Arsenal: Unai Emery must be ready to defend against Everton

Everton isn’t the type of team to be taken lightly, Arsenal knows that…

Especially at home, Everton is a force to be reckoned with. While they will never quite be up there with the top six, they are known to put forward a challenge against such teams. I mean, that didn’t seem like the case this season until they recently dismantled Chelsea.

If the Toffees’ match against Chelsea and their recent form are anything to go by, then Arsenal mustn’t take them for granted. No points are guaranteed in the Premier League this season, and this game could be an example of that.

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Arsenal comes into this match in tremendous form. They’ve dropped just two points in their last five Premier League games, and that was arguably unjust against their rivals Tottenham away from home. It’s fair to say, they are the team to watch. Should they win this match against Everton, they will retain their comfortable spot in third place.

They will face challenges, though. Everton is beginning to find their rhythm too, and they are getting more confident in the attacking third. Defending isn’t what Arsenal is notorious for, so I wouldn’t be surprised to Marco Silva flooding the Arsenal third at times. This may mean Arsenal needs to play on the counter, which has worked in their favour before.

Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathopoulos must be on top of their games, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they are. Unai Emery is starting to get the best out of his defenders, even keeping a few more clean sheets of late. Bernd Leno will inevitably be in good form as he has been throughout the majority of this season.

Moral of the story is, the Gunners mustn’t look down. They have more than enough at their disposal to turnover Everton. If they look at what’s going around them, this may pressure them to do well which has been their fatal flaw in recent seasons.

Do you think Arsenal has what it takes to beat Everton this afternoon?