After a sketchy thoroughly convincing win over Crystal Palace, Arsenal look to extend their perfect start to the 2013/14 Premier League campaign to 2 wins out of 2.
Ahead of the 30 million pound match on Wednesday, Wenger must be willing to conserve energy of the core of the squad, while desperate to put to bed the curse of the away matches against tougher opposition that stuck so poignantly last year.
Against the teams that finished in the top 9 last year, Tottenham were the only team that Arsenal beat away from home, which is either hilarious or tragic, depending on how deeply rooted your hatred for Spurs is.
Head to head
The last time these two sides met, Everton won by three goals, and took control of Champions League football out of Arsenal’s hands. Luckily, they Spursed it right up and Arsenal finished 7 points ahead of the Toffies (meaning the Gunners finished as close to 5th as they did to 1st).
The Ozil inspired victory in the FA cup aside, Arsenal have not beaten Everton in the league since 2012, with 3 draws and a loss in the meantime.
Since the Premier League started, Arsenal have won 25 of the fixtures, to Everton’s 5 victories, with 12 of the encounters resulting in draws. Everton have never beaten Arsenal twice in a row.
Form
Arsenal come of the back of a frustrating draw in Turkey, after having beaten City in the Community Shield, and Palace in the league. Despite lacking sharpness in both the CL qualifier and the game against Palace, Arsenal were lucky enough not to be punished on either occasion.
Hopefully with increased match fitness and the return of the Germans, Arsenal will have abated some of the factors causing the impotence in front of goal.
Everton managed to twice forgo a winning position against newly promoted Leicester, to ensure they ended their first league game with a solitary point.
Team news- The Germans are back
Everton’s record signing Romelu Lukaku is expected to start his second game as a permanent player, while England’s latest “next big thing”, Ross Barkley is ruled out for the significant future. New signings Muhamed Besic and loanee Christian Atsu could both make their Everton debuts.
Arsenal’s returning World Cup winners are expected to feature on the bench for the trip to Merseyside. An injury to Laurent Koscielny might have brought former German international Per Mertesacker back into the squad for the mid-week tie in Turkey.
Fortunately for everyone, the injury to Koscielny wasn’t as bad as first feared and the BFG will be able to return after a proper rest.
Mikel Arteta and Kieran Gibbs are the latest players to be added to the “Injured Arsenal players” list, which is never a fun read. They are joined by Serge Gnabry, Yaya Sanogo, David Ospina & Theo Walcott. Abou Diaby is not on that list. Repeat, ABOUT DIABY IS NOT INJURED*.
Expected Line Up
Szczesny, Debuchy, Chambers, Koscielny, Monreal Flamini, Ramsey, Wilshere, Sanchez, Cazorla, Giroud
*Arsenal Latest would like to apologize for the inevitable series of events that occur between this article being posted and Diaby being ruled out of the game with a “slight niggle”
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