The Emphatic Win We Needed

What a match! Arsenal finally played their game in hand, which they won in style with a 4-0 victory over Everton. This win brings us in line with Man City on matches played (23) and our lead at the top of table to five points.

I wrote about this previously and spoke about it on the podcast, but this Arsenal team has been in need of an emphatic win that makes the statement that we are going to be the protagonists in this title race. The last few weeks have given the impression that we are hanging on and playing not to lose our lead, rather than to proactively win the league. After watching City jump out to a 4-0 lead over Bournemouth last week was the type of match we should have had against Leicester, but better late than never.

The first half was a brutal watch for about 40 minutes. Yet again we were struggling to break down Everton’s low block and it didn’t seem like we were going to unlock it at any point. For some reason, it seemed towards the end of the half Everton began to push up a bit more. We had the ball in between their first and second lines of defense, which seemed impossible earlier as they had been parked so far back towards their goal. After a few minutes of this we broke the deadlock. Oleksander Zinchenko made a gorgeous pass to find Saka in enough space to get the ball onto his weaker right foot and hammer it home. What a player we have on our hands. His ceiling seems to be getting higher and higher. An Henry celebration was deserved and he was involved again just minutes later as we increased our lead to 2-0 before the break. In a bizarre moment, the Everton player stopped playing as if his controller had died in a game of FIFA. Saka nicked the ball off him, which Martinelli took and fired home. Shoutout to VAR for getting it right and awarding us the goal.

The introduction of Thomas Partey for Jorginho seemingly took our game to the next level. While the 2-0 lead certainly will have played a part in our ability to assert ourselves onto a desperate Everton side, it was clear how much the Ghanian improves us. Jorginho didn’t look right in the first half and it sounds like he was struggling with something per Arteta’s postgame remarks. Arsenal showed their true colors and easily could have won the game by more than the final scoreline of 4-0. It was great to get Odegaard on the scoresheet and a two goal performance from Martinelli will do him and his confidence a world of good. To get ESR on the pitch was a huge boost as well. He can be such a huge part of our run in if he can stay fit. It’s easy to forget how impactful he was on the team last season. Trossard put in yet another phenomenal shift and surely has to keep his spot for Bournemouth at the weekend. A 73% possession performance with 15 shots should result in everybody keeping their place with a fit Partey coming in for Jorginho.

That’s it for today. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for all the latest updates. COYG!