Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - Solid defending from Everton today against title-challenging Arsenal, but once again the result remains the same. Third consecutive 1-0 defeat at Goodison Park.

90+4’ - Arsenal holding the ball by the corner flag, that should pretty much be that.
There’s the whistle, Everton lose 1-0 at home to Arsenal.

90’ - Patterson’s press wins the ball in a dangerous area, finds DCL on the left, and he stabs his shot/cross well wide.
Incredulity at Goodison as Hooper only adds four minutes! The substitutions alone don’t cover that!!

88’ - Everton freekick into the box, Raya grabs it, then goes over a crowd and loses the ball, but ref Hooper immediately calls for a foul.

86’ - Two last subs for the Blues, with Youssef Chermiti making his Goodison debut along with Nathan Patterson, it’s McNeil (looked really rusty today) and Young coming off.

84’ - Everton ping the ball into the box, head tennis for a bit before the Gunners clear.
Young caught late and the Blues cannot take advantage, Goodison pretty unhappy that the player wasn’t booked or the play brought back.

80’ - More changes. James Garner replaces Doucoure, while Tomiyasu and Havertz are on for the Gunners.

77’ - Myko saves the Blues! Both Tarky and Branth were on the ground trying to block a shot, and it’s Myko who comes across to block the effort.

74’ - Still not panic stations for the Blues. Another good overlap from Arsenal on the right results in a White cross that an unmarked Vieira botches, whew.

73’ - Fantastic ball from Pickford to Myko running around the back, and the Ukraine international wins a corner. Young takes it, but no one is challenging Raya and the goalie collects.

69’ - Corner taken short, Trossard hits the cutback from Saka with venom and accuracy and it goes in off the back post. Ugh, Arsenal lead 1-0. Nothing Pickford could do there.

66’ - Calvert-Lewin is on for Beto, while Gabriel Jesus replaces Nketiah.
Ball pings to Danjuma who tries a lob and it goes just over.

64’ - Vieira fouls Gueye on the front edge of the middle third. Young with another chance to put the ball in the box, the intention was too obvious with Tarky to try head it across goal, but there’s four red shirts around him.

60’ - More danger in the box but another good header from Branthwaite and Pickers can get Doucs away. The Blues hold on to the ball for a while though and can’t create a real opening.

58’ - Doucs loses the ball and Nketiah is on it in a flash, Tarky cuts it out for a corner.
Now properly cleared, another corner on the Everton left. Short to Trossard, Arsenal set a pick but Tarky fights around it, arms close to his body and it blocks the shot. Another corner.

56’ - Delightful no-look pass from Zinchenko finds Trossard in space, his cutback is cleared well by Myko and the Vieira is lining up to shoot but the offside flag goes up against Trossard.

54’ - Dangerous cross into the box, pings off a blue shirt and Tarky hoofs clear.

53’ - Not for the first time Myko takes his eye off the ball and it squirms away, ending a spell of possession.

48’ - The Blues look to break through Beto, the forward runs right into Gabriel and goes down, the Arsenal player is booked. A freekick opportunity for the Blues, not good enough from Young and it’s cleared.

47’ - More danger! Vieira puts it through the six-yard box, no one can meet it, Saka puts it back and Big Branth cuts it out, a shooting chance that Pickers parries and Vieira puts it over. Early danger here.

46’ - The Blues start off the second stanza and promptly lose the ball.

Halftime Thoughts - Everton were better in the second part of the first half. Continue with the physical game, be better with the ball in the opposing half, and keep up the work rate.

45+4’ - Onana fouled on a break and the ref blows for a foul and halftime, the scores are somehow still level, 0-0.

45+3’ - Beto and Saliba have a coming together, Beto’s arm might have caught the defender’s neck, but Saliba goes down clutching his face like he caught a Mike Tyson jab. Hooper unimpressed, rightfully so.

45+1’ - McNeil shooting chance, comes to nothing.
Onana with a very obvious pass and the Gunners can break, Young takes the foul and is booked too.

45’ - Last time Everton played Arsenal (in London), they lost concentration just about now and the game got away from them. Now McNeil makes a mistake but is lucky Vieira’s pass is poor.
Four plus minutes to be added on.

44’ - McNeil and Danjuma have switched flanks, still getting no joy.

41’ - White with a shooting attempt, straight at Pickford. Meanwhile the Blues try to play out again, and again they misplace a pass as Gana fails to find Myko.

39’ - Rice takes out Gueye and Simon Hooper sees that one, with a smile. The Blues have a freekick, Young tries to get it into the box and Arsenal can clear.

37’ - Gunners on the floor everywhere as the Blues are leaving a foot in or getting there late. How Myko has not been booked for that on Saka we’ll never know, but hey, we already know this about inconsistent refereeing.

31’ - Chance! Doucoure nicks the ball off Rice and charges forward, tries to go around Saliba and goes over the defender but that is clearly not a penalty.
Now Myko fouls Saka and Odegaard can put the ball in the box, Myko clears for a throw.

29’ - Saliba ushers Beto out of play when the Blues had a marginal shooting chance. Now the Blues can set up again, and Young plays in a good cross but it’s only McNeil who can get there and Raya grabs it.

27’ - Saka skins Myko and is in acres of space, the Blues can only partly block the cutback before a cross back into the box is overhit.

24’ - Martinelli seems to have done himself some harm on that goal, feeling his hamstring and goes off, Leandro Trossard on for him.

20’ - Punished. Beto tries to cut out a long ball, but hits all the way back for Nketiah to Vieira, he finds Martinelli in space behind Young and the Brazilian tucks home at the far post. That was coming, though VAR will check it.
VAR says No Goal! Whew, had to have been very very close.

17’ - Doucs heads a bouncing ball goalwards trying to find Beto, but Gabriel gets there first to head back to Raya.
The Blues intercept a pass in their own half and try to set off on a break, but the ball from Beto to Doucs in space is cut out too.

15’ - Everton football right now for you - Doucoure puts in the effort to nick the ball off Odegaard, and then promptly gives it away with a poor pass.

12’ - Pickford comes out to clear a backpass and Eddie Nketiah gets there half a second later and the England #1 goes flying, Goodison quite unimpressed and the volume goes up a notch.

8’ - McNeil gets caught in possession and loses the ball in the middle third, and Branthwaite has to come over to clear for a corner.
Saka’s overhits it, Branthwaite’s clearance comes off Young for another one from the Everton right this time. Taken short, comes to Vieira for a shot but it’s wild.

7’ - Possession has been all Arsenal so far. The couple of times the Blues have had the ball, they haven’t been able to find any outlets for it.

3’ - Interestingly, it’s been Arnaut Danjuma on the right, and Dwight McNeil on the left. The latter helps out with a clearance for an early corner for the visitors. Captain James Tarkowski with the imposing clearance.

1’ - The visitors get us underway!

After a minute’s silence for the victims of the natural disasters in Libya and Morocco, here we go!

The starting lineups are out, and Everton will have Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the bench, with Dwight McNeil and Vitaliy Mykolenko in the XI. Interestingly, it's Nathan Patterson and James Garner that give way.

For the visitors, Gabriel Jesus is on the bench. Interestingly, days after there was chatter about Aaron Ramsdale replacing Jordan Pickford as England #1, he’s dropped for David Raya.

Preview

Everton come back from the international break looking to make good on some of the form they have shown to start this season. While they had begun last season with a similar paucity of points, it was the defence that looked good under Frank Lampard while conversely this season they’re creating plenty of chances amidst indifferent defending.

Unfortunately for the Blues, the schedule does get tougher in terms of opposition they’re taking on, so Sean Dyche better have taken advantage of the last fortnight or so to work out some better game plans.

Arsenal are looking to go a step better than last season when they ran Premier League champions Manchester City close before Pep Guardiola’s side ran away from them late on. One of those results that did peg the Gunners back was a loss at Goodison Park, a fixture which has become a bit of a bogey game for former Blue Mikel Arteta.

Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchweek 5

Date and start time: Saturday, September 17th at 8:30 a.m. PT / 11:30 a.m ET / 4:30 p.m. BST

Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 39,572

Weather: 69°F/21°C, cloudy, 20% chance of precipitation, 14 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: USA Network, Telemundo - United States; Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Main Event - United Kingdom; Fubo - Canada, beIN Sports Premium 1, SuperSport Premier League ROA, SuperSport MaXimo 2, Star Sports Select HD 1

Radio: evertontv, BBC Radio 5 Live, SiriusXM FC

Live stream: Fubo, nbcsports.com, Sky GO Extra, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, Universo Now, ESPN Play Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now, RUSH, Hotstar VIP, JioTV

Gamethread: Live blog will commence an hour ahead of kickoff.

*Royal Blue Mersey has affiliate partnerships and may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links provided.

Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Last Meeting

The Toffees beat Arsenal at Goodison Park last season in Sean Dyche’s first game in charge of the Blues after James Tarkowski’s header from a corner was the difference-maker. The Gunners would get their revenge a month later when they dismantled Everton 4-0, and it could easily have been more.