Just after half time Giroud nodded us ahead after yet another Mesut Özil assist from the corner kick. Crazily enough it was Özil's first set piece assist of the season. This is because Santi Cazorla has been taking most of the dead balls. I remember when Cesc Fabregas was getting all kinds of praise for his assist numbers at this stage last season, most of those were from set pieces, you would imagine that Özil would have even more to his name if he was number one taker of set pieces
We took quite some time to get our engines running, and the opening exchanges were not as fluent as I am accustomed to see. We can certainly attribute the slowness of our start to the fact that most of our players played against Bayern on Tuesday, however the soggy pitch slowing our play down didn't help matters. Both our goals came from aerial balls at a period where we were unable to make much headway as the ball kept getting stuck on the pitch.
In the second half we gave a polished performance with more zip, and while Everton had many opportunities with the ball, I felt we were in the driving seat all game long
Everton had been strong on the break this season and it was a counter attack that presented the visitors with the equaliser. Oxlade-Chamberlain's shot was blocked just outside the Everton box. Deulofeu burst forward and found Barkley in space, it looked as if Gabriel and Ox had him covered until he wriggled past Ox and hit a left footed shot which deflected off the boot of the Brazilian and wrong footed Cech in the Arsenal goal. It was from a similar range to where
Oliver Giroud's impact off the bench on Tuesday night has given him a surprise start this afternoon as Theo Walcott has dropped down to the bench. Per Mertesacker is also absent through illness (again) so Gabriel who has just returned himself will partner Koscielny in defence. As expected Oxlade-Chamberlain replaces the injured Aaron Ramsey on the right.
Tom Cleverley. I was hugely skeptical of the signing because I was never impressed by him at Man United but the way he played against us for Aston Villa last season was impressive. He does so much well, he keeps the ball and can link the play to a high standard. Huge bargain to get him on a free
But just like it was ridiculously premature to write Arsenal off from having a successful season after only a couple of hours into the new campaign, it would be equally insane to get complacent after a good run of form as we are barely approaching the quarter mark in a long marathon. There will be plenty of tests ahead of us that we will need to overcome before we know our fate. One of those tests will be to shake off a physically grueling match in midweek to go again only a few days later, against a side who will be fresh and desperate for Premier League points
So I expect Cazorla and Özil to remain as number 8 and 10 respectively. So I suspect that the only decision will be who plays on the opposite flank to Alexis Sanchez. Danny Welbeck was the preferred option last weekend and if Arsène wants a player who will work harder to put pressure on the ball when we haven't got it then he'll get the nod. But I'm going with the runs and finishing of Walcott today. Welbeck may be saved for Monaco at the Emirates.
I spoke Arsenal pre match about Theo Walcott making a difference to this game and in the 11 minute match, he was the player that made the difference. Our first real attack of the game saw van Persie clip a pass into the stride of Theo Walcott who raced through ahead of former Tottenham defender Sébastien Bassong, Bassong rather clumsily bundled Walcott over in the box and the referee made the correct decision by awarding the penalty. As Bassong prevented a goalscoring
Kieran Gibbs has been sucked back into his injury catch-22 and has swirled into the unavailable category due to a stomach muscle issue so Andre Santos who impressed when he came on during the weekend
Laurent Koscielny will return to the team which will thankfully push Alex Song further forward into the position he needs to be in. Koscielny will resume his partnership with Per Mertesacker and it will be down to Arsene to decide to start Andre Santos or Kieran Gibbs. Arsene would have been able to keep a close eye on their progress during the last week as both would have