Ancelotti expects Gomes to be available to face Gunners

Biggest thing, me being a dick, is a quality player listening to a quality manager. We have not had this for many years.

Spurs announce H-K Son is lost for the season. Within a day or so, Everton announce André Gomes will be available for this weekend.

I don't like Spurs or their chairman or their fans or their manager or most of their players. I am happy that Son is out for a while and hopefully when we play them.

Mike @5 -
I couldn't agree more.

This is very encouraging:

Link

Did anyone else see this guy's leg/ankle turn in the wrong direction? How in the world is Andre playing? Seriously. It's absolutely amazing.

I hope he scores the winner at Goodison against Man Utd. The roar will be deafening. Bedlam.

There's a difference between being fit and being match-fit and he may have to do a lot of work without the ball on Sunday.

We will need him and the rest of the squad to put 12 cup finals in if we want a European spot.

I hope the medical people responsible for allowing that are no longer with us or have learnt their lesson.

I trust Carlo to do the right thing with Andre. We need him to be available for the rest of the season, not out with minor niggles/injuries.

I'm actually nervous for the first time in a while. Fourth is on if we've got the balls to take it?

Why not now?

I think it's a minor miracle Gomes is available but I'm not sure he will not get on the pitch unless we are a couple of goals down though.

That's the last thing we want, because if we can get a result on Sunday, then it might just be the biggest confidence boost the team have had all season, and would really set us up for The Mancs, the following week.

It will be marvellous to see him back whenever it is – seems like the type of guy we want at our club.

Tony, Delph, like Schneiderlin is much maligned. If we are to win then we need Schneiderlin and Delph at their very best, counter balancing Iwobi and Bernard in the 4-2-2-2 formation that Ancelotti favours.

Niasse looked very sharp in that training game (wearing Royal Blue and #7) as did Iwobi. I think Iwobi will start for sure.

We out-played, out-passed and out-fought Arsenal that day. I think that both of their goals were deflected. It was yet another game when the footballing Gods laughed at us.

We out-Arsenaled Arsenal in the first half. I was laughing with glee just how well we were playing. We were superb and we really looked to be onto something.

They got a goal around the hour mark - Ozil, maybe? - totally against the run of play. Deulofeu came on and scored a very sweet equaliser to draw the game 1-1.

They couldn't lay a glove on us.

Landon's corner for Ossie (?) to score. Pienaar's wonderful solo run and chip looked to have won it for us. Deflected equaliser deep into injury time as you say off that Aussie centre back who briefly appeared for us. Can't recall his name.

If Moise Kean, plays up-front, (he's got to be settling now?) then playing Richarlison would make us stronger on one flank, then Bernard, Walcott or Iwobi, might be able to share a 60/30 minute role on the other flank, to keep us competitive?

This still leaves the middle of the park, and it's a very big pitch for two players, especially players without much athleticism, which is why it's such a big problem for us right now.

Gomes, will make us play quicker I'm sure, which is definitely what we need because it's the only real way to put teams on the back foot, but this is something Ancellotti needs to work out in the long-term, and it's why I'm still concerned about this team, especially away from Goodison Pk.

Maybe this is just me, but I'd prefer he just start and get out there. IMO, it would be much harder warming up to come into a game, and trying to adjust to in-game momentum, than it would be to simply start.

In Carlo (and Andre) we trust.

That Man Utd game had a real almost cup final feel/tingle to it, awesome game... and the Arsenal one was sublime, the passing and movement.

However, in the cold light of day, that Man Utd side was there for the taking and the form we were in, a win was fair result.

Arsenal play an open attacking game and were always going to give us room to do our stuff.

It was ultimately a false dawn from a manager with no interest in a Plan B; we were figured out by one and all quite quickly and they were ready for us next time around.

If his possession-based football bored some fans, then it got a lot worse once his team also began trying to conserve energy once they had got a decent lead, and I think this was why the fans started booing the tactics at home to QPR, and must have also made his players start questioning his methods.

"It was ultimately a false dawn from a manager with no interest in a Plan B; we were figured out by one and all quite quickly and they were ready for us next time around."

If you are saying we were figured out within that same season, you are completely wrong.

Those away games were in November-December time. Come the spring in the reverse fixtures at Goodison we beat United 2-0 (the Grim Reaper in the crowd game that proved prophetic: Moyes was sacked as United's manager days after the defeat) and absolutely twatted Arsenal 3-0 (Martinez clearly instructed Lukaku to play wider and attack their right back from which a goal came from and Lukaku ran and leapt into Martinez's arms after scoring in acknowledgement that the tactic worked).

It is often mistakenly recalled that our form collapsed in the run in. Yes, we had poor defeats at home to Palace and away to Southampton (two own goals in a 2-0 loss), plus a defeat that far too many Blues for my liking welcomed at home to City which helped deny 'Slippy Steve' and his team the title.

Otherwise, the record for our last 12 games reads:

P 12 W 9 D 0 L 3 F 27 A 13 Pts 27 (out of a possible 36) GD + 14

Replicating that form in the remaining 12 fixtures of this season would put us on an extremely healthy 63 points and give us a serious shout at the 4th/5th places which could qualify us for CL football.

If, however Rob, you mean Roberto's 2nd season when you say 'next time around', I don't think it was so much as other teams figuring us out, as Roberto going away from many things he did so well in his first season.

Whilst possession was always a keystone in his strategy, in his first season transition from back to front was much more incisive and rapid. In his second season, it was much more ponderous and predictable. This constantly allowed teams to reset and easily repel us, similar to how things were for a great many games under Silva.

By his own admission and that of the players, Roberto didn't help himself or the team by giving proper attention to the grungier side of football: defending.

I guess the above opinion kinda answers your question @ 30, Daniel.

Jay, I said "next time around", which basically meant next season, although towards the end of the first season there were signs that teams were starting to adapt to our game.

I would contest your claim that 'there were signs that teams were starting to adapt to our game' in Roberto's 1st season, based on our form in the closing 12 fixtures as I shared, a third of the season. That included 7 straight wins at one time.

The Palace defeat was down to Roberto trying to be too cute and gungho with an overly attacking formation. We were poor at Southampton, but still only lost to a couple of bizarre own goals. The City game we took the lead with that season's goal of the season, the exquisite Barkley strike, which bizarrely was met by groans with some fans who wanted us to lose that day.

Nine out of 12 wins - and some of them by very handsome margins, as the +14 goal difference indicates in those 12 games - is not evidence of us being found out as you claim, IMO.

The following season is a different story, as already mentioned.

Lucas Neil. Dats da man I was thinking of.

There is a lot to be said for momentum and confidence in football which go hand in hand. Just look at the Leicester side that won the Premier League. Now the dust has settled on that side, how many of their players were ones you'd consider for other top sides? Kante, Mahrez, and Vardy for sure. But the rest, like Albrighton, Drinkwater or Simpson, no they weren't that good. But with momentum and confidence, and a little luck, they were able to reach the level that got the title.

When the momentum goes against you, you lose the confidence and you have bad luck, then the same players can look poor. If Moshiri has given Martinez the money to spend at the end of that first, two years before he came in, then what would have happened?

Remember one of his last games at Wembley, when Jagielka was shouting to Barkley, they are not booing you? That wasn't down to momentum, that was down to bad coaching and no leadership amongst the players to break rank but, once they did, Man Utd were very lucky to beat us in that game

We were already starting to unravel towards the end of Martinez's first season. We were nailed on for 4th and ended up 5th because of a poor run in.

Martinez inherited a very solid and organized side, especially defensively, but then his new tactics started to get found out and we never recovered.

As for booing the side, short memories Tony. That first season, 72 points has only been bettered a few times in Everton's history, yet so many dismiss it as a fluke. A European Quarter final has been bettered once in our history. Two cup semi-finals in one season, again once in our history.

So many dismiss Martinez as a fraud, but just watch him. He's still young enough to fulfil the potential he has. Possession based football is well past it's peak in popularity now, so you'll see what he's made of in his next club job.

Sorry Jay, if it's as simple as that, Moyes would have beaten 72 points. He couldn't even beat 65, despite being there 11 seasons. You don't fluke 72 points. And as pointed out above, it didn't unravel first season at all. Believe that all you want but you won't convince me.

We glimpsed that magic with Roberto, but only for a half, maybe a game or two at a time. The glimpses were all the more maddening because they showed the possibilities -- which Roberto could not ultimately achieve because he was no alchemist. I'm not sure more money would have made much of a difference.

I will be VERY interested to see what he accomplishes in his next club post, if he ever takes one again. To me he is the ideal national team manager, as he has shown for Belgium, and I think if he's wise he will stick to that level and not go back to any league. He lacks the organizational skills.

By the way, one curious fact about Distin... as his brief sojourn at Bournemouth wrapped up, the last league game he ever started was against us (November 2015) and the last professional match he ever started was, again, against us (FA Cup, February 2016).

Martinez's first season was exceptional and Ancelotti will do well to get anywhere near that points total next season.

He will also have done very well if we play football anywhere near the quality we demonstrated in periods throughout that season.

Ultimately, it didn't work out with Bobby Brown shoes, but let's not rewrite history. As Jay W has calmly & clearly articulated, our form did not really drop off, we just messed up a couple of games.

We lost to Man City in the other semis, and I blamed his sub at the Ethiad, which helped hand City the game, when he left Lennon on the bench and replaced Delafoue with Kone, who offered no protection to Stones playing full-back, and Sterling started killing us – helped by that fella in the middle who fuckin' hates us, Twatkinson.

Booing was not about short memories either, but more about getting short-changed. But that's just my own opinion. Steve, and slowly Roberto, was taking us backwards.

I think Carlo Ancelotti has managed to energize the team in certain areas and, although they have quite a ways to go, they seem to be headed in the right direction.

Martinez wasn't quite as good as he believed and the lack of funds couldn't quite kick us on. Irony is we've got plenty of dosh now but not allowed to spend it.

Following that same kind of ambition with Holgate, Richarlison, Kean and a few others remains a very sound plan. Ancelotti has helped restore some faith.

The problem is that his strategic vision begins and ends within the lines. Managing a club, with all the non-game aspects, is beyond his skill set.

He could steer Belgium into a World Cup final, and I can easily see him managing Spain or France in the future. But if he goes out of that lane, he's gonna crash again.

I hope this is simply a bit of kiddology to keep Arsenal guessing about our midfield.

I liked him, he seemed a nice fella, but THAT derby, the one before the semi final was the worst Everton performance I have ever, ever seen.

He should have been sacked for that alone.

Tony 40- This is one of my pet hates and I'm glad Mike pointed out what a great coach Martinez is. He was criticised by our fans and Barkley's bullshit fostered the myth that we were poorly coached.
Not one player from our exciting young team improved from Roberto. They played under Conte,Mourinho,Guardiola,Enrique,Sarri and others yet not one got better, not fucking one. As Jay says defensively he wasn't the greatest but his ability to improve players is undeniable as most of that team played their best football under him.

Tony 47-I feel the City defeat was solely down to Atkinson. They were a great side but had done nothing until that goal which gave them total impetus. Up until then we were in relative control and were brilliant on the night.

Simple, he got figured out!! Sit back and give Everton possession.

His best results came when we ceded possession and played in the counter. The games against Utd and Arsenal in the first season. Get Rom behind their defence and watch him go.

By the end he was clueless. It was more pitiful than the last weeks of Silva. We had been humped by Liverpool, and the players had to sort themselves out in the FA cup because he had lost his mind.

His first season he did a Wenger. Took the best defence we had in years and unlike and other manager in the past 20 years actually got a top notch striker in.

They have created very little up to now, so let's hope that carries over to Sunday. Hope I'm not sticking my neck out to be well and truly embarrassed, but I think we can get a result at the Emirates.

Oops Lacazette has just scored, still not changing my mind though.

I think of all the teams around us Wolves perhaps are the biggest threat to European qualification, but having said that, they can be guilty of being a bit erratic in terms of results.

Still if we are to stake a claim, we have to do it on our own merits and not depend on other results, although it may, if it happens strengthen our case, but only if we continue as we have been doing.

It is exciting times and whilst we ain't playing consistently, we are picking up the points. With our rivals stuttering us seeming to have righted the ship I am looking forward to the coming fixtures. Makes a pleasant change from the usual feeling of dread.

The big Monday night game is the one; I want us to send them home empty-handed.