Match Preview
The great thing about the opening day of the season is that buzz, that feeling that football is back after three long months, and the optimism that comes from all 20 teams starting on a level playing field.
Sadly, though, footballing realities as they are today mean that while the Premiership clubs all kick off the new campaign on 0 points, they certainly do not start on anything resembling an even position.
Nothing illustrates that more than the comparison between Arsenal's galaxy of international stars and the threadbare squad that David Moyes has at his disposal, stripped further as it is of its most valuable asset, Wayne Rooney because of injury.
The Blues start the campaign against Arsenal for the second successive season, this time at Goodison Park, hoping to make a better fist of it than they did in the 2-1 defeat to the 10-man Gunners at Highbury a year ago. The lack of a big-name central midfielder to solve the problem that position has been for too many seasons now will not help their cause, nor will the absence of reinforcements in central defence (the untried Eddy Bosnar aside).
While last summer was frustrating because of a fruitless search for reinforcements, the close season just gone has been exponentially worse. The protracted — and still as yet unresolved — boardroom civil war coupled with an almost non-existent transfer budget has Evertonians fearing the worst for 2004-05 and many media pundits predicting relegation for Moyes's side.
If there are positives for Everton as they line up against last season's unbeaten Champions, they are few, but the fact that it is the first game of the season and no team has settled into any sort of groove at least counts for something.
As does very recent history: the Blues are unbeaten in the last two meetings between these two sides and they have the distinction of having ended one of the Gunners' unbeaten streaks with that historic 2-1 win two years ago thanks to that goal. Sunday offers the opportunity to halt their bid to break
Nottingham Forest's record of 42 consecutive top-flight games unbeaten —
Arséne Wenger's side are two games shy on 40 matches.
Another advantage should be the fans who have always been magnificent when the chips are down. They will know as much as the manager does that a flying start to the campaign would do immeasurable good to both morale and the club's chances of achieving safety come May next year. The manner in which attendances at Goodison have been so high throughout the past miserable decade is perplexing to the outside observer but they illustrate just how special a breed Evertonians are.
With Rooney absent nursing the metatarsal injury that he sustained in the Euro 2004 Quarter Final against Portugal, Moyes faces a dilemma with his selection in attack. The fans' choice to replace Our Kid will no doubt be James McFadden who has had an impressive pre-season, as did Kevin Campbell and the praise that the manager has had for the latter this week means that it wouldn't be a surprise if the 34-year-old starts against his old club. However, McFadden is a doubt to start the game because of a toe injury sustained in training. If he isn't passed fit or Campbell is overlooked, Marcus Bent will surely start his first game in Everton blue — and even if not, the new acquisition from Ipswich Town is odds-on to feature at some point in the proceedings.
In midfield, Thomas Gravesen will no doubt be first on the team sheet, but with Tim Cahill unavailable he faces a difficult decision between playing Leon Osman alongside him or opting for Lee Carsley in the middle and Osman wide right where he was employed in many of the pre-season games. The better option is to use Steve Watson on the right, Osman and Gravesen in the centre and Kevin Kilbane on the left.
At the back, the possible absence of Joseph Yobo is a major blow to Moyes. The Nigerian has some fluid on his knee from a knock sustained in training and faces a race against time to be fit. That presents the very really — and frightening — prospect of David Weir and Alan Stubbs having to deal with the pace of Reyes, although Alessandro Pistone is an option if fit.
Gary Naymith's superior fitness should get him the nod over on the left while Tony Hibbert is certain to line-up on the right now that Dutch defender Jurgen Colin is no longer joining the club.
Between the posts, Moyes has another interesting selection choice with both Nigel Martyn and Richard Wright in contention for a starting berth. The prevailing wisdom would go for Martyn seeing as he is the reigning Player of the Season.
Arsenal have a couple of issues of their own, thankfully. They
may be unsettled slightly by the uncertainty over Patrick Vieira's future,
although, in any case, a thigh injury will keep him out of the season
opener. They also look set to rest Thierry Henry and his niggling
groin complaint which can only be good news for the Blues. Dennis
Bergkamp is likely to partner Reyes instead — hardly fair is it?
Sol Campbell is also missing through injury.
For Everton, it's all going to come down to attitude, resolute defending and whether or not they believe, as McFadden has said publicly this week, that they can beat the Champions. If Moyes's team can get at the visitors early and disrupt their flowing football, there is no reason why they can't get a result against all expectations — and let's face it, a draw would be a result.
Lyndon Lloyd

Matchday Stats
This will be the 180th meeting between
Everton and Arsenal in all competitions, and the 91st at Goodison Park.
This match will be the 25th meeting in the Premier League, and the 13th at
Goodison Park.
Everton's full record against Arsenal
is:
|
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Premier League |
24 |
3 |
6 |
15 |
20 |
44 |
Division One |
142 |
49 |
29 |
64 |
189 |
220 |
FA Cup |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
10 |
4 |
League Cup |
9 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
6 |
11 |
FA Charity
Shield |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
TOTALS:
|
179 |
56 |
38 |
85 |
225 |
282 |
Our record at home to Arsenal is:
|
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Premier League |
12 |
2 |
5 |
5 |
9 |
14 |
Division One |
71 |
34 |
18 |
19 |
114 |
86 |
FA Cup |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
League Cup |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
FA Charity
Shield |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
TOTALS:
|
90 |
39 |
25 |
26 |
134 |
107 |
The last match between the sides was on
7 January this year when a Tomasz Radzinski goal in the 75th minute
cancelled out Kanu's opener. This was also the last match between the
sides at Goodison Park.
The last Everton hat-trick against
Arsenal was on 29 April 1961, when Roy Vernon scored 3 of his 9 goals
against Arsenal in a 4-1 victory. The only other hat-trick against
Arsenal was on 5 May 1928 when a certain William Ralph Dean broke a
certain goal-scoring record with his hat-trick against the Gunners.
Despite this the match ended all square at 3 goals apiece.
Everton's biggest victory against
Arsenal was a 6-1 victory on 9 November 1985 in the old First Division
with the goals coming from Gary Lineker (2), Adrian Heath (2), Graeme
Sharp and Trevor Steven and which also saw the Everton debut of Neil
Pointon. Everton also recorded a 5-0 victory over Arsenal at Goodison on
5 February 1910 in the 2nd round of the FA Cup with the goals coming from
Jack Sharp (2), Bertie Freeman, George Barlow and Sandy Young.
The most common victory for Everton
against Arsenal is 1-0 which has happened on 17 occassions out of the 56
victories in total, and is also the most common home victory for Everton
(10 times in 39 victories). Arsenal's most common victory over Everton is
also 1-0 which has happened 19 times in Arsenal's 85 victories and is also
Arsenal's most common away victory (12 times in 26 victories). The most
common draw between the sides in total and at Goodison is 1-1.
Everton's record for 15 August is:
|
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Premier League |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Division One |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
TOTALS:
|
4 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
This will be the second time that the
two sides have met on this day. The first was in 1970, at Goodison Park,
when Harry Catterick's reigning champions were held to a 2-2 draw by the
Gunners with Everton's goals coming from Joe Royle and Johnny Morrissey.
It was this day in 1992, whenEverton
drew 1-1 with Sheffield Wednesday at Goodison Park in what was Everton's
first match in the new FA Premier League, with Everton's goal coming from
Barry Horne.
On this day in 1963, Ian Snodin was born
in Thrybergh. Ian was bought from Leeds United in January 1987 and made
191 starts for Everton and 10 sub appearances before being transferred to
Oldham Athletic in January 1995. During his time at the club, Ian scored
7 goals.
15 August 2001 saw Thomas Gravesen play
for Denmark in their 1-0
friendly defeat against reigning World and European champions France. On
the same day, Idan Tal turned out for Israel in a friendly against
Lithuania, with Israel winning 3-2. The same day also saw Thomas Myhre
playing for Norway in their friendly with Turkey, with the sides drawing
1-1, and Niclas Alexandersson made it four Everton internationals on the
same day playing in Sweden's 3-0 friendly victory over South Africa.
Milestone's that can be reached in this
game:
-
If Duncan Ferguson
starts the match, it will be his 150th start for Everton in the league.
-
If Joseph Yobo
starts the match, it will be his 50th start for Everton in the league.
-
If Alan Stubbs
starts the match, it will be his 100th start for Everton in all
competitions.
Steve Flanagan
A Dutch perspective
Opening day of the season, at last. It felt like a real relief
after the summer we’ve had to put up with. For two days we could
forget about our problems to concentrate on the start of a new
Premier League season and, after enjoying the return of Match Of The
Day last night and celebrating Jermaine Defoe’s equaliser, today
started with the usual nerves before me and my wife went down to
O’Sheas Irish Pub to follow the game on Sky Sports. Initially we
were the only two in there, later to be joined by two annoying
Gooners wearing those tacky ‘Bergkamp-Arsenal’ shirts you get for
free at the Costa Del Sol. It didn’t take long before I had aimed my
first words of abuse at the referee, or wanted to punch Thiery
Henry's face on the jumboscreen. Within minutes after kick-off I
fell back into the same old routine, swearing at our players for not
getting stuck in, cursing our passing and calling Mike Riley every
name in the book for not giving any decision our way while nervously
holding on to a pint of Guinness. But, while I can moan all I want
during the close-season about players that are not good enough to
wear the shirt, about the boardroom shambles and our prospects for
this season, once our lads get in a few tackles and the Goodison
crowd gets involved it makes me feel ever so proud again to be
associated with this great club of ours.
We started well enough but only until The Gunners got the ball
down on the floor and took full control. To be honest- and as
expected, this was never an even contest. Credit to our lads though,
they huffed and puffed and tried to play a bit of football.
Unfortunately, when every second pass ends up with an Arsenal player
you know you’re in trouble. Despite some inspired defending by
Stubbsy and Naysmith and Yobo looking as confident as ever, it was
only a matter of time before they scored. Reyes broke, Stubbs
tackled, Henry passed, Bergkamp shoots, scores, 1-0. That simple. I
never liked Bergkamp- not even when he scored the winner for Holland
in the 1998 World Cup quarter-final v Argentina, and hearing two
those Arsenal-gloryhunters in O’Sheas celebrating his goal and
laughing when they noticed I wasn’t cheering with them, made this
even harder to take.
Kilbane was unlucky not to equalise when he headed just over the
bar and if we could have gone in only 1-0 down at a half-time we
might have had half a chance to make it a real contest after the
break. Then, three or four Everton defenders allowed Reyes to get in
a free header and gave us a mountain to climb.
On 54 minutes Ljungberg got their third after Pistone forgot to
stretch out one of his fragile limbs to scramble Henry’s cross over
the line for a corner, and I started to fear a real drubbing.
Thankfully though, Lee Carsley and Thomas Gravesen combined well for
the Irishman to score. Plenty of time left but history was never in
the making- although, if Marcus Bent had hit the target little later
who knows what could have happened … . With 8 minutes left Henry
shoots, Martyn parries, Cole hits the bar and Pires tucks it in.
Game, set and match. Nothing more than just another pre-season game
for The Gunners, another game closer to beating Nottingham Forest’s
record. To us it was just a cruel opening day fixture that we had to
get out of the way before our campaign really kicks-off at Selhurst
Park next week.
Any positives from today’s game? Leon Osman and Marcus Bent
looked alright and Joseph Yobo- apart from their third goal, was
once again outstanding at the back. We scored a really well worked
goal, we kicked Gilberto Silva out of the game and Henry was denied
the chance to infuriate us once again with some uncalled for goal
celebration. I can’t be too downbeat, we’re still level on points
with Man U so it can’t be all that bad! Then again, there can never
really be any excuses for being beaten 4-1 at home. Not even by 'The
Arsenal', ‘cause it makes us look as poor as the likes of West Brom,
Palace and Norwich City. And we’re not.
Rob van Dijk
Everton revert to type
In the end, everything went mostly to script. On the back of a commanding
first-half performance that had them 2-0 up going into the interval,
Arsenal tormented their vastly inferior hosts and ran out comfortable
4-1 winners. Everton, undermined particularly by the absences of
Wayne Rooney and Tim Cahill, picked up where they left off last season,
exhibiting the same faults and short-comings — hardly surprising
given the fact that the starting line-up were all with the club
in May.
David Moyes's side set their stall out early hoping to contain
Arsenal but the writing was on the wall early on as Alan Stubbs
was forced to make a saving challenge from Dennis Bergkamp, and Gary
Naysmith cleared off the line from Pascal Cygan as the Gunners found
their all-too efficient stride.
After 22 minutes, the breakthrough came. The Blues were carved
open with ease and, while Stubbs denied Freddie Ljungberg, the ball
fell to Henry on the edge of the box. He fed Bergkamp, who had all
the time he needed to pick his spot before blasting
low through Nigel Martyn from 8 yards.
Then, eight minutes before the break, when Lauren's cross went
straight across the box, Stubbs and Naysmith were so busy watching
Ljungberg twisting and turning his way down the left, that they
left Reyes completely unmarked and he stooped to meet the Swede's
cross to head emphatically past the 'keeper.
Everton were embarrassingly inept going forward by comparison. Kevin Campbell probably should have had a penalty after a quarter
of an hour when Cygan hauled him down on the penalty spot but, of
course, referee Riley turned a blind eye. Although McFadden struggled
to make headway against Toure and Cygan, he did manage to get free
to pick up a nice through-ball by Leon Osman but his angled shot
was blocked for a corner. And Kevin Kilbane went closest for the
Blues in the first half when he rose to head a free-kick narrowly
over the bar.
By the break, it merely seemed to be a matter of how many Arsenal
would add to the 2-0 scoreline.
Moyes made a couple of changes at half time, though, and they did
have the effect of improving the performance. Stubbs was removed
from central defence, Pistone switched from right back to replace
him, and Tony Hibbert was introduced to play at full back. Up front,
McFadden was withdrawn in favour of Marcus Bent, and it was Bent
who provided a little more spark in the attack.
However, Everton didn't improve at all until the game was lost
and the Gunners were 3-0 up. Yobo gave the ball away on the halfway
line with a wayward pass that was headed forward to Ljungberg. He
fed Henry and the Frenchman squared simply to link back up with
the Swede who had easily got goal side of Hibbert and swept the
ball past Martyn. Far too easy.
It could have been more soon afterwards. Bergkamp sent a fizzing
volley inches over from a tight angle and when Gravesen lost the
ball yet again with another lazy attempt to keep possession, Arsenal
surged forward again but instead of taking the easy shot, Henry
tried to walk the ball into the back of the net and was foiled by
good defending by Pistone.
Then, out of nowhere, Everton produced a moment of magic worthy
of the Champions themselves. When Bent laid the ball square and
Carsley tapped it sideways for Gravesen, the Dane scooped a lob
over the defence where Carsley was on hand to nick the ball to the
side of Lehmann and tap into an empty net. 3-1 and a glimmer of
hope.
Moyes responded by throwing Ferguson on for Osman but the big man's
introduction signalled the end of the Blues' attempts to play the
ball through on the ground, favouring, predictably, the long ball.
With that, any impetus they had gathered was lost as the visitors
re-established their grip on the game, eventually rounding off the
scoring with nine minutes left when Martyn spilled an Henry shot,
Cole fired off the bar and Pires knocked in the loose ball.
This was a game that highlighted all of Everton's well-documented
deficiencies: an almost total lack of midfield invention, chronic
defending, and a persistent propensity to give the ball away in
dangerous situations. Given that none of Moyes's new signings were
on display during the first half, it wasn't surprising that the
Blues look as though nothing has changed since last season.
Gravesen is still the frustrating enigma he always has been, one
minute the architect of a contender for goal of the season, the
next lazily gifting possession right in front of the back four.
Osman, making only his fourth start, struggled to make an impression
on the game but by no means disgraced himself, while Carsley was
his typical bulldog-like self, notable in the first 45 minutes only
for the booking he picked up for a foul on Gilberto after 36 minutes
—
but also the scorer of a magical goal.
At the back, where in combination with the midfield the game was
lost, Stubbs wasn't the only one guilty of poor defending; Pistone
was just as culpable in the first half and Naysmith managed to show
up as the spare man marking no-one in at least three of Arsenal's
four goals.
On the plus side, we only have to play Arsenal once more in the
league this season, and we weren't able to assess the potential
of Tim Cahill or enjoy the return of Wayne Rooney. On this evidence,
we're going to need both of them and a whole lot more because this
fifth consecutive Premiership defeat bore all the hallmarks of Season
2003-04.
- Martyn 7 — Surprisingly poor game by last
year's player of the season, lacking command in the air and spilling
the ball badly for the fourth goal
- Pistone 5 — Improved in the second half
once removed from the right back spot
- Stubbs 5 — Caught out badly with the second
goal when he and Naysmith allowed Reyes to ghost in for a simple
header
- Yobo 6 — Let himself down with one crucial
error for the third goal but was solid otherwise
- Naysmith 4 — Poor marking and poor distribution
- Osman 5 — Struggled to make headway against
world class opposition but did enough to justify keeping his place
next week
- Carsley 5 — The goal aside, he clearly isn't
the solution in central midfield.
- Gravesen 5 — Just when you think that he
can't get worse and that we would be better off without him, he
goes and architects a goal like that
- Kilbane 6 — Probably the most industrious
player on the pitch for the Blues but found the going tough against
Lauren
- McFadden 5 — As our only real creative outlet,
I was surprised he was withdrawn and not Campbell but he did struggle
to make an impression
- Campbell 5 — Put in plenty of muscle and
was the victim of some poor decisions but never looked like scoring
- Hibbert 6 — A decent performance as a second-half
sub; someone has finally taught him how to pass to a blue shirt.
- Bent 7 — Probably the pick of Everton's
players, he seemed to add a different dimension to the lead-footed
Campbell
- Ferguson 6 — Came on and tried to make a
difference but suffered from poor service until a last-minute header
that was saved by Lehmann
Lyndon Lloyd

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