Arsenal were victorious at Goodison Park with a 2-5 win over a lacklustre Everton side.
Arsenal’s performance seems to have answered recent criticisms, however, Everton look far from improved and the defeat hands them their fifth in the last seven Premier League games for Koeman’s men.
Arsenal started quickly in the first half forcing Pickford into several saves in the first 10 minutes as Everton struggled to cope with the Gunners intensity and slick passing play. History then repeated itself as Everton broke out, and 15 years on from Wayne Rooney’s wonder debut goal for the Blue’s he did it once again to open the scoring with a spectacular strike.
Everton showed physicality in the first half that had been missing from recent performances, disrupting Arsenal’s play until Granit Xhaka’s deflected shot was pushed into the path of Monreal who fired home to equalise. Pickford who had a wonderful game despite the result made a brilliant save denying Alexis Sanchez just before halftime.
Arsenal started the second half in similar fashion to the first and their pressure soon paid off. They broke out quickly from an Everton attack with pace and precision, with Mesut Ozil guiding in a perfect Sanchez cross with his head past Jordan Pickford.
With the pressure piling on Ronald Koeman, his decision not to replace Idrissa Gueye at half-time did little to help the Dutchman, as the midfielders reckless challenge on Xhaka saw him receive his second yellow card. Moments later Arsenal broke once again and Lacazette scored ending another slick piece of passing football with a goal. Ramsey then scored to make it 1-4 as a pass straight through the middle of Everton’s defence tore the Toffee’s apart.
Omar Niasse capitalised on a poor Monreal back pass to dispossess Petr Cech, though it proved to be nothing but a consolation goal. Only half of the Goodison fans in attendance will have seen this goal and the majority of them had left in despair due to their team’s poor performance.
Moments later, Sanchez scored to make it 5-2 as the Everton team was met with a chorus of boos from the Everton faithful. Everton’s second half performance was little short of embarrassing and sees them drop into the relegation zone once again. Koeman seems to lack the answers to fix a broken Everton side.
When both teams were feeling the pressure of recent performances, it was Arsene Wenger’s men that stepped up to the task. Everton do not look to be improving and lack the ability to compete for 90 minutes. The odds seem to be stacked against Ronald Koeman and it now looks to be a question of how long before he loses his job.
