Everton Preview

By: Martin | August 14th, 2009

Everton

Last Season: 5th, 17-12-9 (+ 18 goal differential)

Home Form (last season): 8-6-5

Last Meeting: Everton 1-Arsenal 1 (1/28/09)

The season is here. It’s finally here. While I’m sure we’ll still deal with transfer speculation, injuries, etc., we’ll have actual, real football to talk about from here on out. And between our tricky early season fixture list (Everton, Portsmouth, Manchester United, Manchester City, plus the Champions League playoff matches against Celtic), and our already lengthy injured list, we’re up against it right away.

Playing Everton at Goodison is a very tricky start to the season, make no mistake. No manager in the league gets more out of his squad than David Moyes, and Everton is a purist’s dream–they’re not flashy and they’re devoid of superstars, but they’re a solid squad 1-11, they play tough and are difficult to score on, and are capable of beating anyone. They very nearly won the FA Cup last season, and were successful despite playing a sizeable portion of the season without a single fit striker.

We beat them 3-1 at home last October, with Nasri, Rvp, and Theo getting on the scoresheet, but needed an RvP equalizer in injury time to salvage a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park in January. We haven’t lost to the Toffees since March 2007. This is obviously a big game for both sides–everyone wants to get off on the right foot, of course, but the Gunners could also definitely use some momentum going into a very tricky away match in Glasgow on Tuesday.

Everton’s a tough side. It all starts at the back with them–Tim Howard is a world-class keeper, Jolean Lescott and Phil Jagielka make up one of the better center-back tandems in the league (although Jagielka is out injured for the match), right-back Phil Neville brings leadership and experience, and left-back Leighton Baines is one of those guys who goes about his job and doesn’t make mistakes. They’re also very solid up the middle of the field–Marouane “Screech’s Evil Twin” Fellaini was a great signing as a hard man who can score the occasional goal, and Tim Cahill is one of the most underrated players in the Premiership. Mikel Arteta is a great playmaker, but I he’s out of the match due to injury, which makes Arsenal’s task tomorrow a bit easier. Yakubu’s injured, but Louis Saha and Jo would be a decent strike pair tomorrow if Jo’s healthy enough to play.

As mentioned yesterday, with the Gunners’ injury list, we’re forced to use a patchwork lineup already. It will be interesting to see who starts beside Gallas at center back–Wenger said Vermaelen would be available, but may not want to risk him for a full game, which would mean Silvestre gets the nod. The other tough lineup decision Wenger will have to make is that with Theo out, our options up top become a bit more limited. My best guess at a lineup:

Almunia

Sagna-Gallas-Vermaelen-Clichy

Denilson-Song

Eboue-Fabregas-Arshavin

van Persie

As I said, though, we could see Silvestre instead of Vermaelen, and we could see Eduardo or Bendtner start instead of Denilson and/or Eboue, but with Vela jetlagged from flying back from Mexico, that really wouldn’t leave us much in the way of substitute attacking options. It’s a tough start, and it should tell us quite a bit about this team. Here’s hoping they pass the test.

I’ve been waiting for months to say this again…

Come on Arsenal.