It’s fair to say Sean Dyche has developed a knack for frustrating Arsenal over the years.
It’s a record that extends beyond Mikel Arteta and this current Gunners iteration right the way back to the days of yore, when Arsene Wenger was at the helm and his sides would toil endlessly at Turf Moor for scant reward, often leaving with more injuries than points.
At Burnley, Dyche took great satisfaction in finding ways to upset the Gunners style, stifling and smothering their tippy-tappy football (as he no doubt would have seen it) while bludgeoning them with aerial assaults at the other end. I’d hoped those days might be over when Burnley parted ways with the former Chesterfield man.
Alas, our trip to Everton barely a month ago, just a week after Dyche’s return to the Premier League, was merely a resumption of those hostilities. The Toffees, coming off the back of a miserable spell under Frank Lampard, suddenly found themselves the sort of shape, organisation and discipline that were the hallmarks of Burnley in Dyche’s heyday.
It was a terribly frustrating defeat that day and, for the first 40 minutes of last night’s encounter, I feared we were in for more of the same.
The visitors were brutally well drilled and succeeded in shutting down any and all passing lanes. The play was condensed into a tiny part of the pitch and Arsenal were left scratching their heads in search of a solution. And, in truth, it looked a lot like they might struggle to find any answer to the puzzle posed by the relegation strugglers.
That is, until a moment of sheer craftsmanship from the roaming Oleksandr Zinchenko turned the match on its head. His sublime through ball for Bukayo Saka was deft and delicious and the young Englishman showed no mercy from close range. That breakthrough was huge for Arsenal and changed the complexion of the rest of the match.
We’d barely settled back into our seats when Saka robbed Idrissa Gueye and Gabriel Martinelli pounced on the loose ball to make it 2-0. From despair to delirium inside five minutes.
Tasked with having to play on the front foot, or at least show a little more initiative outside their own defensive third, Everton were helpless. They lacked the craft, ideas or intent to make any real impression on the hosts and the second-half was something of a masterclass.
In fairness, Aaron Ramsdale was called upon on occasion to keep his clean sheet in tact, and he did that superbly well, but there was never any more than a passing threat about Everton, no momentum, no steady build of pressure or feeling of belief that they might take something from the game.
That allowed Arsenal to play with a sort of freedom and frivolity that saw them ascend to a level far beyond this Everton side. It was glorious to watch at times.
Goals for Martin Odegaard and Martinelli in the second half were the least our play deserved and typified the sort of class and confidence running through this team at the moment. They have truly picked themselves up and dusted down the disappointments of February – and in good time too.
Dyche, meanwhile, was left bemused and perplexed on the touchline, unable to respond or coax anything more from a side setup to play in one way. In fairness, when it works, that style of play can be hugely effective but it is only ever a mistake away from ruin and so it was for Everton on Wednesday night.
It felt good to exact a little revenge on Dyche after defeat at Goodison Park and good that our patience and persistence was ultimately rewarded. I must confess, I had little patience during that opening half so I was only too happy to be proved wrong by the end of play.
We will have another tough nut to crack at the weekend as AFC Bournemouth come to town in search of points and you can be confident they’ll be looking to Dyche-ball as a model for how they might go about it. Then as last night, Arsenal will need to move the ball smartly and quickly but, above all, they must show patience.
Until then, let’s bask in the glow of a quite excellent win.
Blog on You Gunners 