I have to say despite getting all the critiscm I think Mertesacker should have played today. For me Koscielney is the player that should be dropped. He's been awful lately and I think Lukaku will bully him today.
Started off slowly and lethargic, ghosts of Monaco still haunting us no doubt, but as the game remained 0-0 we increased in confidence and ended the half as the superior team. Other than that one Angel Gabriel tackle and when Ospina had to rush out to deny Lukaku latching on to the ball Everton haven't troubled us.
Decent enough 1st half once we woke up. Been impressed with Gabriel, but I think we need to double up on Lukaku and give Gibbs more cover down our left. Good to see Giroud back on the score sheet, he needed that goal.
Not a very good first 25 minutes from Arsenal but they have played very well in the last 20 minutes. They look dangerous in attack now.
I couldn't disagree more. How has he been awful lately? Baring in mind Mertesacker's horrible showing against Monaco meant there was more pressure on Koscielny. Aside from Gabriel's misjudgement from the long ball with Lukaku baring down on goal, they haven't really threatened us and that's to the credit of Gabriel and Koscielny.
Everton have had 55% possession and 2 shots. We've had 45% possession and 7 shots. I've noticed a trend in games where we have less possession, we win an awful lot more games.
We've grown into the game and started very cautiously, obviously feeling the effect of midweek. But we are looking good for the lead. We are looking dangerous now and they haven't created much. We have to watch out for lukaku though as his strength and pace could catch us out. We haven't overcommitted so far and we need to maintain discipline. Coquelin needs to stay deep and be ready to double up on lukaku. Otherwise we look quite comfortable at the back. Pleased with Gabriel's performance.
Mertesacker gets crits because he is slow but as I've posted on here we conceed far more when he doesn't play. He actually organises our defence Koscielny can't handle powerful centreforwards and Everton have one that can bully the Frenchman. If Everton score it will most likely come from Lukaku power past Koscileny.
He's been good but I'd still like another DM. I'm glad he's signed a new contract and think he will replace flamini in the squad at the end of the season.
Even at 2-0 we won't be comfortable if Everton get one goal, we will get nervous, jittery etc. With Arsenal the game is never killed off until the final whistle is blown.
It's not that he's slow, as he performed well last season because his reading of the game made up for his lack of pace. This season his judgement and slow reactions have cost us games. He looks so out of his depth this season. At least even if Kos makes a mistake he has the recovery pace to jockey opposition players off the ball.
We're going to have to, Flamini is obviously going in the summer, he won't get his contract renewed. Arteta turns 33 this month, is becoming injury prone, he seems to have one big injury a season now, and they get worse, how longs he been out now? Plus he's not getting any more agile etc, so he can't really be a proper back up CMD.
I think coquelin possess all the characteristics required to play the DM role, he has some pace, is fairly comfortable on the ball and can play a decent pass, he's strong and gets a lot of intercepts and tackles. He needs to learn from someone more experienced in the role though I think.
