Everton 1 Arsenal 2

By Myles Palmer

Arsenal v Spurs should be fun next Saturday. 

The Emirates needs a rocking game, and the Spurs clash might be season-defining.

A question now arises that can't be ignored : Can this Arsenal team turn me round?

Can they beat Spurs in style and convince me that Arsenal are true challengers this season?

What do I think?  I'm wondering about Spurs already.

Harry? Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaartgoal? What do I think?

If Arsenal had Vermaelen, they would beat Spurs for sure.That’s what I think.

That’s what I think today anyway.

ANR readers often say, "Myles, you're a jinx, don't say we'll win."

EVERTON was a very good victory.

I reckon if you've got Wolves away, followed by Everton away, it helps that you’ve won 2-0 at Wolves in midweek. Because Everton have better players and should offer more of a goal threat.

In 10, Distin made a very good block on Nasri in the box.

Tim Cahill's early miss was a big moment. Right winger Seamus Coleman outpaced Fabregas on the left side and crossed invitingly. But Cahill mistimed a header that sailed well over the bar. Yes, 28 of Cahill’s 50 Premier League goals have been headers.

Arshavin got onto a loose ball and hit a left foot volley but the ball swerved wide of the far post. A tight game, nobody on top, but Arsenal playing well enough to remind you that their only defeat on the road was Chelsea on October 3.

After 34, I was beginning to realise that Everton’s longer passes lacked accuracy. Then Tim Howard parried Nasri’s shot wide, the alert Arshavin snapped up the ball, Arteta was asleep, Arshavin found Sagna in ten yards of space. The unmarked right back fired a fierce, rising shot inside Howard’s near post in 36. There was nothing in it until that phenomenal strike. As Sagna rifled in that superb shot, I thought : If you can do that, who not do it more often? A fine goal and, for Everton, a very bad time to concede.

Half-time : Everton 0 Arsenal 1

Denilson came on for Wilshere and it was tactical. Shape-wise, when you're 1-0 up away from home, a good call. But since Denilson mostly passes sideways, and since Arsenal needed a second goal, this switch might not work out.

But, in 48, it did. Denilson took a bad crossfield pass off Pienaar, broke forward and took far too long to give it to Fabregas. But his eventual pass was made to work. Fabregas nicked it to Chamakh and when a tiny return pass came, Fabregas hit it first time into the bottom corner for 2-0.

There were over 40 minutes left, so Everton fought back. When Squillaci tripped Saha, he was lucky to get a yellow card. Then Fabregas got a yellow for stamp on foot of Distin. When Jagielka made a good tackle on Arshavin in the box, the Russian didn’t squeal or roll about on the deck. When Pienaar cut a ball back for sub Rodwell, his sidefoot shot went over. A good half-chance, I thought.

Nasri had a long power run beyond the gasping Jagielka but his fierce shot was saved, and then Chamakh jabbed an easy chance over the bar three yards, Saha’s shot was fairly blocked by the chest of Song, who then cut out a dangerous low cross from the raiding Coleman. 

Fabianski made five fantastic saves before being beaten from three yards in 89.

Pienaar hooked in a cross from the left, Saha made one of his trampoline jumps at the far post, and nodded down for Tim Cahill to hook in a half-volley for 2-1.

Sunderland had not won away this season and Chelsea had won their last six at home without conceding a goal.

But John Terry ｄ ｒｏｐped out late with a hamstring and Sunderland murdered them.

Stats all refer to the past. Today is not the past. Today hasn't happened yet.

Today's game is now and anything can happen in football and Chelsea 0 Sunderland 3 was a scoreline nobody saw coming. The bookies had it at 250-1.

Lively, tenacious, defending from the front with two strikers, Sunderland were destroying Chelsea in the first 20 minutes and could easily have scored two goals in that period.

My summary of this weekend is : Chelsea and Manchester United don’t have a midfield.

Fletcher-Carrick-Park is not a midfield, so it's no wonder Aston Villa went 2-0 up. When Man United were winning titles and winning away games, they always had a midfield.

For Chelsea, Ramires- Mikel-Zhirkov is not a midfield. I can now see that Zhirkov is a jerk -off who steps up to the plate for moments, not for spells, not for games. A squad player, nothing more. Here he dribbled clean through in 19 minutes but skewed his shot horribly wide.

Referee Chris Foy gave Ivanovic a yellow card when he tripped Welbeck as the lanky striker flew past him. On balance, I’d say Ivanovic was luckier than Squillaci. His foul looks worse every time I see it. The Serb expected a red card, I'm sure. He knows you can't do what he did there. If both centrebacks had been sent off, what could Ancelotti or Wenger have said?

Now I want to contradict myself, so you'll love this.

Spinally, Chelsea are weak, having sold Carvalho, a brilliant bandit who has quickly become Real Madrid’s most important defender. Alex and Terry were missing, Essien and Lampard were absent in front of them. So four very strong players were missing from the middle of their team. Fans moaned about Ballack but he was a far better than Ramires will ever be.

Having said all that, against Sunderland, Chelsea’s best players were Cech, Ivanovic and Mikel, their most improved player this season. That spinal trio prevented a 6-0 rout. The rest of the team was that bad. The spine was missing but it was good.

When Cattermole was hacking and wrestling Mikel, the Nigerian didn’t retaliate. A bruiser with skill, Mikel has been making mistakes as he learned the game over the last three years. On Sunday, with the Blues crumbling around him, he had to try to hold his team together. He found that task impossible because the champions  were being annihilated  right from the kick-off.

Manchester City reject Nedun Onuoha slalomed past the frozen Mikel, Bosingwa and Ivanovic, and scuffed a little low shot past Cech in 45, Asamoah Gyan deserves Goal of the Month for the strike that made it 2-0 i8n 52, and when Ashley Cols played  a blind back-pass with his right foot, the ball found Welbeck, not Cech, and Welbeck slotted a late and well-deserved third in 87.

Myself, I detest the Alan Curbishley-Steve McClaren survivalist style of football coaching, an approach based on damage limitation. I prefer Ian Holloway any day.

Steve Bruce's main goalscorer Darren Bent is injured but Bruce went to Chelsea and took them on : Sunderland had 19 shots and 54% possession and beat the league leaders 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.

Carlo Ancelotti said, "We deserved to lose."

Steve Bruce said, "We just thought, all week, everybody always comes here and plays one striker."

As I say, Chelsea and Man United don't have a midfield and Spurs don't either. But they have Gareth SuperBale.

Arsenal's midfield has obvious flaws but their style disguises those flaws most of the time.

A very good November weekend, then. The only thing better than beating Everton at Goodison is beating Everton when Chelsea have lost to Sunderland, and Man United have drawn at Aston Villa.

Arsenal are now second and its Spurs on Saturday. Bring it on!

Can Arsenal turn me round?

I don't know because Spurs is only game 14 of a 38-game campaign.

But it gives us something to talk about.

Nov 15, 2010