Wizard of Oz has Koeman on brink 43
BRIEFLY, this threatened to be a throwback afternoon for Everton. A supreme right-foot shot from Wayne Rooney was too much for Arsenal as the 31-year- old struck in the same way, at the same end and against the same opposition as he had famously here 15 years ago.
It was a terrific moment but, ultimately, that is all it turned out to be. A moment, a solitary piece of flimsy nostalgia subsequently buried by the miserable reality of life at modern-day Everton.
Rooney left the field a hero on that day a decade and a half ago. It was to be the start of something, for him at least. This afternoon may merely turn out to be the end for his manager Ronald Koeman.
Rooney’s last act here was to be substituted just after Arsenal had clinched the game with a third goal with quarter of an hour left. As he left the field, so did his young team-mate Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
The striker had broken his nose but still boos rained down on Koeman from the Gwladys Street End. A reign that started well last season has disintegrated into confusion and chaos before winter is even upon us. Can Koeman survive this? It is two wins in 13 now and Everton are getting worse. There is no apparent method to Koeman’s selections or tactics so it is beginning to look very doubtful that he can.
Everton now face a run of slightly more palatable league fixtures and that works in Koeman’s fa v o u r, in theory at least. But they are in the bottom three and that might be the trigger for major shareholder Farhad Moshiri to make a decision.
Certainly, Everton were well beaten here. The game ended haphazardly — three goals coming at the death — and by the end the margin was three. But it should have been greater and Koeman tried to clutch at straws afterwards.
‘The positive was how we started the game,’ Koeman said. That was not true. Everton looked as though they may be swept away by Arsenal’s early forays and the fact the home team actually scored first, in the 12th minute, was a miracle in itself. Everton could have been two down by then.
Maybe Arsenal were the wrong team to play here. Smarting after last week’s defeat at Watford, Arsene Wenger’s side were full of energy and ambition and incisive play. But at the moment everyone would fancy facing Koeman’s team.
Koeman made changes to personnel and formation, starting with a back three. It didn’t work and, by the time the second half started, he had reverted to a back four. If he had a plan for Arsenal, he was hiding it well. Rooney’s goal was magnificent — not as good as the one that beat David Seaman here all
those years ago but how could it be? His shot swept across Petr Cech, giving the keeper no chance. Another goal may have taken Everton somewhere, but the speed of Arsenal’s football was too much and, when Nacho Monreal equalised before half-time, all the pieces fell into place for Wenger’s team. The excellent Mesut Ozil headed in Alexis Sanchez’s cross in the 53rd minute and, once Idrissa Gana Gueye was sent off for a lunge at Granit Xhaka with 22 minutes left, Arsenal eased away with goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Aaron Ramsey. Koeman cited the red card, but Everton had long since lost control of the game. A mix-up between Monreal and Cech gifted Oumar Niasse a goal in added time before Sanchez fired in at the end.
Everton had finished as they had started: meekly. If Koeman’s players are still with him they need to find a different way of showing it.