It is absolutely vital that Arsenal bounce straight back from the disappointment of seeing our one goal lead away to Watford with 20 minutes left end up in defeat. In that case you would like your next Premier League match to be against a struggling side and few are having a worse time right now than Everton.
The Toffees have only won two EPL games from eight so far this season and after spending a small fortune on players during the summer transfer4 market, that has really put the pressure on their manager Ronald Koeman. It appears that the Dutchman’s concern has transmitted itself to his players as well as they once again struggled to string two passes together at the weekend.
The nerves in their side are palpable and they were only saved a damaging feat at Brighton by a daft tackle in the penalty area that allowed Rooney to bag a late leveller. The other good news for Arsenal ahead of this clash is that Everton are also in the Europa League and their Thursday night game is at home against the French club Lyon so they cannot afford to rotate heavily.
The bad news for Arsenal is that we are in a similar sort of situation after the Watford loss and that Rooney penalty may have given our opponents a timely boost. The draw after being behind probably feels almost as good as win and they will certainly be fired up after seeing how badly we coped with the late pressure from the hornets.
Any lack of effort from Arsenal on Sunday and there will be trouble. We may be glad that Everton are up next but are they thinking the same about us?
Bob.