EVERTON HAD THEIR sights set on the Champions League places and could gain vital ground on guests Arsenal if they were to beat them at Goodison Park this afternoon.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the game. Leave a message in the comment section below, tweet us @football_ie, post a message to our Facebook wall, or just e-mail patrick@thescore.ie
Good afternoon dreamers and realists alike. Here are your line-ups:
Everton: Howard, Coleman, Stones, Distin, Baines, McCarthy, Barry, Naismith, Osman, Mirallas, Lukaku.
Subs: Robles, Hibbert, McGeady, Barkley, Garbutt, Alcaraz, Deulofeu.
Aaron Ramsey is back for Arsenal. My, how they have struggled without him. The Welshman is back but on the bench.
Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Monreal, Flamini, Arteta, Rosicky, Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud.
Subs: Viviano, Ramsey, Sanogo, Jenkinson, Kallstrom, Bellerin, Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Here is the super Gerard Deulofeu goal that earned the Toffees a 1-1 draw at The Emirates earlier in the season. The Barcelona loanee starts today on the bench.
2 mins - Whiskers. Mere whiskers from Osman and he lets rip following a Coleman throw-in.
6 mins - Naismith can’t find Lukaku to spoil a two-on-one before Coleman has a shot blocked by Arteta. Osman clatters Sagna to get a yellow card, after he receives treatment for a cut to the face.
I did some fact-checking on Ramsey there, during that injury hold up. He scored eight goals and had six assists as Arsenal won gained 39 points from their opening 18 games. He has missed 14 games since late December and Arsenal have picked up 25 points out of a possible 42.
Here’s how it went down. Vital interception by Howard to slide in and stop Podolski from shooting into an empty Toffees net, following a bad back pass. Everton broke, Lukaku had a shot brilliantly saved by Naismith kept his cool and slotted in the rebound.
17 mins - Martinez is playing Lukaku on the right wing and Arsenal are in a quandry as to who is marking him. Naismith, playing more as a 10 than a straight out striker, is showing up all over the place.
20 mins - Naismith almost doubles the lead with a cheeky flick on a driven Seamus Coleman cross. Giroud them goes close after getting across his man and meeting a whipped in cross. The ball skitters wide though.
23 mins - Monreal whips in a cross but nobody is home (in the Everton box). Mirallas then has a low shot comfortably saved.
#xenophobic
27 mins - The game settles into a steady rhythm before Cazorla pulls out the worst cross of the day — 10 yards behind two Arsenal teammates and straight to a blue shirt.
31 mins – Mirallas tests the Arsenal goalkeeper again and forces a fine, diving save to his left. Arsenal get their first corner of the game and Everton clear at the second time of asking.
GOAL!! Everton 2-0 Arsenal (Lukaku ’34)
Mirallas finds the Belgian out on the right. He cuts in, drifts past two Gunners and slams in a low drive for his 13th goal of the season.
Here is that belter from Romelu:
37 mins - Lukaku smacks another effort a yard wide and Bill Kenwright is a happy chairman in the stands. No goals again from the Chelsea strikers yesterday as their loan star troubles the net once again this week.
39 mins - Howard with a flying save after Podolski dips a beauty from the edge of the box. Arteta then spoons a cross into Row J and gets roundly heckled by his former fans.
43 mins - Three-on-two but Sagna snuffs out the threat. Flamini then gets a yellow card after hacking down Naismith. Just the 10 yellow cards for the season for the Frenchman.
Everton will be just a point behind Arsenal with a game in hand if the game finishes this way. That game is a home tie with Crystal Palace.
46 mins - Credit to Sky Sports for this factoid — Arsenal have not come from 2-0 down to win for two years. The last time they did, though, was a 5-2 win over Spurs.
49 mins - Arsenal probing around the box before Rosicky finally wangs in a cross that evades everyone. Dangerous enough though.
Alan Smith, a man who earned his corn getting on the end of crosses and passes, feels for Giroud as the Arsenal midfielders fawn over the ball for too long before finally getting a cross in. The French forward made three runs in the space of 60 seconds and the ball never came near him. Arsenal too ponderous.
‘How is our Seamus getting on?’
53 mins - Mirallas tries to pitch in and almost gifts Giroud a goal. He drifted back into the Everton box but was dispossed. Howard did well to smother his shot. Distin then injures himself blocking Flamini in the box after Stone was caught in possession out wide by Cazorla.
56 mins - Have not seen too much of McCarthy apart from his tidy contributions (in a lateral sense) in midfield. He clumps into Cazorla and is lucky to escape a caution.
GOAL!!! Everton 3-0 Arsenal (Mirallas ’62)
The Belgian robs Sagna of possession in the Toffees half, drives forward and slides Naismith in. His shot is blocked and who is there to slide home the third? Mirallas.
If you are a Gunner, watch and weep.
65 mins - Podolski and Flamini get lassoed off the pitch. Here come The Ox and Ramsey.
70 mins - Ah sure, why not. On comes Yaya Sanogo for Giroud. Lukaku almost makes it 4-0 but his header is saved AND he was offside.
75 mins - Seamus Coleman just made a mug out of Sagna with a sweet drag-back nut-meg. Stunning stuff.
BREAKING: Arsenal heads are in Arsenal hands in the away end.
76 mins - To improve his mood, that Mirallas goal is now being given as a Mikel Arteta own goal
79 mins - Arms firmly folded on the Gunners bench as Naismith is given a standing ovation. Aiden McGeady is on in his place.
83 mins - McCarthy chips a clearance off Cazorla to get his team a goal kick. Arsenal showing exactly zero fight this afternoon.
85 mins - Howard with an amazing save! Tips an Oxlade-Chamberlain drive off the crossbar.
Here is that Coleman trick from earlier:
Looking back, that is a different trick to his nutmeg. Pretty sweet anyway — and showboaty.
89 mins - Arsenal on the hunt for a consolation goal as Barkley cries foul on Arteta; says he used the elbow. Huge overreaction from the English midfielder but Arteta yellow carded so some justification there.
Well done. Great Cause
Could have come first if he didn’t stop to take the bloody selfie….Great man. Great cause. Lovely story.
Selfie mehole. Soon as the picture was taken, he hopped on a sleigh with 12 huskies pulling him along, and cracked open a bottle of powers
The only reason he didn’t win was because he spent the first 3 days going in the wrong direction.
Wow! There really are some fantastic human beings around! And he is one!!
What a lazy fecker.
SECOND?
Fair play to him, great cause and a great performance to match
I know, whats with the article he didn’t even win like?
Hadn’t have slept those 6 hours he might have won lazy fecker. Congratulations though that’s some achievement.
And the race is from where to where?
Exactly! Any chance of including what’s actually involved in the race?
As his medal says “finisher” coz most people can’t finish the toughest course in the world (probably) And that little boy will smile ear to ear after he recovers Fair fox ta ya man fair fox ta ya.
Respect …. Wow ….. Well done
Cmon the tribesmen
North to Alaska/Johhny Horton
Sam crossed the majestic mountains (mush)
To the valleys far below (mush)
He talked to his team of huskies (mush)
As he mushed on through the snow (mush)
With the northern lights a-runnin’ wild (mush)
In the land of the midnight sun (mush)
Yes, Sam McCord was a mighty man (mush)
In the year of nineteen-one (mush)
………And so is Gavan Hannigan a Mighty Man too.Well done Gavan!
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
(Robert Service poem).
@Pat Gorman…….
The Spell of the Yukon
I wanted the gold, and I sought it, I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy — I fought it; I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it — Came out with a fortune last fall, —
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it, And somehow the gold isn’t all.
No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?) It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it; Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it For no land on earth — and I’m one.
-
-A Great Week-end to You Pat Gorman.
Who came third?
Great cause but to come second should be ashamed of himself
Phenomenal performance!! Tough race to finish let alone finish 2nd, well done
Superb Gavin , I suppose they’ll expect you to win the all Ireland for Galway now.
Fair dues man :)
If your not first your last!! Great achievement.while fitness is important its the will and desire to keep going that is most impressive,well done.
Well done. Inspirational.
Amazing stuff.. but yes we need more info please !
Some achievement. . Well done. .
Where in galway is he from?
He came second out of 2
people were still finishing 3 days after he finished!, more detail about this gruelling event is needed in the article.
The Yukon!
The land of the Sourdough.
One of the toughest places on earth.
Recommended Good Read:
Micí Mac Gabhann’s “Rotha Mór an tSaoil”.
That procedure not available here in Nirvana, no?