Arsenal (Home) 4th February

[plaidharper]

As many have mentioned... Maupay is such a turd but he is our turd I guess haha.

[Wall Writer]

Everton won a game of football! 

That deserves a drink....I'm off out! 

[Newty82]

4 hours ago, Newty82 said:

My family are a family of Evertonians.

 

4 years ago we said goodbye to my Grandad. That weekend we played Arsenal. At the post funeral wake I got me and my boy tickets and we won a good game 1-0.

 

Yesterday, we said goodbye to my Nan. You know the rest! Tried to get tickets last night but no joy.

 

Not a believer in omens and all that but if we win today...I'll well and truly shit my pants!!!

 

 

 

Well fuck me!

Superb result. Superb performance. A proper Everton effort that.

RIP Nan x

[memmaclub2]

I know all the boardroom problems but to get that result in that way with the same squad shows how good Dyche is (I know it’s one match) but also shows how low Frank had fallen. This squad is good enough for now. Onanna amazing Gueye was amazing too.

 

whaf I actually noticed was all the players played the best version of them. No bad performance. 
 

gutted Dyche didn’t join when Rafa did I think he could have similar impact to moyes.

Best Everton performance and carrying out a game plan I have seen in 2-3 years.

[memmaclub2]

5 minutes ago, Btay said:

Agree but the midfield 3 were immense for us today.

Yeah we had to play 5 against the Arsenals. But shows Dyches flexibility 

[MikeO]

 

[MikeO]

 

[Aidan]

xG 1.98 v 0.88

Absolutely deserved to win today and I haven't enjoyed a game this much since the Palace game.

 

[plaidharper]

See DCL was out walking about in slides after the game so hopefully that means they are just managing him.

[dunlopp9987]

Dyche's first match in charge, our only goal was scored by Tarkowski and assisted by McNeil. 

Burnley-ball is alive and well at Goodison. 

[Hafnia]

 

[plaidharper]

Boos turning into Woos!!!!

Enjoy the weekend blues!!!! 

[Trigger]

Wonder why Gray didn't start or come on instead of Maupey?

[Zoo 2.0]

Bossed it from start to finish, made Arsenal look very ordinary. If we can replicate that from now until the end of the season we will have no problem staying up - we won't be in the top half but we will be clear enough for it to not be twitchy. 

Onana was absolutely outstanding today, he's everything you'd want in a player. 

[Palfy]

53 minutes ago, Newty82 said:

Well fuck me!

Superb result. Superb performance. A proper Everton effort that.

RIP Nan x

[RuffRob]

This for the  next four months -  please!. Results will look after themselves. 

So glad we got a massive 3 points reward for the efforts. Should give the players no excuse not to buy into what Dyche is demanding from them. 

I was fearing we could drop away this weekend and next - but this result keeps us right in the mix. So phytologically, could be a result changes our season. 

I am not going to get over excited until I see this type of performance the norm, but I am going to enjoy this result as much as I can, because its felt like a long winter so far. 

COYB 

 

 

[badaids]

1 hour ago, memmaclub2 said:

 

Best Everton performance and carrying out a game plan I have seen in 2-3 years.

This is spot on and a really good point.  So many teams play against us with a clearly worked out plan and execute it, and then execute us.  Been ages since we’ve done that to someone else.

So great that we’ve done a job on someone else for once.

 

 

[badaids]

45 minutes ago, Trigger said:

Wonder why Gray didn't start or come on instead of Maupey?

Gray will get his chance in other games I think. Dyche was just keeping it tight today with the goal to protect - it was the right decision.

[Romey 1878]

1 hour ago, Trigger said:

Wonder why Gray didn't start or come on instead of Maupey?

I heard he'd taken a knock in training, so he was probably only on the bench to make up the numbers and would have only been brought on in an emergency.

[MikeO]

 

[Hoof_It_Nev]

1 hour ago, badaids said:

This is spot on and a really good point.

 

 

3 points

[Romey 1878]

I had planned on just making a big joke about shin pads for my post match comment, whatever the result, but I can't do it after that performance.

For most of the first half I felt really disconcerted, really not my self at all. I stood in complete silence, no clapping or contesting any decision. I didn't like it at all, especially as we were actually decent and had a few good opportunities to score. As it went on though some of the ref's decisions were pissing me off and it put a fire back in my belly by half time. That's all the comment I can make on the first half because I just wasn't with it at all.

Second half I was well up for that. I loved watching us (even though it was torture as well). Arsenal were much more threatening but we were well up for the fight of repelling them. Every one of them stood up to what Arsenal threw at us. That's not to say that we didn't offer anything at the other end though. It would have been easy to just try and shut up shop after we got our goal a little bit into the second half, but we didn't do that. We weren't reckless or thoughtless when we attacked, but when the opportunity was there to go forward we did it. We were really well balanced I though.

 

Pickford - Did he only have one proper save to make? He made it though, so he more than did his job.

Coleman - Probably perfect for him today. Don't go forward too much and just be solid in defence. Martinelli is a very good player but he dealt with him professionally.

Tarkowski - Scored the winner and was a very solid presence at the back.

Coady - He did some defending! I do wish he'd stop hitting the long ball so often, or getting it wrong I should say.

Mykolenko - I thought he was fucking fantastic today. Saka is dynamite and he marshalled him so well. Even after McNeil had dropped him in it and he took a yellow card in the second half he was still amazing up against him.

Iwobi - Don't think he was really on it today. The effort was there though and he was still making himself available for the ball.

Onana - His legs just appear out of nowhere don't they?  He was superb throughout, almost faultless.

Gana - Hasn't played well for quite some time but today he was brilliant. Put out lots of fires, harried, didn't try and do too much with the ball.

McNeil - Like I said in his thread, I thought he was awful on the right. Once we swapped him and Iwobi round though so he was on the left instead he really came into the game and looked like there is a useful footballer in there. He was actually a threat and like he knew what he wanted to do once he got the ball. My only gripe is that I wish he'd whip in a few crosses/corners rather than just float them all.

Doucoure - Where has this Doucoure been? Easily his best performance for us this season, it's not even close. That was the Doucoure we all appreciate, the one that runs for days. Sometimes he's not very good at using the ball when he gets it but today he used it really well. And he drove forward with the ball whenever he could too.

DCL - Proper handful today. Yes he should have at least tested the keeper with a couple of headers but he was a nuisance for the Arsenal defence and he led the line brilliantly.

 

The ref though? He definitely needs to get some shin pads. The cunt.

[badaids]

9 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

 

The ref though? He definitely needs to get some shin pads. The cunt.

Ugly Pob's Programme tosser.

[Hafnia]

In all seriousness that Win was absolutely ginormous……

if we lost that game it would have given West Ham Leeds wolves a big boost. They will have played with more freedom and less worry. Don’t get me wrong wolves clearly did anyway, but collectively they probably thought we would be lucky to get 1 point out of the first 2 dyche games. 
 

it will galvanise the team massively, he’s sent them out to have a few beers and the work starts again on Monday. 

 

[Cornish Steve]

3 hours ago, dunlopp9987 said:

Maupay is such a shit head. Usually I'd like that in a player, but he offers absolutely zero quality so 

Agree. He was the odd man out today, the only player who demonstrated a lack of quality. It's more the system than him, though - just not the right type of forward for our style of play. I would have liked to see Simms.

[Bailey]

I watched most of the game but it was very in and out but everytime I could concentrate on the game we looked brilliant. 

We were organised, we were aggressive and when we attacked, we attacked to a plan. 

There are a few times when we have played good sides and they haven't been at it (e.g. City) but Arsenal were playing at their usual levels and we stopped them in their tracks and bullied them. 

I had well and truly written us off for this game as I didn't think Dyche could do that much with this group so quickly, but I am very glad to be wrong! 

I'm not going to single any one out as I thought they were all fantastic, maybe apart from Pickford, the lazy sod not really getting involved in the game

[Cornish Steve]

That was a good game to watch. Maybe the biggest compliment I can give is that we made Arsenal look very ordinary.

In the first half in particular, Coleman and Mykolenko were brilliant, shutting down Arsenal's principal lines of attack. As the game wore on, Tarkowski and Coady came to the fore. Our defence throughout was rock solid.

The game was won in midfield, and the pick of the bunch was Onana. He and Doucoure used their height and strength throughout, but Onana is something special. He made chances out of nothing, more than once winning the ball in our half and creating a genuine goal-scoring opportunity. Gana was an engine, wielding quiet influence, and McNeil and Iwobi brought a lot of energy. DC-L really wanted to score, and let's hope that hunger continues.

The main difference, though, was attitude and shape. The instructions were simple, and the players showed their desire to win. I was becoming so frustrated with the casual side-to-side passing in recent weeks, moving the ball with no intent. There was none of that today. Instead, we were full of purpose for every second of the game. It showed, and we won.

I can only reiterate what I wrote during the transfer window: We actually have good players. Other than an obvious need for another striker, we don't need wholesale changes. Indeed, throwing in new players can cause confusion. What's needed is bringing out the best of the squad we have, and that became very evident today. Other than Maupay, who on the field today would I want to replace? Frankly, none of them.

[Cornish Steve]

Roll on the derby match!!

[Aidan]

Not sure if anyone has already posted this but now did everyone feel about us seeing the game out? I wouldn't say I expected the three points but I felt a lot more confident than in recent months watching us manage the game. We looked in much more control than we have done.

Going back to Dyche's infamous "these lads don't know how to win a game"... Today we did look like that.

[Romey 1878]

2 minutes ago, Aidan said:

Not sure if anyone has already posted this but now did everyone feel about us seeing the game out? I wouldn't say I expected the three points but I felt a lot more confident than in recent months watching us manage the game. We looked in much more control than we have done.

Going back to Dyche's infamous "these lads don't know how to win a game"... Today we did look like that.

I was shitting myself for the last half an hour.