What We Learned: Everton 2 Arsenal 5
I never wrote a post on our defeat at Vicarage Road against Watford last week, but I'm lucky I get to type this out with a good mood. I thought that after our defeat against Watford and our tough Europe League match last Thursday, that we'd be worn out physically and emotionally, but I was impressed with the way we started the game.
Our lineup looked very solid and it looks as if this is our first choice team. We played a now fit Koscienly/Mertesacker/Monreal back three, Bellerin/Kolasinac as wingbacks, Ramsey/Xhaka in midfield, and Ozil/Sanchez playing in behind Lacazette.
We started the game off on the front foot and didn't give Everton a chance to find their way in the game. We came very close to scoring in the very beginning as his shot went just past Jordan Pickford, who had a very busy day this past weekend.
Our efforts didn't seem to pay off in the beginning of the match after Xhaka got the ball taken away from him in midfield and Rooney capitalized by scoring a long range effort to put Everton 1-0 up. It was a very bitter moment because we didn't deserve to be 1-0 down, but Rooney's goal was quite good. I feel it could've been prevented if someone was actually marking him properly, but I can't complain at the moment as the guys I really feel bad for is Everton because they had a tragic day marking our players.
We bounced back from going 1-0 down quite well and kept the intensity that we showed before we conceded the first goal. As Everton tried to contain us, they eventually lost out as Xhaka took a shot at goal, to which Monreal scored the rebounded effort to level things up just before half time.
It was crucial that we got the goal back because I could have seen Everton coming back in the second half and not giving us a chance at goal with their backs to the wall.
The second half was where it all went down. We came in and absolutely thrashed Everton. The trashing seemed inevitable after Gana was sent off and they were left to defend our silky football with ten men. They struggled to contain us, even though the momentum of the game slowed down in the second half. We started our goal scoring in the 53' as Alexis put a brilliant ball over the top as Ozil headed it in to mark his return to first team football.
No one was marking our midfield players or our forwards as Ramsey, Alexis, Ozil, and Lacazette all interchanged and created some very beautiful moments to watch, the type of football that we're known for.
The floodgates opened and we went on to score goals from Lacazette, Ramsey, and Alexis. The only disappointing thing was towards the end of the game, we conceded the stupidest goal you'll ever see. Monreal gave a poor back pass back to Cech, to which one of the Everton players walked into the back of our net.
Another eventful thing that happened this past weekend was the sacking of Everton boss Ronald Koeman, who's days looked numbered since the beginning of this month.
Besides that, I have no real gripes about our performance this past Sunday and I'm looking forward to moving up in the table. If today showed anything, it's that we have some resilience to come back from a goal down and then go on to shut the game down, which is what we should be aiming for.