The joy of Everton’s bright start has worn off quickly as injuries and suspensions have taken their toll. Now a challenge awaits the Blues as they meet a top six side for the first time since Marco Silva’s arrival as they travel to take on Arsenal.
The Toffees’ record at the Emirates just gets more terrible by the year, a statistic that has well-represented the futility of the last few years as Everton have failed to match the pace of the top six clubs.
Silva’s honeymoon is well and truly over and he faces the challenge of shoring up a leaky defence while masterminding an attacking strategy that is not over-reliant on a sparkling Richarlison.
Arsenal meanwhile have ridden out a rocky start to Unai Emery’s tenure and have won three Premier League games on the trot, while easily winning a midweek Europa League tie. Surprisingly the manager named a decently-strong side for the game, and it’ll be interesting to see how much squad rotation he does for Sunday’s game.