Arteta: My job is on line
Dismal yet again for Arteta’s men as Mina goal sends Everton second
ARSENAL have made their worst start to a season in 46 years after crashing to a 2- 1 defeat at Everton last night.
The crisis-torn Gunners have now gone seven games without a Premier League win, leaving under- fire boss Mikel Arteta admitting his job is on the line.
With just 14 points it’ s Arsenal’s worst start to a topflight campaign since 1974-75.
Arteta, who marks his first anniversary in charge this week, said: ‘ The result is not good enough. It’s not acceptable for this club. We need to win matches and it’s not happening.’
IF Mikel Arteta thought his return to familiar territory would also bring about a change in form and fortune, he was sadly mistaken.
Arsenal only got going in injury time when Jordan Pickford made two fine saves and by then it was too late for the Gunners who looked a pale shadow of the side that lifted the FA Cup only a few months ago.
This is a decent Everton side who have risen to second in the table on the back of their third consecutive win but Arsenal didn’t make it too difficult for them.
Arteta, who spent six years as an Everton player, has serious problems to address as his team slumped to their seventh league game without a victory. Surely they genuinely are too good to go down but they remain stubbornly close to the relegation zone and without t he injured pair Thomas Partey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang they looked short of quality even if the effort wasn’t lacking.
This run represents their worst start to a season since 1974-75 — a dreadful way for Arteta to contemplate his first year in charge with the anniversary today.
It summed up their plight that Rob Holding took the armband in Aubameyang’s absence and marked the occasion with an own-goal.
And even when Nicolas Pepe levelled with a penalty against the run of play, it was lax marking that allowed Yerry Mina to head what turned out to be the winner on the stroke of half-time.
‘We knew they would be exposed at set- pieces,’ admitted Everton striker Dominic Calvert- Lewin afterwards, rubbing further salt in the wound.
For his side, it was a good way to celebrate their own first anniversary of Carlo Ancelotti’s appointment. There have been ups and downs but Everton are looking defensively disciplined at the moment, particularly as t heir modern midfield dog of war Allan was missing for this game.
Their only scare in the second half, before the very end, came when Pickford punched to David Luiz on the edge of the box and the Brazilian hit the post with his deflected strike. Right at the death, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Bukayo Saka had decent attempts but Pickford’s reflexes were equal to both. It was still odd that with Aubameyang nursing a tight calf, £ 60million French international Alexandre Lacazette was only given 15 minutes at the end by Arteta to try and save the game.
The early stages were more chess-like than fully charged with Arsenal defending deep, conscious they had conceded to Southampton after only 18 minutes in midweek.
Despite their best efforts, they didn’t keep their goal intact for much longer on this occasion. Everton had already had a long-range pop from Michael Keane before they struck after 22 minutes.
Tom Davies switched the play to the right where ex-Gunner Alex Iwobi found yards of space despite
Arsenal having so many defensiveminded players on the pitch.
Iwobi had time to pick out a cross and a stooping Calvert- Lewin glanced a header that struck Holding’s leg and went past Leno. Holding looked disgusted at the injustice of it all and Calvert-Lewin, who is chasing the Premier League Golden Boot, probably wasn’t best pleased either to find out it had been classified as an own-goal, though he was charitable enough to state: ‘It is the three points that matter.’
Arsenal looked disjointed and short of confidence but they got a break after 35 minutes when Mina cleared to Maitland-Niles who was foolishly clipped by Davies. Pepe converted from the spot.
All the visitors had to try to do was reach the interval level. But just as the amount of injury time was announced, Everton restored their lead. Calvert-Lewin tried an explosive shot with his left foot that Leno did brilliantly to turn aside for a corner. Any congratulations the goalkeeper received were short-lived. From the resulting setpiece from Gylfi Sigurdsson, Mina rose above any Arsenal defender and, though Leno again got his fingertips to the ball, this time he could only palm it into the net.
A stern-looking Arteta saw his side show more spirit in the second half but without seriously threatening Everton who seemed happy to head the ball away from their box all evening. The only scare came when Luiz hit the ball into the ground first time and watched in anguish as it deflected off an Everton body and on to the post.
In contrast, Everton looked dangerous on the counter with one lung-busting run from Ben Godfrey ending in a cross only marginally behind Calvert-Lewin.
Arteta threw on Joe Willock, then Gabriel Martinelli back from a long-term knee injury and finally, belatedly, Lacazette.
Pickford beat away Saka’s shot towards the end of injury time but a late twist would probably have been more than Arsenal deserved.
Ancelotti will celebrate his first year in charge more heartily than Arteta who seems to collect a red card or own-goal every week. ‘We are pleased. The position in the table is really good,’ said Everton’s Italian maestro. ‘A top performance but we have to keep fighting.’
Arteta remains defiant but knows he has to change results soon or probably have to look for another job. ‘The boys are absolutely still fighting,’ he remarked. ‘We dominated. We created enough chances at least to not lose. We hit the woodwork. We don’t have the luck.’