Everton Europe hopes back on track with win at Arsenal – by Matt Townsend

On Friday night the mighty Blues secured a big win at Arsenal courtesy of a very un-Everton like bit a good fortune as Gunners keeper Bernd Leno made a mess of a simple ball into the box and gifted the Toffees what proved to be the winning goal.

This was an historic win as well because it was the first time Everton had won at Arsenal since January 1996! And this victory followed the earlier win this season at Anfield which brought the first three points in our neighbour’s backyard since 1999.

Despite the win, this was certainly not a vintage performance by any means and the Toffees were laboured and lacking energy or quality in attack.

Carlo Ancelotti went with a side that featured Andre Gomes, Gylfi Sigurdsson and James Rodriguez. This is obviously in part because of injuries which have denied him Abdoulaye Doucoure in particular.

He also brought Dominic Calvert-Lewin straight back into the team, which I was a little surprised about as I thought he might stick with the team and tactics that had worked so well against Spurs and leave Richarlison playing at the tip of the attack. As it turned out Calvert-Lewin looked lethargic and lacked sharpness in front of goal.

In fact, both teams were poor and neither really created much during the entire match and the most exciting thing that had happened were the protests outside the ground before the match kicked-off.

Arsenal looked very ordinary and, on this evidence, there is a lot of work for ex-Blues midfielder Mikel Arteta to do to turn them around.

But this sort of game and performance also underlines how much more Ancelotti needs to do himself to make this Everton team a successful one in the future.

The Toffees were slow and pedestrian in their football at times and having Gomes, Sigurdsson and Rodriguez in the same team meant there was a lack of pace and directness to support the forwards. Everton really need to get more pace, width and goals in this team.

The bluntness of the Blues attack was underlined by the fact they only managed one shot on target in the entire game. That was a Richarlison strike which forced a good save from Leno. The only other significant moment from Everton’s point of view was a Sigurdsson free-kick that hit the woodwork.

Then later in the second half came the most controversial incident of the match as Arsenal were awarded a penalty by referee John Moss although it was overturned on review by VAR. Arsenal have howled about the injustice of it but it was never a penalty.

The match looked as though it was destined to be another draw, Everton’s third in a row but then came the moment that turned the game.

Richarlison chased a ball beat the Gunners left-back Granit Xhakia and fired in a hopeful cross which didn’t seem to be particularly dangerous. But Leno seemed to lose all his concentration for a split-second and that was enough as the ball went in off him for a comical own goal. You have to feel sorry for goalkeepers who can be brilliant all through a game and then in just a moment they can undo all that good work.

Arsenal tried to find a goal and with seconds left had a great final chance, which forced a largely untested Jordan Pickford to make an excellent save that preserved the Blues slender lead.

So, a huge three points which keeps the Toffees slim hopes of qualifying for Europe next season alive and puts significant distance between themselves and Arsenal.

What now after Super League collapse?

So, the ‘selfish six’ and their continental co-conspirators tried and failed to re-shape English and European football in their own narrow, short-term self interest with the so-called European Super League, which collapsed just 48 hours after it was launched.

Their plans almost led to the destabilization of football and would have pulled the rug from under all the other clubs, like Everton, not included in their plans by creating an exclusive closed-shop giving them vast additional resources and presumably almost exclusive access to the best players.

But what happens now as football tries to recover from all the damage that this fiasco has brought to the beautiful game?

First of all, these clubs cannot just be allowed to get away with it without any consequences so there must be some outcome and results from these actions.

UEFA was already talking about further changes to the Champions League that would have benefited these clubs disproportionally. And while they’ve had to go back on some of that especially the coefficient idea that would have given these teams a back-door into the Champions League, I wouldn’t be surprised if they try something like that again at a later date.

I’d like to see these clubs banned from Europe for a least a year or two but I don’t think that will happen as the twelve clubs bring in so much money.

There has been chat about the Premier League deducting points from the six English clubs who took part, but again I would be surprised if it happened.

There is also a wider discussion about the relationship between money and football which needs to take place now and this is great chance to have that debate and think about reforms to prevent this happening again.