Arsenal face Everton on Sunday at the Emirates Stadium, as they look to retain their place at third place in the league and continue to march towards Champions League football.
The game will now have added significance after Arsenal’s humiliating Champions League defeat to Monaco in North London, in what was one of the worst Arsenal performances in years. Eyes will not be on the team to see how they react, or whether they will once again crumble under the pressure.
The Toffees have endured a difficult second season under Roberto Martinez, which has seen them slide down the league table. Part of this is due to their Europa League adventures but, plainly, it hasn’t been a season up to scratch for Everton.
Should results go against them this weekend, they could find themselves just three points above the relegation zone. For a side that would have entered the season with hopes of European football, this is not good enough.
That said, they’ve shown a bit more fight recently. They comfortably dispatched Young Boys in the Europa League first-leg and fought back against Leicester City last week to secure a 2-2 draw. In fact, they’ve only lost one of their last six Premier League matches- and that was against league leaders Chelsea.
During that run, the Toffees have taken points off of Liverpool and Manchester City, though they were both at home. On the road they have struggled, with just one victory in their last eight away fixtures- and that came against Crystal Palace at the end of January.
In terms of players to look out for, much like Everton themselves, they have all been hit and miss this season. Romelu Lukaku is the league top scorer with seven but last weekend he was very poor, just a few days after hitting a hat-trick against Young Boys.
Tim Howard has been in poor form this season and Arsenal’s forwards should be able to nick a couple of goals against him but they need to be wary of Steven Naismith, who has a habit of scoring against the Gunners.
Arsenal may well find Everton difficult to break down as a point at the Emirates will be a great result for them, whilst the Gunners will look for a win- with Tottenham not playing until later in the week due to the League Cup and Liverpool, Manchester City or both dropping points earlier in the day.
To be fair to Everton, Arsenal’s horrendous performance last night was possibility the worst thing that could have happened to them ahead of the game, as Arsenal will now be looking to redeem face and the fans will be up for it.