everton has to play with 10 men, that’s clear.
I assume he’s referring here to the moment when David Raya was trying to kick the ball from his hands, and Jake O’Brien stepped in front of him to block it. Which he did. On TV they initially said the referee wasn’t looking, but he was, he just ignored it. As did his assistant. And look, those things tend to get punished with a yellow card, and the Irishman had already been booked, so I get Arteta’s frustration here.
As I said though, he’ll be unhappy with a couple of the decisions but also with his own side. The penalty came after a sloppy start to the second half (which had to be kicked off twice because I don’t know why?). Pickford’s first long ball caused some panic when Raya came out of his box, and the second led to the penalty. Both of those kicks were launched over the head of Jakub Kiwior, who I thought had a good game in general, but was that coincidence? I could be wrong but I feel like those are the kind of meat and drink headers for Gabriel that we take for granted.
Having brought on Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli at the break, it’s clear what our intentions were for the second period, but Everton equalising from the spot so early was not part of the plan. That said, we had plenty of time to get another goal/goals to take all three points, and on that side of things we struggled. Saka was/is understandably rusty, these minutes were more about fitness than impact, while Martinelli was quite bright – forcing Pickford into a save late in the half.
Rice had a free kick saved too, Kieran Tierney’s late cameo saw him fashion chances for Merino and Martin Odegaard, but beyond that we didn’t really cause them too many problems which, as I said at the top, is the story of our season. 77% possession, 8 shots, 0 goals. It’s a familiar theme, so while I think it’s all right to feel a sense of injustice about the award of the penalty, we also have to recognise that we didn’t do well enough with the kind of domination we had. I also think everyone knows what we need to do to improve in that regard, and with Andrea Berta watching on from the stands, the new Sporting Director’s main task this summer is obvious: make this team more potent, whether that’s with new attackers, more creativity from midfield, or ideally both.
Afterwards, Arteta said:
I think we deserved more, but that’s what we got at the end at a really tough place to come. We wanted the three points. You want to get everything in the way you plan it. We did a lot of good things in the game. We managed to give minutes to a lot of players as well and rest some players, but we dropped two points.
What more is there to say, other than we seemed to have come through this one with a clean bill of health, and ahead of Real Madrid on Tuesday night, that’s probably the most important thing. Hopefully Mikel Merino’s head will have stopped bleeding by then, but that’s the only issue in terms of injury we had to contend with. I won’t lie, I was expecting something to go pop on someone, just because that’s what seems to happen this season, so on that basis I’m happy enough this morning.
A final point: I’ve never seen a referee blow for full-time, then change his mind at the protestations of the home side’s players, before awarding them a free kick and a chance to lump it into our box. Just add it to the long list of ‘stuff you’ve never seen in football before’ that has all happened this season.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now. You can join us early tomorrow for an Arsecast Extra at which point this game will be in the rear-view mirror, and all eyes will be on the Champions League.
Until then.
