Everton (1) 1 - 0 (0) Arsenal
Goodison Park, Saturday 21st January 2006
FA Premiership
Arsenal:
Lehmann
Gilbert (Hleb 74) Campbell Senderos Lauren
Ljungberg Gilberto Cesc Pires (Diaby 81)
Henry Reyes
The Jekyll and Hyde season continued with this, another
abject away performance. Everton used the tough approach that
so many sides have found effective against us, and dominated
the first half in particular.
Ashley Cole's new injury forced the return of Kerrea Gilbert,
with Lauren switching to left back, and Sol Campbell came
back in in place of :Johan_Djourou.
Gilbert managed to deny James Beattie early on, with the ref
waving away claims that he'd used a hand. Soon after, the
right back was involved up the other end, getting to the goal-line
before cutting the ball back through a crowded box. It reached
Freddie Ljungberg at the far post but Nigel Martyn managed to
touch his shot onto the post. It came out and hit Reyes on
the face, rebounding towards goal only to be cleared.
That was on about 12 minutes, and a minute later Everton
took the lead. It was a pretty optimistic lob forward from Cahill,
but Beattie managed to muscle his way through Campbell and Senderos
to give himself a fairly easy finish.
Arsenal had plenty of possession but Everton defended deep and
hit us on the break, a simple but effective tactic. Beattie
should have made it 2 when he anticipated Cesc's pass-back
under pressure and intercepted it, but while he managed to beat
Lehmann with his shot, it also went past the post.
Arsenal started the second half with a bit more oomph. Thierry Henry had
a goalbound shot deflected wide. But we still weren't putting
Martyn under much pressure and before long the home side were
troubling us again. On 64 minutes Campbell's sliding interception
stopped Osman's cross from reaching Beattie for an easy finish,
and Cahill's header from the resulting corner only just cleared the
crossbar.
Wenger tried to change things. A slightly strange substitution saw
Alexander Hleb come on for Gilbert and Freddie switch to right back,
and with 10 minutes to go Abou Diaby came on for his debut.
But Beattie could have made it 2 again before that, when Campbell
accidentally found him with a backward header - but the striker's
shot was deflected just wide off of Lauren.
Cesc Fabregas got himself sent off ridiculously. Henry had been
running up the wing and nearly got hacked down by Cahill. Henry
himself just gave a look and continued with his run, but Cesc
saw red (in the angry sense) and went over to have it out with
Cahill. Stupid boy. I didn't realise he had that kind of thing
in him. | 
