Match Preview

And so we reach the end of another disappointing, hope-sapping, morale-draining and pride-revoking season.

Top of the table after three games and thinking there was genuine hope that we had a solid team which could look for mid-table mediocrity and maybe have a run in the cups...  Four straight losses, including a home Worthington Cup defeat to Crystal Palace, and a more realistic panorama of the season soon lay before us.

Enough will be written over the next few months reviewing what happened and looking at what we can do to prevent it happening again (the answer to that is simple — Moyes needs money, he doesn't really have any so he'll have to coach his way to safety).

With the Gods once again using Everton to get their chuckles, we travel to the home of the new Premiership Champions and get to join in their party — in the same way that a lamb gets to join in at a Passover Feast!

No-one but no-one gives us a chance.  If Arsenal played their 2nd team we'd be lucky to get away with a 3 - 0 defeat.

Viera may be saying his goodbyes before his move to Real Madrid.  Bergkamp will love a game with no pressure.  Ljungberg is on a high, Wiltord has just scored the Premiership winner.  Sol Campbell has learnt what its like to win something and Keown never gives less than 100%.

For us?  Simonsen is fit again and it will be interesting if he gets the nod or Gerrard — whoever doesn't will know that the exit door is beckoning, although it sounds like any offers for both would probably be accepted.

Pembridge is fit; will he get a run?

I personally hope that we see a few of the boys playing for the last time.  A goodbye wave to Gemmill, Pembridge, Alexandersson and Campbell would set me up for the summer.  I don't dislike any of these players and I certainly have no antagonism towards them; indeed, Gemmill and Pembridge have given a lot of sweat and effort to the Blue cause and Campbell was once Super.  Now, however, they are all 1st Division players and we need to move on.

Lets face it, the last time that Arsenal celebrated a title they battered us 4-0 with THAT Adams goal.  If we avoid a similar scoreline then we can be thankful.

Another goal for Chadwick would increase the hope that we all have for him and a good performance from Gravesen against a quality midfield would show that one extra quality addition could sort out that area.

Fingers crossed, its been a long season and no matter what happens it won't be as bad as the home defeats to Charlton and Ipswich.

Party Poopers Peter Out

Everton could be forgiven for thinking that when the Gunners play at home their name is "Arsenal 4".  The attempt to gatecrash Arsenal's championship celebrations was undermined by some appalling defending which saw Everton concede four goals at Highbury for the third season in a row.  However pleasing it was to put three of their own past the Gunners — irrespective of the fact that the game took on the air of a pre-season exhibition match at times — the Blues' worrying defensive frailties will give David Moyes more food for thought in the coming close season, free as he now is of the distraction of the InterToto Cup.

The game was just 3½ minutes old when Alan Stubbs dithered on the ball in his own area, was dispossessed Ashley Cole whose challenge fed Dennis Bergkamp and the Dutchman made no mistake, side-footing past Steve Simonsen from 6 yds out.  The party had started in earnest, and you got the feeling that Everton would be cannon-fodder for the hosts.

However, Moyes's side roused themselves after conceding the early goal.  After Kevin Campbell had knocked the ball wide of the advancing Richard Wright when he should have done better, and Thierry Henry had rounded Steve Simonsen and uncharacteristically fired into the side-netting from a tight angle, Everton equalised through Lee Carsley's first goal for the Blues.  Tomasz Radzinski squared the ball on the edge of the area and Carsley swept it home with aplomb to make it 1-1 after 20 minutes.

Campbell then had a header at the far post thwarted by Wright's good positioning and Radzinski stabbed a loose ball agonisingly wide with the 'keeper beaten, before Everton took a shock lead on the half hour mark.  Radzinski took possession wide on the left wing, skinned two markers for pace and made a bee-line for goal, tucking the ball past Wright with ease.

Unfortunately, Arsenal responded to the challenge and were on level terms again within a couple of minutes, thanks again to an error by Stubbs who tried to muscle Bergkamp off the ball.  His shoulder charge missed and he went sprawling while the Arsenal striker fed Henry who made no mistake by burying it past Simonsen.  Half-time: 2-2.

In the second half, Everton continued to look unfazed by the occasion but were eventually undone by Arsenal's fluid attacking machine and more defensive lapses that made it look all too easy for the home side.  Lee Carsley, who was having possibly his best game for the Blues since arriving from Coventry, could have had a hat-trick but was thwarted by Wright who pulled off a great save to tip the ball around the post on 56 minutes and was on hand to save again from Carsley 10 minutes later.  Both efforts were laid on by Campbell who noticeably lacked sharpness and pace in front of goal but did a decent enough of job of playing provider.

Radzinski, for his part, was a constant threat because of his pace and, had Richard Wright not been in the right place at the right time yet again on 70 minutes, the Canadian might have restored the Blues' lead.  As it was, his well-engineered shot was parried and cleared, and Arsenal went down the other end and scored.  A wonderful ball over the top caught the Everton defence embarrassingly flat-footed and Henry, in acres of space, made it 3-2.

The Gunners then brought on Everton old-boy, Francis Jeffers and set about trying to lay on a goal for him against his old club.  Twice he missed guilt-edged chances — once well saved by the legs of Simonsen, the other clipped off the outside of the post — but scored Arsenal's fourth with his third effort.  There was more than a hint of offside when the ball was played through to Henry who crossed for Jeffers to nod the ball home at the far post but the goal stood.

Everton at least had the final word when Steve Watson slammed a well-struck shot clean past substitute goalkeeper Stephen Taylor to make it 4-3.  Arsenal finished as victors while Moyes's Everton, who had waved a Top-10 finish goodbye with the home defeat to Blackburn, had to make do with a final placing of 15th.

David Moyes is in for a busy summer — not necessarily in the transfer market as he only has around £5M to spend and has more or less said that there won't be many players leaving in the close season, if at all — as he digests what he has seen since taking over the Goodison hotseat just 9 games ago.

Offensively, the Moyes revolution is plain for all to see: a team that couldn't score goals has been banging them in for fun since Moyes arrived, but defensively everything seems to have gone to hell in a handbasket.  If he can solve that conundrum, next season is going to be very interesting.