Arsenal’s chase for a top 4 finish continues as they travel to face an Everton side at Goodison Park.
Currently in the table, Arsenal are where they want to be in 4th place but are tied with Chelsea on points and are 1 point behind Tottenham with a game in hand on both of their London rivals. With a win Arsenal could move into 3rd place above Spurs again. Every game is a must win from now on for Arsenal if they want to hold off their rivals for a top 4 finish.
Meanwhile, Everton are still within a chance of getting a 7th place finish which could get them Europa League football. Everton are currently 4 points off 7th placed Leicester but have a game in hand and if they were to win they’d move within 1 point of 7th place so for them this is also a game they need to win if they want a shot at European football next season.
Looking at current form, Arsenal are showing some red hot form having gone unbeaten in 6 consecutive league games winning 5 of those and picking up 16 from their last 18 points with the only draw coming away to Spurs. Arsenal are coming off a good 2-0 win against Newcastle in their only game post international break on Monday showing that they’ve not skipped a beat despite having a 2 week break.
Looking at Everton, it looks like they’ve finally started to play some good football. After a horrendous first couple of months in 2019, they have picked up a couple of impressive wins in their last 2 games having beaten Chelsea 2-0 and then following it up with a 0-2 win away at West Ham last weekend thus meaning they shouldn’t be lacking any confidence entering this fixture against Arsenal.
The biggest worry for Arsenal coming into this fixture is their horrendous away record for their standards. Arsenal have only got the 10th best away record in the league, they’ve not kept a single away clean sheet and have a -1 goal difference on their travels in the league, plus to add to that their recent away form has been tragic as they’ve only managed 1 win from their last 8 away league games (3D 4L) which was against the worst side in Huddersfield so if there was one big if when it comes to Arsenal it is their away form which is unlike their fantastic home form, WOEFUL.
As for Everton, they haven’t quite made Goodison the tough place to come to and get a result for opponents as it normally would be with just the 11th best home record in the league (7W 4D 5L), however Everton have managed to take points from a couple of big sides already this season here as they beat Chelsea 2-0 and drew 0-0 with Liverpool and despite their up and down home form, it still is quite a tough place to come to and win for opponents. Expect Everton to make Arsenal work very hard if they want all 3 points.
The players to watch for Arsenal have to be the attacking duo of Lacazette and Aubameyang. Aubameyang has 22 goal contributions (17G 5A), Lacazette has 20 (13G 7A) in the league and the latter has scored or assisted at least once in 8 of his last 9 league apps. These two have been carrying Arsenal’s attack all season, both are playing great right now and are expected to cause a ton of problems with their pace and finishing for Everton.
As for Everton, the duo of Sigurdsson and Richarlison are both dangerous men to watch. Both have scored 12 goals each in the league totalling 53.3% of Everton’s total league goals (24 of 45) and have consistently played well all season so expect them two to have a big game if Everton were to win.
Arsenal defeated Everton in the reverse fixture 2-0 at the Emirates. Although Everton dominated the 1st half, two quickfire goals by Lacazette and Aubameyang in the 2nd half earned Arsenal all 3 points in that meeting.
Looking at H2H at Goodison Park, Arsenal have had decent success here over the past few years. Over the last decade Arsenal have won in 5 of their last 9 visits there (2D 2L) and have won in 2 of their last 3 visits at Goodison including last season winning here 2-5. Arsenal have been a rare team who have consistently had good success against Everton away from home in recent seasons.
Bookies have this game pretty close odds wise. Arsenal are edged as slight favourites to win at 2.40 whereas Everton to win is 3.05 with Draw tipped at 3.60. Arsenal are understandably favourites, but you can never underestimate Everton at home especially with Arsenal’s lackluster away form therefore expect a closely contested match. Odds based on Unibet.
Team News
Everton: Defender Yerry Mina is the only absentee for the Toffees as otherwise Marco Silva has a full strength squad available to him and will likely go with the same team as last week at West Ham.
Arsenal: Hector Bellerin and Danny Welbeck remain out with season ending injuries. Furthermore Lucas Torreira is suspended while Laurent Koscielny and Granit Xhaka are both injury doubts but aren’t officially ruled out. Aaron Ramsey should be available to play despite a groin problem that he picked up on Monday against Newcastle.
