Everton vs Arsenal – 04/02/2023, 12:30pm
New Everton boss Sean Dyche arrived this week with the promise of putting a team on the pitch “that works, that fights and wears the badge with pride”.
However, any optimism the club can escape the drop was quickly swilled away on transfer deadline day when Dyche failed to get any new signings through the door.
The club banked £45m from the sale of Anthony Gordon to Newcastle but their attempts to reinvest that cash and improve the squad failed.
Anthony Elanga, Hakim Ziyech, Conor Gallagher, Iliman Ndiaye, Olivier Giroud, Michy Batshuayi, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Udinese striker Ismaila Sarr were all reported targets, but Dyche landed none and he will have to rely on the squad which Frank Lampard failed with this term, unless he adds a couple of free agents.
Dyche needs to find some goals from somewhere, with only Wolves scoring less than the Toffees’ nine at Goodison.
Their recent form reads worse, though, with eight defeats in nine games, with their last win coming in October against Crystal Palace.
Dyche has a job on his hands, but he is used to working wonders with little budget – he did exactly that at Burnley before he was surprisingly axed last April after 10 years at Turf Moor.
Burnley did not manage to beat the drop and have since turned to Vincent Kompany to get them back into the Premier League at their first attempt.
A quick look at the stats suggests that Everton face an unenviable task against Mikel Arteta’s men.
Arsenal have dropped just five points on the road – losing at Manchester United and drawing away at Southampton.
That Southampton game will give Dyche hope that his men can dig in for a point on Saturday lunchtime. And Dyche has had a degree of success in keeping Arsenal at bay in recent years.
Three of the last five meetings between Arsenal and Dyche’s old club Burnley ended in draws. And it probably pays to take more notice of those head to heads than of the recent matches between Everton and Arsenal.
Those recent games have produced very few goals – only four in five games, with Arsenal scoring just twice in that time.
Dyche certainly knows how to stifle Arteta’s side of last season. He will field a combative side that he thinks can smother Arsenal. But Arsenal have evolved this season and their table-topping 50-point haul to date is testament to that.
Whether Dyche has enough talent at his disposal to nullify Arsenal is the big question. Lampard failed to keep West Ham out last week with a five-man defence.
Dyche is likely to move to a 4-4-2 and the new-manager bounce-effect could lift Everton to a performance level not seen so far this season. That said, they did hold Liverpool to a goalless draw and were narrowly beaten by Manchester United.
Dyche will make sure this is competitive and goals will be few and far between,
Key stats
- Arsenal have won seven of their last eight PL matches
- Everton have lost six of their last seven PL matches
- Everton have conceded at least two goals in six of their last seven PL matches
- Arsenal have scored at least two goals in five of their last six PL matches
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