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The players are exiting the tunnel! Kick-off is just four earth minutes away.
There’s also this from Andy Hunter on the furore surrounding James Tarkowski since his ridiculously underpunished foul on Alexis Mac Allister on Wednesday:
Everton have condemned threats aimed at James Tarkowski in the aftermath of the Merseyside derby and pledged to work with social media companies and police on any investigations into online abuse.
Tarkowski’s wife, Samantha, said the Everton defender had received death threats after Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at Liverpool and that the family had also been the target of vile abuse. Tarkowski was booked for a reckless 11th-minute tackle on Alexis Mac Allister in the derby and Howard Webb, head of Professional Game Match Officials Limited, has admitted to Liverpool the challenge was worthy of a red card.
The central defender apologised to Mac Allister after the game and Arne Slot, Liverpool’s head coach, welcomed the admission of an error from PGMOL. But that has not stopped abuse of Tarkowski and his family.
Much more here:
Some pre-match reading courtesy of Ed Aarons, who heard Mikel Arteta demand a bigger squad to deal with the intensity of a modern season:
Mikel Arteta believes squad sizes must be increased to cope with the demands placed on players by the increased number of games and has warned that more will suffer serious injuries if the schedule continues to expand.
Arsenal confirmed on Thursday that Gabriel Magalhães had become the latest member of Arteta’s squad to sustain a hamstring injury, with the Brazilian set for surgery and out for the rest of the season. He joins Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Riccardo Calafiori on the sidelines, although there was better news for Arsenal on Jurriën Timber and Ben White before Saturday’s game at Everton.
Much more here:
Mikel Arteta has a chat, saying his team’s main task today is to “hide the weaknesses that we have, with Gabi [freshly-injured defender Gabriel Magalhães] as well we have some others, and play to our strengths”.
We had many other niggles. After the Fulham game we had some issues. What we are playing for is that important that you just have to move on, you have to demand the players to step in again. Gabi has a very important role, something that is not easy to replace.
The teams!
The line-ups in full:
Everton: Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Patterson, Gueye, Iroegbunam, Harrison, Doucoure, Ndiaye, Beto. Subs: Virginia, Keane, McNeil, Chermiti, Young, Broja, Coleman, Alcaraz, Garner.
Arsenal: Raya, Kiwior, Saliba, White, Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Jorginho, Rice, Sterling, Merino, Trossard. Subs: Neto, Tierney, Partey, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Timber, Zinchenko, Gower.
Referee: Darren England.
With half an eye on a home game against Real Madrid on Tuesday Arsenal make five changes, with Martin Odegaard on the bench alongside Bukayo Saka. Their starting XI looks like this: Raya, White, Saliba, Kiwior, Rice, Jorginho, Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Trossard, Sterling, Merino.
Hello world!
“Now,” Mikel Arteta said as he looked ahead to this game, “we have the most important, beautiful part of the season.”
Well that is a cheery thought. The sun is shining, I just walked the dog without needing so much as a jacket, the County Championship has begun, summer feels around the corner, and the routine of football, the league’s relentless grind, is coalescing – perhaps only briefly given the nature of this season’s title and relegation races – into something different, something vital. Having put in the groundwork, having shivered and cursed our way through winter, we need to cherish these moments.
And this might be a key one. Having lost to Liverpool on Wednesday Everton complete their three-day top-two play-off against an Arsenal side that has had an extra day off since their 2-1 win over Fulham, and has zero room for error as they attempt to turn Liverpool’s title procession into something more fraught.
For Everton, with fears of relegation perhaps only one win away from being definitively dispelled, the rest of this season is about setting a standard, creating a platform for more satisfying campaigns to come. "It’s a good test for us now. We were nine unbeaten and it’s about that character now,” said Jordan Pickford. “We’ve tasted defeat against Liverpool, which is never nice for us, but it’s about how do we build and get a result at Goodison against Arsenal. You want those challenges week in, week out. Our resilience as a team was good [against Liverpool] and we need to build on that because we have a few tough games [he’s not kidding – Nottingham Forest (a), Manchester City (h) and Chelsea (a) follow this one], but that’s what the Premier League is all about, playing really good teams.”
Well, not always, but sure.
