Everton v Arsenal. 23rd Aug at 17.30.

[Kiwi]

Does it not remotely scare you that two Everton goals are no longer sufficient to win matches? Why do we need four or five these days
to stop the heart going at about 300 bpm and stop shyt seeping into our Calvin Kleins?

And what the hell happened to "Sin Miedo" - was that just a marketing tool or something? Why has Sin Miedo become Sit-back-miedo

I know mate, we should have closed it out. As I said, our legs going were key to that as well as average defending. We get our fitness fully up and we'll slot teams for fun. Very frustrating that we've dropped four points though

 

[Bobby P]

1. In that we paid nothing for him, yes.

2. No, Ozil was pretty average a lot last season as well. Started well, to be fair, but £40m?

I could say something similar about Lukaku, "£30M for Lukaku? We got Giroud for almost a third of that price and his stats are just as good"

You obviously didn't watch us very often last season then.

 

[Kiwi]

I could say something similar about Lukaku, "£30M for Lukaku? We got Giroud for almost a third of that price and his stats are just as good"

You obviously didn't watch us very often last season then.

Theres a whole different issue about potential though isn't there. Not one and the same. We ran rings around you for 70minutes then faded away. Still should have won as we were the better side

 

[Bobby P]

so he's not a centre mid then? his role should be on the bench, you guys have much better options in midfield

You know better than I do that players don't develop simply by sitting on the bench, this isn't FIFA.

Wenger believes that Wilshere will eventually play the Arteta role for us.

 

[AndyZ]

I could say something similar about Lukaku, "£30M for Lukaku? We got Giroud for almost a third of that price and his stats are just as good"

You obviously didn't watch us very often last season then.

I watched you quite a bit last season. Missing that penalty in the CL. Frequent lack of defensive effort. He has hardly lived up to his price tag.

 

[TheBigIguana]

You know better than I do that players don't develop simply by sitting on the bench, this isn't FIFA.

Wenger believes that Wilshere will eventually play the Arteta role for us.

God help you then

 

[marty mcfly]

Surely the issue is why we aren't as fit as the two sides we've played so far.

Absolutely - I've been saying it all pre-season but look it is what it is. We'll be up to full speed probably for the West Brom game and hopefully although it wouldn't be my choice it will mean we'll be fresher towards the end of the season.

I think English clubs need to have a winter break. It's such an advantage for the European teams in the latter stages of the EL and CL. Shame because I love Christmas footie.

 

[MartSlinger]

Proper frustrating, it really is. We will be boss, we will be, but we could be sitting pretty on 6 points right now if we decided that we wanted to defend for the last 10mins.

 

[Del]

This is true. Last season has heightened all our expectations and we all agree our fitness is costing us. We did dominate Arsenal IMO for 60 mins and we have to look at players at there disposal and take note that we more than matched them so that is my positive take, but I still cannot forgive why the fitness levels are not ready for the new season. I just hope the players are not being forced into cramming fitness in because that will have a negative effect.

This is just my opinion but I think Martinez has made a rod for his own back after last season, A large section of the fan base want an improvement from last season when in reality that's going to be very difficult

The teams around us had better squads already and they have improved them again over the summer, We have tied down our youngsters and held onto our loan signings from last season, also adding a couple of fringe players without really improving the first team

The fitness will come, I don't see Martinez beasting them either I think it will come naturally over the next few weeks

 

[Darth Toffeeman]

I could say something similar about Lukaku, "£30M for Lukaku? We got Giroud for almost a third of that price and his stats are just as good"

You obviously didn't watch us very often last season then.

I honestly think Lukaku going off was a massive psychological blow. He stays on and I believe Everton take the deserved 3 points.

 

[BBleck]

FFS

The good:
Having Mirallas and Coleman start makes a big difference
Barry is boss in our possession game
Baines owns the left
Lukaku is looking more fit and getting back to doing the dirty things he does
McCarthy is doing good work
Naismith has a hell of a motor and knows how to find the back of the net; he also did surprisingly well winning 50/50 balls in the air against midfielders; he played a decent false 9 today
Defense wasn't getting beat with runs in behind like last week

The bad:
What the hell happened in the last 20 minutes? Possession game completely evaporated. Either lack of fitness or lack of killer instinct I think. Way too much space and time given to Arse on the ball.
Pienaar is so fragile, I think he'll spend a lot of time on the training table this year
Center halves are weak in the air
Set piece defense still looks suspect

In the end, we won the first half and lost the second. Arse dominated the last 20 minutes, can't believe they ended the match with more total possession. With better fitness/will to kill we would have finished them off.

Still pretty clear to me we need more depth at striker, more depth at CAM, and cover at RB/DC.

 

[diggerdestroyer]

Should be top table. Too early to say we will rue those points as hopefully we will get some from coming back in the last minutes but leaving crosses in the box second half was risky. They seemed go think we were dealing with em ok ..... but

 

[marnie]

I think the lack of the Baines/Pienaar link up play (although be it through injury) could have had a massive influence on the result.

 

[Del]

it was a hand ball. should have been pen. We played wonderful stuff at times, didn't give arsenal a sniff, pissed them off and made them look silly. Just a shame we bottled it at the end

The performance was good though, I can take a lot of positives from that

 

[Eric Djemba-Djemba]

Our centre backs have cost us twice now this season.