Everton 3 - 0 Arsenal: Just another accident, right?

This may comes as a surprise, but two months ago, in February, after 24 games, Arsenal were top of the table. The team that has lead the way for the most amount of time this season has been Arsenal. The team with the best defence and the most amount of efficiency was Arsenal.

Now, in April, we're fourth, having won only twice in our last ten league games. Amongst those games have been a 5-1 drubbing at Liverpool. a 6-0 humiliation at Chelsea, a typical 1-0 defeat at Stoke, a laborious 0-0 against United, a 2-2 draw against Swansea and now this 3-0 embarrassment against Everton, the side that's now got every chance of going above us in the table. The last time Arsenal played well was against a Sunderland who had eyes only for the Capital One Cup final. The other win was a fortuitous 1-0 over Spurs.

It's a collapse that's reminiscent of the post-Eduardo injury run in 2008, or the post-Carling Cup final run in 2011. If you want to give this one a name, then it's the post-Anfield collapse. Many things contribute to this, such as the injuries to key players, a lack of pace in the side and the psychological trauma of being hammered time and again by your rivals and it's all wrapping up into a nice, large package of disappointment. Whatever confidence the players gained from the rest of the season is now gone. Whatever progress we had made has now been undone. We're in complete free-fall and this time we don't look capable of stopping it.

Did Arsenal look remotely threatening today? Perhaps they did in patches, but overall Everton were comfortably the better side for the majority of the match. Arsenal's problems were the same old same old, once again lacking penetration. Cazorla kept coming deep, Giroud was statue-esque up front and Rosicky had no influence on the game at all. Arsenal's most prominent threat came from Sagna, who always had the right flank to himself and that is not a good thing at all.

Contrast that with Everton, who moved the ball around with pace and precision, who's players frequently ran in behind our defence and exploited all sorts of space. That used to be us. They were so confident in the way they were playing despite it being such a big occasion for them. They played as well as we played poor.

The defensive mistakes today were appalling. Monreal, one of many players who have seemingly turned shit recently, did a terrible job against Lukaku on the right hand side, first allowing him to run in behind for the first goal, then offering no resistance whatsoever as Lukaku just ran past him for the second. Vermaelen had his part to play in that goal, too, following Monreal's example and not bothering to even attempt to tackle Lukaku. The third goal saw Naismtih run in behind for the  millionth time and despite Szczesny doing well to block the shot, the ball still managed to pop out, meet Arteta's last-ditch tackle and roll into the net.

Then, of course, in that Wenger way, we make changes after the 70th minute when we're 3-0 down. Brilliant. That was extremely useful and proactive towards sorting this mess out.

It was such a startling contrast between the two sides and the two managers. On one hand, you've got Martinez and Everton, playing with confidence, playing good football and implementing new, fresh ideas and going place. On the other, you've got Wenger and Arsenal, doing the same thing they've been doing for several years, playing an ineffective system producing poor football, and having no confidence in what they're doing. One has now won six straight games, the other has won twice in 10 games.

Sure, Everton have to play United, Southampton and City, but even if they dropped points, are we really in a position to take advantage of that right now? Our remaining five games are against West Ham, Hull, Newcastle, West Brom and Norwich; should be 15 points, but won't be because we're playing terribly bad.

The only saving grace was that Ramsey came on and looked like he hadn't been injured for 14 *bleep* weeks, though that in itself is damning towards the other players who have been playing regularly in that time. Maybe with the return of Gibbs, Koscielny and Ozil, we'll get enough of a boost to see us end the season well in fourth, and to see us win the FA Cup. Maybe that'll be just enough.

But what's scary is that the game against Wigan in the FA Cup semi-final next weekend could well be the game that determines Wenger's future, and let's be honest, who would be surprised if we lost that game as well?

title over, season nearly over(when we get knock out by wigan) looking ahead to summer:

players to be sold.

++vermealen, he isnt good enough as a 3rd choice, a third choice defender needs to be more reliable; he needs to be at the very least, as good as our first choice CB. tempted to put monreal in there but ill give him one more season.

++giroud HE IS AWFUL, it is that simple. I used to think he was good enough to be a second choice but imo, we can find a better second choice that is for sure. Dont you dare give me stats on his goal record, dont you fcking dare. Sanogo in 20 minutes should more desire and passion than him, he showed more of what we NEED, sanogo came on and was offside twice!!, do you want to know why? because he done what a striker is meant to do. MAKE MOVEMENTS, MOVE FFS, GIVE DEFENDERS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT, GIVE OUR MIDFIELDERS SOMETHING TO PASSS TO.

I dont care if giroud had scored 30 goals this season, his general play kills our game therefore he kills our team, atm he is a POOR MAN DARREN BENT/DEFOE. how can ANYONE defend him after that today? HOW? he is NOT being used as scapegoat, he isnt, because he is consistently bad in important games.

++podolski, i know some people like him, and he is clinical, but we can buy better than him and i dont think he is worth having on the bench, he should move and play for another team. he just doesn't have the general technique and ability we need.

++ one of arteta and flamini needs to go, we cant keep both we need a younger a fresher DM, one of these two need to be sold.

squad players that must not be in the starting 11 next season.

++arteta and flamini, which ever one we keep, none of these should be starting next season, as we all know we need a top quality DM.

++cazorla, he is decent but he should be a squad player next season, too inconsistent to be a regular starter plus defensively he is bad. The draxlar/rues buys makes more and more sense as the season goes on.

we all know the players we need, no point even listing them.

What's there to say that hasn't been said against 6 other teams previously?

20 goals conceded against 4 teams while scoring 3 in reply. That is not Arsenal.

It used to be a joke phrase but I am really asking this to anyone. Where has our Arsenal gone?

Why have we regressed so much? Injuries? Possibly but the team last year was not any better than we have now.

What is there to say anymore really?

not going to blame injuries, i am just sick of it, our squad is poor, its only 3-4 players guys, back in 2008 we had like 8-9 injuries to key players, understandable demise. but come on we should at least be able to coupe with only ozil/walcott/ramsey out. that is just a lack of depth.

Awful.

When Oxlade-Chamberlain was coming on for Podolski, I was naive enough to believe he was directly replacing him on the left... but no no, Wenger will rather play 3 players out of position than do that

Apart from Szczesny, Sagna, Ramsey, Ox and Sanogo everyone else was utter shite and that includes Wenger.

We still have chances to win the double (if you know what I mean ) but will that change anything? It won't and that's why we need a change in the summer. Wenger has taken us as far as he can, but we need a step up now and Arsenal haven't shown anything to believe that Wenger is the man to do that. He'll still leave a great legacy behind and has made sure the new manager has everything that is needed to take us to the next level.

I hope we win the FA Cup and finish 4th because that means Wenger leaves on a high AND the next manager can sign players who demand CL football. So let's do it!!

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger: "Everton were better, sharper and deserved to win. The only time we looked like coming back into the game was in the second half, then we gave an easy goal away. Then that was it.

"It will be difficult to finish in top four but first we have to focus on quality of our performances.

"I wouldn't question the spirit of this team but we have lost something on the confidence front. We looked disjointed when we had to run after the score. The other big defeats away from home have taken some of the charisma from this team."

wenger, how can you leave ox on the bench? i dont understand. he is the only player that can make things happen you idiot!, i dont care if you watch him in training and he plays like crap before the match, he needs to play every game, just him being on the field offers us something.

That thing about lack of confidence really frustrates me. I know results obviously play a major part, but if the team has lost confidence and not performing, isn't it down to the manager to get a response from his team and squeeze a performance out of them?

We can blame the players if it's only a handful that aren't responding, but when it's the whole squad, can you really blame the players? It's not their fault they get played out of position, or have to play the same way, even when it's not working. And if it happens on a game-by-game basis, the manager has to change something because clearly this current approach of putting faith in the players and leaving them to it isn't working anymore.

RealGunner wrote:What's there to say that hasn't been said against 6 other teams previously?

20 goals conceded against 4 teams while scoring 3 in reply. That is not Arsenal.

It used to be a joke phrase but I am really asking this to anyone. Where has our Arsenal gone?

Why have we regressed so much? Injuries? Possibly but the team last year was not any better than we have now.

What is there to say anymore really?

I honestly feel like it's just a combination of Arsene just being behind other managers on tactical adjustments and the players not giving a toss if a result like this happens

I feel like the players feel about these losses te same way fans do right now. Just facepalm and go " it happened again oh well", and just move on.

That CANT happen. The players have to know results like this are not ok. someone HAS to take responsibility for these losses and wenger just saying " mea culpa" isn't good enough. Changes have to be made, players need to know that the will be held accountable for poor performance and aren't guaranteed a starting spot every week

thoroughly overplayed and beaten..
getting raped in all the away games to the top 5 teams and failing to win in all home games (bar Pool) against the same ?
in a season where it is said that we made a title challenge..? is that just accident as some say ? now we are in a dog fight for our usual fourth place trophy..

there is nothing much to discuss.. only ranting.. we played the same team without any changes and were crap as we have been for the last 3 months.. i am really surprised by the hesitancy to make some changes.. i would better see us going down giving it a try, than seeing the same nonsense put up every week and hoping for a different result..

just putting forward a few thoughts..

- Is Metskr hampering us..?
we have seen that he is near world class when he has a good partner and we play hiding his deficiencies.. it is okay as we keep our defensive resilience.. but it is restricting and costing us occasionally.. especially when we go a goal down.. we will have to open up and attack more and the slow pace of Metskr and Arteta exposes us to counters and conceding more goals..

- sacrifice the defensive security we are enjoying ?
we are facing a severe inability to create chances and score.. it is the truth that it is the same defensive security which has won Arsenal the most points in 2013 and helps us to protect 1-0 leads against smaller teams.. but has it taken away the trademark attacking brilliance and beauty of Arsenal..??

it is a saying that 'attack wins fans but defence wins titles'.. but when you take the last 2-3 years in the league.. all the teams that have won the title have won it by their attacking firepower.. Agueros City, 4 striker United, this years Pool and City..
so we may be better breaking up and trading this entire defensive setup for a more offensive style and tactics.. we may surely concede more goals, but we have a better chance to do well agaisnt good teams..

some very nice posts guys...   

REWB wrote:wenger, how can you leave ox on the bench? i dont understand. he is the only player that can make things happen you idiot!, i dont care if you watch him in training and he plays like crap before the match, he needs to play every game, just him being on the field offers us something.

i take back what i said here, i just remembered we have the fa cup match after this, good that he rested ox imo, that fa cup game is much more important.

Absolutely embarrassing, I know that Everton are a good side but for us to go there and loose 3-0 is unacceptable. We have a higher wage bill, despite the our injury problems we still had better players out there yet they walked over us.

I know that injuries and lack of confidence has taken its toll but Why does Arsene not try to mix things up a bit. We have been blunt and poor in attack for a few games now. Why not keep the opposition guessing at least, at the moment everyone knows how we will set up, how we will play and who will play.

Why not Drop Giroud.Try Poldi up front and Ox on the left. drop Rosicky alongside Arteta in central midfield and put Gnabry on the right hand side. It might not be perfect but its better than sending out a predictable team which offers no threat or invention whatsoever. Try different things ffs, Arsene is just not flexible enough with his tactics and its not helping the players at the moment. They look to him to rectify the situation but he just sends them out with the same instructions   

The next game will define our season, if we don't win that then I can't see us finishing in the top four because confidence at the moment is very low and a defeat will bring a bad atmosphere around the club which will destroy any tiny bit confidence the squad has left. No top four, No Cup, No Wenger  

Nothing to say that hasn't been said/we don't already know.

Gotta say, next Saturday is it. If we don't win it then I can't follow Wenger into the fire and I don't think he'll make me. I've been staunchly supporting him in seasons past and if we finish with the top 4 and FA Cup then I won't stop but if we don't beat Wigan then I think it will quite literally be the end of the Wenger era.

Such a shame it's come to this. Leading the league for 24 games to this.

Top 4 won't be enough. Saturday is the day our season ignites or dies.

The good, The bad and The Ugly.
Well there is no good.
The Bad is that once again it looked to me like Wenger's tactical ineptitude ruled the day. In the same way it has the season. Wenger choose to start the season short handed. We had no Striker (don't want to hear about Giroud he is no good), We had no depth on the wings and Walcotts injury has been the nail in our season. Wengers plan of playing something resembling a 4-5-1 utilizing a striker with no pace or ability. With 5 CM's eliminating width, leaving enormous holes across the pitch for a counter and relying on the slowest man at Arsenal, Artetta as the protector of our CB's. It really looks now like it was lucky that we over achieved at the beginning of the year to help minimize our eventual collapse.

The Ugly!
To me it looks like even the players have lost faith in Wenger. To me it does not seem like they start a game knowing that they are going to be able to achieve a win. It is almost like they hope for an early goal which will allow them to sit back and try and park the bus.

It is time.

Michael Cox's take on the game:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/apr/06/arsenal-baffled-grand-tactical-surprise-roberto-martinez-everton?CMP=twt_gu

This was a confident, and potentially pivotal, Everton victory, which demonstrated Roberto Martínez's strategic brilliance perfectly. The Spanish manager is consistently praised for his overall football philosophy, demanding ball retention and positive attacking play, but he's also a methodical tactician too. He reshaped Everton's formation and caused Arsenal constant problems.

The Everton teamsheet did not suggest a grand tactical surprise but it quickly became apparent that the regular centre-forward, Romelu Lukaku, was playing from the right flank, Kevin Mirallas was switched to the left and the winger Steven Naismith was the closest thing to a centre-forward, a position he had previously only played in an emergency.

The precise approach was more complex: Naismith was playing as a false nine, dropping off into midfield and tempting the Arsenal centre-backs up the pitch. In turn, Mirallas and Lukaku attacked in behind the full-backs. Arsenal were utterly baffled by the system they were playing against in the opening 15 minutes. At one point, Thomas Vermaelen tracked his compatriot Lukaku towards the opposite side of the pitch – a left-sided centre-back being dragged over to the right-back zone by an opposition right-winger. Arsenal could not deal with the movement.

Arsenal's secondary problem was the fluidity between Santi Cazorla, Tomas Rosicky and, to a lesser extent, Lukas Podolski. This repeatedly meant their right flank was unguarded, which played perfectly into the hands of Leighton Baines, who attacked constantly from left-back. Bacary Sagna was pulled up the pitch to confront him, Per Mertesacker was then dragged out wide to cope with Mirallas, while Vermaelen was outfoxed by Naismith's clever movement, and Nacho Monreal simply could not cope with Lukaku's power and directness. Too frequently Arsenal were defending three versus three and were exposed readily.

Equally, Everton blunted Arsenal's own possession play. Naismith dropped off alongside early substitute Ross Barkley to pack the centre of the pitch, while Mirallas and Lukaku shuffled back to create a six-man midfield, establishing a solid block Arsenal were unable to play through and unwilling to play directly past. When Arsenal's midfielders received the ball, they encountered a determined Everton capable of physical challenges.

Martínez has acquired a reputation as a fine user of substitutes, with Everton often rallying in the latter stages. But his players demonstrated their authority throughout the first half and completed the scoring after an hour – in terms of both strategy and timing, Everton are capable of winning matches in various ways.

Spot on, Martinez got things absolutely perfect. Couldn't have dreamed of a better performance.

That is exactly how the game was tactically. Naismith perhaps played the most important role for Everton today. He did what Rooney does to Arteta season in season out. Plus Monreal has always been our weak link at the left and Martinez who most probably saw the Bayern munich game knew what to do.

Tactically, Martinez is one of the best in the league. His 3-4-3 against us for Wigan completely neutralised us 3 years ago. He is just one of those managers who Arsene find it really difficult against.

Arsene never focuses on opponent's strength. For example in today's match between Liverpool and West ham. West Ham couldn't manage to get their usual crosses in because Rodgers set up the team in a way that it was impossible for Downing n Jarvis to get a clear Cross in. They were always hassled by 3 Liverpool players stopping in the crosses. West Ham don't have a Plan B. When their Plan A was neutralised, it was game over in terms of scoring. Their only goal shouldn't have stood either.

I respect Arsene's philosophy of patronising our style over the opponent. But it doesn't work against big teams in big games. Specially when you don't have Henry nor Bergkamp anymore who can win you the match anyways.

Yeah, maybe when you're the Invincibles and you have players who can pull a winner out of nowhere then you could probably snooze your way through any match without putting a tactical thought into it.

Maybe, just maybe, with our injuries not so severe we could have fared better against the top sides similarly and still have been top but that would demand a change in the training regimen.

RealGunner wrote:
Arsene never focuses on opponent's strength. For example in today's match between Liverpool and West ham. West Ham couldn't manage to get their usual crosses in because Rodgers set up the team in a way that it was impossible for Downing n Jarvis to get a clear Cross in. They were always hassled by 3 Liverpool players stopping in the crosses. West Ham don't have a Plan B. When their Plan A was neutralised, it was game over in terms of scoring. Their only goal shouldn't have stood either.

I respect Arsene's philosophy of patronising our style over the opponent. But it doesn't work against big teams in big games. Specially when you don't have Henry nor Bergkamp anymore who can win you the match anyways.

This is a good point, RG mate. I, too, have always respected Wenger for the way he thinks his team should always look to play their Plan A game, regardless of the opponent's qualities. It kind of creates a bit of a fear factor and an added strength when your team really is sticking to their ways in every situation, telling the opponent "**** off, we're good enough to have our way with you just the way we like to do it!"

The thing is, you really have to be excellent at your own game for it to work every single time, to afford to ignore the opponent's strengths. When Arsenal are on their game, they are that. When Arsenal are missing players like Walcott, Wilshere, Özil, (Gibbs, Koscielny & of course, Diaby) and playing the best Everton team in years, at Goodison, too, you probably should have a bit more humble approach.

I think Wenger is a bit of a gambler. Often a successful one, too. But sometimes, like today, the odds are stacked against him and he still goes for the spectacular, only to come home to his wife (or mistress) and go: "Yeah, so, we're going to eat soup for the rest of the week".

MJGunner wrote:

Sanogo would have missed anyway   

He scored lol.

The key thing for me is that Martinez wasn't afraid to alter things. Even though his 4-2-3-1 has been successful, he still tried Lukaku out wide and Naismith in a central role because he had a clear idea on how to expose Arsenal and the confidence to implement it. Just about every decent side know that Arteta and Monreal are the weak links and Everton followed suit in exploiting that fact.

Rodgers at Liverpool is another who's shown he isn't afraid to change things when need be. He's gone form 4-3-3 to 3-4-1-2 to 4-4-2 to a diamond. He's played Suarez and Sturridge up front together, he's played one of them on the flanks, he's played Sterling centrally or Gerrard deeper; all to get his key players playing the best they can.

Even Pellegrini at City has played a 4-2-3-1 more recently in light of Aguero's injury and Negredo's drop in form. He knows that without those two firing the 4-4-2 wouldn't be as effective, so he compensated by moving Silva back into his best position and he, and subsequently the rest of the side, have flourished.

We don't change it like that. Our system depends on having Ramsey and Walcott moving in behind defences otherwise it becomes blunt. Without Walcott we've predominantly played with three attacking midfielders but this has had mixed success because we didn't push our fullbacks further forward to get that extra width. Then when we lost Ramsey we didn't change to compensate. If you don't have runners form midfield or from your flanks, how can you play with one up-front? Either you encourage your midfielders to make more forward runs you play two up top.

We're still persisting with this system of play without having the players to really make it work. The likes of Cazorla, Rosicky or Podolski don't want to make moves in behind. We lack something on the right flank because Wenger insists on playing Chamberlain centrally, and neither Arteta or Flamini are going to be effective breaking forward, even though Flamini has tried recently. Sagna and Monreal will get forward but nobody wants to get in the box to get on the end of crosses or cut backs.

Ramsey and Ozil coming back may make it work again, but if you haven't got the personnel to make the tactic work without certain players, then you need to compensate tactically. No good just putting in players that aren't suited to it and hoping for the best.

Sanogo would have missed anyway

He actually went on to score with a nice finish.