Defender offers reasons to be cheerful despite Arsenal frustration

Frustration is certainly the byword for Evertonians right now after a second successive Premier League defeat against Arsenal on Sunday.

Taken in isolation there was plenty to be positive about at the Emirates despite the final score. The Toffees created plenty of chances but a crazy five-minute spell featuring a top quality strike and another that should have been flagged offside killed the game.

But what’s left the fans so despondent is the inevitability of it all. After last weekend’s horror show against West Ham it was so predictable that they would put in an improved performance against the Gunners, leading us all to wonder what would have happened had they played like that against the Hammers?

Then there’s the 26 years and waiting to get a win away at Arsenal. They certainly looked a team to be got at during the first half but familiar failings away to a top six side have haunted the Blues yet again.

The weight of failures past wears heavy on the fans’ shoulders and that has an understandable impact on their patience, which only makes Marco Silva’s job harder. We all know we need to give the new regime time but that doesn’t make dealing with another miserable defeat any easier.

Silva and the players are doing their best to present a united front and it does seem the squad are at least enjoying life under the Portuguese - inconsistent results aside.

Kurt Zouma is the latest player to try and offer a positive assessment of Sunday’s game and offer hope for the future.

Speaking to the official site, the Frenchman said:

“If you watched the game [against Arsenal] you can see that everybody is working in the same way,” he said.

“We are all together – there is no doubt about it. We want to win games and you can see there is a lot of quality in the team.

“The small details make the difference. For the second goal for Arsenal, there was an offside position, maybe.

“But we can’t control these things. We just have to keep the same mentality, the same behaviour.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we deserved, but it is football. Next week is another game, we are at home and we want to win.”

Despite the end result being the same, there were marked differences in the approach to Sunday’s game compared to the same fixture back in January when Everton were 3-0 down inside 15 minutes and went on to lose 5-1.

One of the reasons Silva was brought in was to bring a more positive approach to the side and although the results have yet to come, Zouma is happy with the gameplan.

“We came to Arsenal to try to win. Unfortunately, it turned out differently.

“We played a good game against a good team and it was a determined performance from the whole team.

“We are proud of ourselves but the idea was to win. We are disappointed about the score because I don’t think we deserved that.

“But we have to move on and work to try to get a victory next week.”