Fans Comment
Paul Traill

It Wasn't That Bad, Was it?
17/05/05

Just in reaction to Andrew Farfoul’s comments about the Arsenal game, I’d just like to say that I honestly don’t think Everton played that badly:

1, That is the best team in the world Think back to the first game of the season when we got hammered 1-4 at home to Arsenal. I don’t think I spoke to one fan then who thought we could stay in the league at that point. Even Kevin Campbell came out with “I’ll settle for 17th now”. Now you could argue that Arsenal are not the best team in the world, or even the league purely on the basis that Chelsea have won the league and they haven’t. After that first game I thought they were the best team in the world then. It was almost as if they had 15 players on the pitch. Last night it seemed as though they had 20. Every player is clearly brimming with confidence there at the moment, are simply far superior than ours and than everyone elses in the league. You wait ‘til the cup final, I can see Man Utd getting seriously tonked there. I’ll even go as far as to say they’ll quite comfortably win the league next year:

• Take the class players Arsenal already possess: Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Viera, Ljungberg, Silva, Campbell, Toure, Cole, Lauren. • Add the kids who’ve come in and done so well this year: Flamini, Fabregas, Reyes, Van Persie, Senderos – now they’ve had a years experience under their belt. • Add some more signings: Owen? Niemi? I’m sure Wenger doesn’t need my advice with signings.

Simply put, that team last night was the best team in the world and would have beaten Brazil. They really were that good.

2, Were shagged Are players are well and truly knackered. We don’t have the squad depth. Yes, it’s a cliché but it’s true. We have the smallest squad in the league. Now despite this, the players did keep trying yesterday and I for one won’t fault them. Arteta gave up at some point when it was I think 6-0 and Beattie never got started. I for one was proud to see Kilbane chasing round everywhere, Bent chasing lost causes, Carsley, Weir and Yobo all battling away however impossible the situation. The bottom line is it’s been a long hard season and that was visible in the players last night.

3, The game meant nothing Arsenal’s last game at Highbury this year – they wanted to show their fans what they were made of. It’s generally a fact that the last home game of the season produces a good atmosphere. They have players playing for FA Cup final places. The crowd were up for it, so were the players. Not that I’m criticising our fans whatsoever, the fans have done their bit this season. If the game meant something, the crowd would have been more vocal and the players would have buzzed off this more and reacted to it. As it was (and I didn’t go so can’t prove this) I’m imagining that most Evertonians there were intent on enjoying themselves and not getting carried away with the way things went. If I’m wrong please correct me, but I think that had we gone into that one needing a point or a win, our supporters would have been more vocal, like they were at Old Trafford and at Villa Park. Had the game been important, we would have played better, I’m convinced by that. How? We wouldn’t have had that idiot in goal, that’s for sure. Cahill would have played through the pain barrier, and Ferguson and Bent would both have started. That equals a better team, and with more to play for would equal a better performance.

4, Oh come on! Some of them goals, like already mentioned on toffeeweb were laughably unfortunate. The second was ridiculous. Pires has never headed a ball so well in his life, and that from a rebound off a keeper. The fourth was unbelievably bad luck. I even had a cockney mate of mine in the pub tell me Henry meant it! I’m not having that. Pure fluke. Demoralisation set in with the penalty and you could see that in the pleyers faces. At 5-0 down when the penalty squirmed in we lost heart and Arsenal gained it. I truly can’t remember what the 6th one was like but Wright should have caught the cross for the 7th and it should never have happened. 7-0 was ridiculous, and if Arteta, Beattie or Ferguson had thought about their shots a bit more then it wouldn’t have looked so bad. We’ve played to that standard a few times this season and gotten results. Southampton away was probably even worse and we drew 2-2!

Now think back to the last game of last season when we lost 1-5 to Man City away. Whiich performance was worse that one or this one? Thought so.

Look on the bright side. This just shows how desperately we do need more players. Moyes knows this and the Board knows this. Trust Moyes and stay positive. Things have gotten a lot better in the last year.

Paul  Traill

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