Arsenal 3 – 1 Everton

Arsenal came back well from a goal behind to defeat Everton 3-1 at the Emirates.

Here’s how they lined up :

Almunia,
Song Billong, Toure (Walcott 46), Silvestre, Clichy,
Eboue, Fabregas, Denilson, Nasri (Diaby 83),
Van Persie, Adebayor.

Arsenal, perhaps out-of-sorts after the international break, looked unsettled in the first half and went behind after Denilson gave the ball away allowing Osman to get the ball to Pienaar on the left who squared it back for Osman who knocked it in from the 6 yard line.

Arsenal got a few chances for the rest of the half, but were not playing their best football, there was little sign of fluency as Arsenal elected to play more directly to Adebayor.

Arsenal’s defensive troubles were exasperated when Toure suffered a shoulder injury during a challenge, eventually being replaced by Walcott at half time. Reports this morning suggest neither Toure nor Gallas will be available for the mid-week Champions League match.

The addition of Walcott saw Eboue move to right back and Song moving alongside Silvestre in central defence.
The added pace of Walcott saw Arsenal immediately creating more problems for Everton, and Arsenal drew level with an excellent Nasri shot into the bottom corner.

This lead to an Arsenal resurgence, spurred on from a previously dispirited home crowd. Arsenal played much better and created pressure and frequent chances on the Everton defence.
Clichy recieved a yellow card for squaring up to Hibbert, getting involved after the Everton player harshly tackled Denilson.

Arsenal took the lead on the 70th minute when Van Persie headed in after Howard saved a shot from Fabregas.
Nasri was replaced by Diaby after suffering a knock in a challenge, but Arsenal continued to dominate the game, scoring again in the 90th minute when Walcott made a one-two with Diaby and hit a great shot across Howard in to the corner.

A reassuring second half performance after the shaky first half saw Arsenal get the points in this one, Arsenal showed good character to respond so well immediately in the second haff, but Arsenal are still certainly looking troubled defensively this season, and now have a possible 2 more players on their injury list.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Match Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tags: everton, nasri, osman, van persie, walcott