Everton 2-1 Arsenal highlights & report: Mikel Arteta under further pressure
Graham Ruthven assesses Arsenal's latest defeat, a 2-1 loss to Everton at Goodison, and what it means for Mikel Arteta.
The fixture computer couldn’t have spat out a more suitable fixture for this weekend. Only two days out from exactly a year ago, Everton and Arsenal faced each other at Goodison Park in what would be the two clubs’ final games under interim managers. A goalless draw marked the end of Duncan Ferguson and Freddie Ljungberg’s short tenures of their respective clubs as the Toffees and the Gunners moved into new eras.
Carlo Ancelotti and Mikel Arteta were linked with both posts, but December 2019 saw the former pitch up on Merseyside while the latter was hired to fill the vacancy in North London. Had the interview process gone a little differently, the two managers could have lined up against each other this weekend in the opposite dugouts.
Everton are entitled to feel they made the right choice by opting for Ancelotti. The Italian spent the second half of last season figuring out the squad he inherited. This season, the benefit of that process has been clear, with the 2-1 win over Arsenal lifting the Toffees up to second in the Premier League table. They are progressing under Ancelotti.
Arsenal, on the other hand, have regressed over the last 12 months. The Gunners sat in 10th in the Premier League table at the time of Arteta’s appointment. Now, they are slumped in 15th, just five points off the bottom three. As if that wasn’t bad enough, every team below Arsenal has at least one game in-hand. It’s entirely possible they will be sucked even closer to danger.
By almost every measure, Arsenal are a team that should be more concerned with avoiding relegation than fighting for a top four spot and Champions League qualification. It’s not unheard of for a team of Arsenal’s stature to be in the Premier League’s bottom half, but in such cases the underlying statistics hint at a natural correction of form to come.
However, Arsenal’s stats this season are entirely in keeping with their current position in the table. The Gunners rank dead last (20th) for goals scored since the October international break (three). They are 19th for shots on target in that period (27) and are 20th for shooting accuracy (35%) and shot conversion rate (2.9%).
Only Crystal Palace, West Brom, Newcastle United, Burnley and Sheffield United have averaged fewer shots per game this season, while their average key passes per game tally is the sixth lowest in the Premier League. Over the last seven games, only Sheffield United’s form is worse than Arsenal’s. If there is to be a correction, an uptick in form, where is it coming from?
Having worked closely with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, Arteta was billed as tactical mastermind of the future. There has been no sign of this at Arsenal, though. Certainly not this season. There are holes in the Gunners’ squad, but Arteta should be making so much more of what he has.
His team are among the most one-dimensional in the Premier League this season. Arteta’s comments after the home defeat to Wolves at the start of December caused alarm. “I think it is the first time in the Premier League that we put 33 crosses in,” he said. “I am telling you that if we do that more consistently we are going to score more goals. If we put the bodies we had in certain moments in the box, it is maths, pure maths, and it will happen.”
Are those really the words of a tactical mastermind? There is no strategical flexibility. Arsenal kept playing cross after cross into the Everton box despite their attackers being up against Michael Keane and Yerry Mina in the air. How much tactical and analytical preparation went into that ploy? What was the thinking?
In isolation, Arsenal’s performance against Everton wasn’t enough to condemn Arteta. There was at least some fight in the second half display. But it was a match that continued a desperately worrying pattern for the Spaniard. Both Arsenal and Everton found themselves at a crossroads midway through last season. Ancelotti and Arteta presented two very different ideological alternatives. On the evidence of what we have seen over the last year, the Toffees can be much happier with the direction they took.
Everton 2-1 Arsenal: Match report
There will be no merry Christmas for struggling Arsenal as a 2-1 defeat at Goodison Park made it seven league matches without victory to increase manager Mikel Arteta’s woes.
While his former club are upwardly mobile again after three victories in eight days moved them to second in the table the Spaniard is struggling to see where his next three points are coming from.
If there is any encouragement for Arteta it is that before victories over Chelsea, Leicester and now the Gunners Carlo Ancelotti’s team were on a run of one win in seven.
But to turn things around they are going to have to either improve on just the three shots on target – one Nicolas Pepe’s first-half penalty equaliser – they managed on Merseyside or take a leaf out of the Toffees’ book who scored two from just one attempt on target as Rob Holding’s own goal opener was followed by Yerry Mina’s header on the stroke of half-time.
They were not helped by the absence of top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with a tight calf but they conceded possession from the off and lacked any intensity or desire to break up their opponents’ play.
Even the first appearance since March of 19-year-old forward Gabriel Martinelli, scorer of 10 goals in 26 appearances last season, and the late introduction of Alexandre Lacazette failed to improve the fortunes of the visitors who did not force Pickford into a save until the fifth minute of added time.