I think if we had our strikers playing anywhere near where they can we have a squad that could challenge for 4th, but only on the basis that West Ham have a thin squad as I think they’re starting 11 has a better balance, and on the basis that Spurs are about the same as us (bar two match winners as you said). Man U have a better squad and will probably get 4th now they’ve got rid of Ole
However there is still lots that will need to change and will change with that squad. You don’t need a 2nd 11 all at top 4 quality but you do need 6 or so who could feasibly play 25 games and be good enough for a top 4 team. Liverpool lost 3 CB and went from a title winning squad to scraping top 4.
Leno won’t stick around for long as No.2
Kolasinac is off and is barely midtable as a back up. Cédric is also not good enough
Mari I don’t think is good enough and if we had to play Holding for a full season I don’t think we’d make top 4
Chambers have never proven himself any better than mid table at best
Elneny is off and Xhaka was all but out the door last year and we’ve never finished top 4 with him at the club
AMN is a good utility player but I doubt we’d get top 4 if he had to start 25 games
Pépé doesn’t look like top 4 material
And in the next 12 months we’re looking at losing lacazette, Nketiah and Aubameyang

That’s 13 of the 27 man squad. Now not all need to go but the vast majority of that 12 will be off or need to be gone.

I also think that Arteta should be getting more from what he has, certainly more attacking football. I don’t think you have to come down 100% on one side or the other of we’re blaming Arteta or the quality of the squad

Football 365 on the Everton crowd and Richarlison
“They cheered effort and crunching tackles in the absence of quality and slowly dragged that quality from the players as the game went on.
Richarlison was the epitome of that – his desire was unmatched by anyone on the pitch and in doing the simple, unflashy things, he found himself in positions where his skill almost had no option but to eventually pay dividends.”

Both points I made last night. We allow a home crowd to desperately cheer anything and get their team going, our passive approach gives encouragement in spades. And Richarlison did all the things our forwards fail to do. If we had Richarlison as our main striker we’d be 6-9 points better this season I’m convinced of it. I’d probably say the same for Watkins, Antonio, and any number of forwards at non big 6 clubs who just do the basic things you expect from a CF.

Artera to Wenger “Yes we’d love you come back and be around the club. And you’ll notice that it’s just like you’d never left”

Agree with that, there's still some squad building to be done and this summer shows we're on the right track with our recruitment. But it's just hard to say Arteta is performing at anywhere near the quality required when it comes to getting the best out of what we've got. Our squad being young is an excuse that only goes so far; no matter the average age of the squad, we still should be getting more than a good performance every three games from this group.

If we compare to West Ham, it's clear that Moyes is making them perform better than just being a sum of their part. I mean, which of their players would be a target for the bigger clubs? Declan Rice is the only one, I don't see any of the big six lining up to recruit Antonio, Soucek, Bowen or Fornals. They're simply much better managed than we are.

This is the point I was trying to make last night. We tore Tottenham, Leicester and Aston Villa apart at times, and it happened because of the desire and intensity we showed which allowed our quality to shine. When watching most of our games, and listening to Arteta analyzing them, it sounds like we're waiting for the good performances to come, and sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. It's not going to just happen, we need to realize it happens when we make it happen.

West Ham are a weird phenomena right now.

I have several mates who follow them and even there own fans know it won’t last and are laughing about it.

Maybe United should reappoint Davey Moyes again eh? Nope I can’t see it either. Maybe we should !

When Leicester won the title we should have poached Ranieri. No ? What do you mean.

It’s possible for anyone’s confidence to build and have their day in the sun.

How much more money are we going to throw at this before we get to the real problem? You can chop and change what you want but this manager isn't good enough.

New striker
Experienced creative player in the final third to support saka and Smith Rowe
New passing midfielder to help partey

Not much will change until you get those 3 in. Moan, chastise hell even set fire to yourselves lads


That said we can still achieve a reasonable finish despite people’s compulsive behaviour about the manager.

I think the solution is pretty simple.

1. Stop giving the ball away stupidly
2. Keep Ødegaard or anyone from midfield scoring
3. Give Aubameyang some confidence.

And we’ll easily make top 4.

but it doesn't do any good for the heart rate / stress levels after such a performance to do your approach the "Oh we have a young squad full of promise and Mikel given a chance I'm sure will turn things around ''

with a couple of harps and Chilean pipes playing softly in the background

No no no ... shove three Lucky Strikes in your gob , light up , rip your shirt off ; go outside and smash yourself around with a birch branch for half an hour in -17 temperatures like Haz does

....or alternatively say Arteta you are a stupid clueless mealy mouthed dickw%%$$#ker who'd be out of his depth coaching the Under 6's .... much better approaches .

Why on earth does Nketiah who wont sign a contract keep getting a start in front of Balogun ...?

Let's not set the bar too high here Granty Boy

Possession: Everton 36, Arsenal 64%



… it’s the final third lads. We’ve refreshed our whole side except wengers 30 plus strikers and you can moan all you want about the manager motivating people and that bollocks but aubameyang not even working their keeper with that final chance was *%^@*** criminal and no manager can legislate or deal with that by any means other than dropping the stupid *%^@ (if you have a replacement)

If we had a fit Danny Welbeck in our squad he would be getting a lot of football right now

I was seething last night.
Just as i was against Utd.
Still pissed off today.
I’m 51. Supported this great club for 42 years and defeats still get under my skin and really hurt.
Arteta disgusts me with his negative football , cautiousness , *%^@*** ego and treating certain players like *%^@. Say what you like about Pépé but no player deserves that sort of treatment.
Just pure *%^@*** spitefulness from Arteta and we have seen it before with Saliba.
What sort of message does it send to AMN and Sambi that they have great games recently then are dropped to the bench. They then see Xhaka waltz back into the team after a LONG injury.
He is not even softly introduced from the bench. He is put STRAIGHT IN.
What sort of utter foolery is that and if you are AMN or Sambi why on earth would you want to play for this *%^@*** *%^@???
It’s like one of those movies you have seen a million times before.
We play a *%^@ team in crisis and you just know we will lose to them and give them a piggyback back up.
We play backwards and sideways awful bland football.
We go a goal up and play with fear and sit back.
It was so obvious Everton would equalise and then you start fearing a winner and hey presto , here it is!
Please Please get this fraud out. To think i was excited by his appointment but yesterday was truly the end game for me.
We will probably beat Southampton but west ham no chance on the basis of these *%^@ performances.
The season can still be rescued. Get Arteta the *%^@ out.
Step forward Graham Potter.
He has Brighton punching above their weight and playing good football.
Imagine what he could do with us.

Pépé on the right when Eddie goes on. Oh if looks could kill...

Ok a few words on this diatribe of insanity

I’m not Xhakas biggest fan but I thought the manager was right to pick him last night and also for me he got a pass on the needless yellow. We Always get kicked off the park at goodison and saka got kicked so many times his ankles must be a smooth paste today

It Graham potter becomes your hero we are beyond hope. Reminds me of the Owen Coyle suggestions years ago.

I hope you get well soon

Just a gut feeling but I reckon he might be about to be sold. There’s been murmurings in the press of a swap deal and the club might be trying to force the issue

I would add just a few more things we did wrong last night; non-existent press, complete inability to deal with our opponents pressing, no forward progression from midfield, attacking players barely touching the ball all game, inability to string five passes together in the opponent's half. And it's not a one-time thing, this is the way we perform more often than not.

I don't see Potter (or really anyone else available) as some sort of magical solution, but at least he gets his team to fight tooth and nail for the right to play. Something Arteta routinely fails to do with this Arsenal side.

Then you can’t be watching us much because we are above them in the league. How do you explain this nonsense.



After a while it gets so divvy. If you think those kids aren’t doing their utmost you must be a massive bellend.

Because we have superior players in every single position? It's not rocket science. There's only so much a manager can do - no matter how well Arteta performs, we're not winning the league with this squad for example - but you're arguing as if there's nothing a manager can do except make good substitutions.

I repeat you said Arteta doesn’t fight tooth and nail to get him team to play.

Most weeks saka and Smithers and others are knackered by the 70th minute as they have run themselves into the ground. Your talking *%^@ and most will know it. This isn’t a world class team thats coasting. Such nonsense

I suspect that what Haz means is that Potter appears to overachieve with his resources, whereas we consistently look worse than the sum of our parts.

No, I said he doesn't get his team to fight tooth and nail. I'm sure Arteta does everything he can possibly think of to get the team to perform the way he wants, but it's not happening often enough. The amount we run isn't the issue, and I'm not saying the players aren't trying - I'm saying they play with a lack of the direction and purpose you see in teams who are outperforming their expectations.

Thought it wouldn't be long before the self appointed *%^@ piped up.
Do one you freak , i'm not interested in your opinion.

He does get his team to fight tooth and nail and the ones who sit in that ground every week know it. I’d advise keeping Schtum.

Our issues lie with some glaring and obvious gaps in the side and a lack of technical proficiency in some areas. Not effort or setup or even really bad substitutions like last night.

Don’t accuse this side of a lack of effort again. Poor

I hope you get better.

Well, I'd advise you to find another way to deal with your frustration than trying to pick fights on the internet. Or learn how to have a discussion in good faith. However, I suspect you'll pay as much heed to my advice as I will to yours, so let's leave it at that.

Pick fights ? Hardly. I’m trying to stop you embarrassing yourself. Done with this

Yeh, but apart from that we did ok, Haz.

Same as my reaction when I read that post. Excruciating to watch and unutterably dull.

As long as we're talking about positives, I thought Ødegaard had a decent game. Got involved, tried to make things happen and scored a fine goal. If not for a few desperate blocks he could've gotten one or two more.

Are you sure about that? Everton hadn't won since September 25th and were in chaos. That was as "winnable" a game as you'll get on paper. As Arseblog presciently wrote yesterday we are the kiss of life team. Just when a team is down and needs a lift along we come and oblige. That's a mental problem and starts at the top.

I thought he was good too. I did think he might have got his shot way a little quicker on a couple of occasions but at least he was getting into those positions. If he could add goals to his game that would be a big plus.

It’s never easy at Goodison park. It feels like every game in my life I’ve ever watched there falls into the same pattern as last night. Eggy crowd, *%^@ ref that allows their players to kick us all over the place. I’ve watched last nights movie several times.

This team can beat most on their day but can also struggle on an off day. No reason to think we cant pick up more points and I’ll be there this weekend enjoying myself whilst the weirdos on the internet are undertaking autoerotic asphyxia in case we lose.

I know he missed a sitter but I thought Nketiah was lively when he came on on the left wing. Certainly showed up both Lacazette and Aubameyang from recent games. Ran at his man, set up a chance for Ødegaard and the late one for Aubameyang and linked general play well.

Clearly we need a new striker. But surely Arteta has the sole responsibility for giving minutes to Nketiah, even though everyone knows he’s on his bike soon and is arguably such a weak player?

You clearly either don’t rate or have taken a dislike to Ødegaard (I always find it difficult to distinguish which is the bigger rationale for your views), if you think an experienced creative midfielder to support Saka and Smith Rowe is such a priority. Am I missing something, but wasn’t it Arteta who wanted the £30m+ purchase of Ødegaard? I simply don’t accept Edu decided to buy him without Arteta’s full support. But you seem to defend Arteta to an almost creepy extent.

Moreover, it can only have been Arteta who wanted Xhaka to get his contract extension to 2025. What has happened to Partey since Arteta bought him? In my view Partey has been part of the problem, and I suggest other managers could get more out of him than Arteta is.

But you seem obsessed with defending Arteta as though he’s a close relative. If you don’t think Ødegaard or Xhaka are good enough, ask yourself whose responsibility it is that they’re in the team and who spent a lot to recruit Ødegaard.

That sort of stuff is not only deeply offensive, it’s unnecessary. It’s happened a few times now.

Not sure if it’s the done thing to quote oneself from before the match, but this didn’t feel that far off in the end. When Richarlison scored the header from the free kick it felt like it was going to be even closer to being right before that goal was disallowed.

It can’t be right that we can predict pretty accurately the type of performance we’re going to throw in even down to the sterile dominance and lack of testing their gk

It was certainly encouraging to see him making runs in to the box and being more of a threat in the final 3rd. It’s not an ability thing, it’s a mentality thing about how he wants to affect the game. The same sort of thing happened with Emile Smith Rowe this year, he’s been challenged or is challenging himself to get more goals and even before he got his 3 in 3 recently you could see, and the stats showed he was getting in to more dangerous positions and taking more shots.

I thought in both the shots Ødegaard had blocked he should have let the ball run across his body and shoot with his left, he cut back inside and whilst that beat one defender it then allowed another to get the block. I will always continue to be exasperated by professional footballers who refuse to trust their weak foot…..or that a professional footballer even has a weak foot!

I really want it to work for Arteta but I'm now convinced it won't. Yes, there are still holes in the squad at CM and certainly in the final third but it can also be true the manager isn't maximising what he has at his disposal. I think the problems are more three dimensional than just the manager or just the missing pieces in the team. It's a collective issue, but at some point we probably need to acknowledge that the manager could very well be a part of the malaise at the club.

I'm not going to call for his head yet, despite being really pissed off over the last couple of games, but I think unless there's a turnaround this could be his last season in charge.