With pressure knocking on the door, Everton and Arsenal duel this Sunday, October 22, for the ninth round of the 2017/2018 English Championship. Starting at 10:30 a.m., the confrontation takes place at Goodison Park in Liverpool.
Everton’s recent performance
The situation of the blues of Liverpool in the Premier League is much more delicate. Despite the investments made in signings that generated the expectation of an even better campaign than the previous season, the club did not see within the four lines the expected results. With eight points (two wins, two draws and four losses), he started the ninth round in sixteenth place, only two points ahead of Leicester, who opened the relegation zone.
The situation is even worse in the Europa League. At home on Thursday, October 19, Everton lost to Lyon 2-1. With just one point (a draw and two losses), it is in the fourth and last place of group E behind even the tiny Apollon, of Cyprus, which scored two points. The leaders are Atalanta with seven points, followed by Lyon, who has five.
There are still three days to go, but the English have hardly managed a reaction that will allow them to qualify for the knockout phase of the competition, which is reserved for the top two.
The game against Lyon served to show the real concerns of coach Frank de Boer, who has been forced to live with rumors about a possible dismissal. By scoring bad campaigns in both the Premier League and the Europa League, he has chosen to spare some of his top players. It showed clearly that he bets on the match against Arsenal to keep his job.
He was not even able to sidestep medical problems. Midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin (seven matches in the 2017/2018 English Championship, without a goal), one of the starters who was connected to face Lyon, failed to reach the end of the showdown. Left the field in the second half with an injury to the left loss. You need to be tested for severity of the injury. Thus, it became doubt for the confrontation of this Sunday. In addition to it are also delivered to the medical department midfielder Ross Barkey and striker Aaron Lenon.
The current form of Arsenal
Even though they were a bit more comfortable compared to Everton, Arsenal also decided not to risk further injuries in Thursday’s game against Serbia’s Red Star in the Europa League. Coach Arsene Wenger not only climbed a team full of reserves but also dismissed most of the trip’s owners. They stayed in London preparing to face Everton.
Team B did not do a great job. However, benefited by the expulsion of an opponent athlete in the second half, he was able to take advantage of the numerical advantage and with Olivier Girou marked the goal of victory by 1 to 0 that led Arsenal to nine points. With a 100% advantage, the Gunners lead the Group G with five points of advantage in comparison with Estrela Vermelha and Bate Borisov and can guarantee already on the next day, with two rounds of anticipation, their classification for the second phase of the competition.
In the English Premier League, Arsenal suffered a defeat in the eighth round to startling Watford 2-1. With that, he had an unbeaten run of seven games (six wins and one draw) interrupted and saw the top-ranked rivals open to advantage. With 13 points (four wins, one draw and three losses), the London side opened the ninth round of the Premier League in sixth place outside the international tournament qualifying zone.
Before setting the stage for his team to face Liverpool Blues Wenger will need to listen to his medical department. They are in injury treatment and depend on new examinations to know if the goalkeeper David Ospina, who is reserve and has not had performances in the edition 2017/2018 of the English Championship; defenders Kristian Bielik (without performances), Calum Chambers (without performances) and Shkodran Mustavi (five games, no goal); and striker Danny Wellbeck (six games, three goals).
History of the matches
Who played at home took the best in the previous season of the Premier League. In the first round in Liverpool, the blues made 2 to 1. In the second in London, the reds scored 3 to 1.
PREDICTION: Everton win@ 3.80
