Officials deny Everton a point

, 21 March, 91comments  |  Jump to most recent
Everton 0 - 1 Arsenal
Everton started on the back foot against Arsenal in a reunion with Mikel Arteta as the in-form Londoners came to Goodison Park and waltzed away with all rthree points. Steven Pienaar was back again after being cup-tied for the Sunderland game. Ramsey missed an open goal inside 6 mins before Vermaelen put the visitors ahead from a corner inside 10 minutes that turned out to be the winner as the officials conspired to deny Everton a perfectly good goal through Drenthe that was incorrectly ruled offside.

Match Summary

Everton were almost straight onto the back foot after their normal kick-off ploy of hoofing the ball forward and ceding possesssion that they struggled to regain in the early exchanges that saw Arsenal attacking in waves. It seemed only a matter of time before the breakthrough after Ramesy blasted a golden chance over, then Verlaaelen nodded one in far too easily from Arsenal's first corner. So much for the KITAHTNO gameplan!

They surged through the porous Everton defence a few more times while the Blues struggled to get a grip on their pace and trickery, but Everton were able to stem the flow somewhat, and create a couple of half-chances, Osman nodding a ground ball wide and Jelavic heavily overplaying a promising one-two before Arteta showed he still had trouble beating the first man with his corners.

Pienaar didn't do that much better at the other end, putting his corner kick onto the roof of the net as the game settled into a more even midfield struggle. Drenthe got around the outside and scored a nice goal but it was wrongly called offside. Jelavic might have scored off a lazy clearance but could only divert it wide. Cahill dived in poorly and surprisingly was not booked, but Sagna was for his tackle from behind.

Everton had come back into the game quite well by the end of the half, considering it looked like a mauling was in store, with more dubiously marginal offsides against Jelavic and then Drenthe hinting at what might've been...

Everton started the second half winning a free-kick that Fellaini got to but headed too close to Czezney. Another stupid tackle by Cahill saw him yellow-carded as Everton played some better football and started to test Arsenal, Jelavic rather spoiling things by trying to con the ref and going down far too easily but on the counter Van Persie stung the foot of the post.

As things hotted up, Drenthe was lucky not to be called for a penalty, while at the other end Everton were getting balls behind the Arsenal defence without making the vital breakthrough. But as the game wore on, Everton had fewer ideas while Arsenal had a new lease of life and threatened to kill the game with a second goal.

Moyes rang some changes after Drenthe failed to keep a good chance down below the bar, and he was replaced by Anichebe, with Gueye coming on for Osman...? Strange moves that seemed highly unlikely to clinch things for the Blues...

3 mins left and El Traca was brought on for the niggler, Cahill, as Jelavic continued to go to ground far too easily and the game ended in glorious defeat for the plucky Blues.

Quotes or other material sourced from ToffeWeb Match Report Page



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