SINCE 1998
"It's been updated!"
 

0 users online

Premiership Monday Preview - 19.09.05

last updated Monday 19th September 2005, 2:57 PM

The last game in Match Day 6 of the Premiership programme sees Everton making their way to Highbury.

Some time media darling Everton manager David Moyes will not be enjoying his salt and porridge this morning.

His squad finished fourth in the Premiership last season, above local rivals Liverpool, and therefore made it into the promised land of Champions League football. This season they got thrashed and dumped out of the Promised Land at the first hurdle, are fighting a 5-1 first leg defeat in the UEFA Cup and are 19th in the Premiership. The Toffees are also the only squad Fulham have managed to beat in their first six games. Tough game this football.

Arsenal don't seem to be doing a lot better at 10th in the league, with just one point more than The Cottagers. The Gunners have won 2 and lost 2 so far and still have Thierry Henry out injured.

If Everton arrive determined to defend it might be a boring evening's soccer. Individual match comments below come from Jonathan Turner for BettingZone.
Premiership Weekend Games
Home Away Res/KO T.V.
Saturday 17 September 2006
Charlton Chelsea 0-2  
Fulham West Ham 1-2  
Portsmouth Birmingham 1-1  
Sunderland West Brom 1-1  
Aston Villa Tottenham 1-1  
Sunday 18 September 2006
Liverpool Man Utd 0-0  
Blackburn Newcastle 0-3  
Wigan Middlesbrough 1-1  
Man City Bolton 0-1  
Monday 19 September 2006
Arsenal Everton 20.00 Sky1
Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Gd
1 Chelsea 6 6 0 0 12 0 18 +12
2 Charlton 5 4 0 1 8 3 12 +5
3 Man Utd 5 3 2 0 6 1 11 +5
4 Bolton 6 3 2 1 7 4 11 +3
5 Man City 6 3 2 1 7 5 11 +2
6 West Ham 5 3 1 1 10 4 10 +6
7 Tottenham 6 2 3 1 5 3 9 +2
8 Middlesbro 6 2 2 2 6 7 8 -1
9 Wigan 5 2 1 2 4 4 7 0
10 Arsenal 4 2 0 2 7 4 6 +3
11 Liverpool 4 1 3 0 1 0 6 +1
12 Aston Villa 6 1 3 2 5 9 6 -4
13 Portsmouth 6 1 2 3 5 8 5 -3
14 Newcastle 6 1 2 3 4 7 5 -3
15 Birmingham 6 1 2 3 5 9 5 -4
16 Fulham 6 1 2 3 5 9 5 -4
17 West Brom 6 1 2 3 6 11 5 -5
18 Blackburn 6 1 2 3 3 8 5 -5
19 Everton 4 1 0 3 1 4 3 -3
20 Sunderland 6 0 1 5 3 10 1 -7
Arsenal v Everton (KO 20.00 - Monday - 19 September 05)

Arsenal haven't made the best of starts to the season but it's hard to see them doing anything other than claiming a comfortable win against Everton in Monday night's clash at Highbury.

The Gunners have twice been beaten by Chelsea and - more surprisingly - were outplayed by Middlesbrough last weekend as Thierry Henry began an enforced spell on the sidelines, but their problems pale into insignificance compared to Everton.

The Toffees were the Premiership's biggest over-achievers last term but the current campaign has been little short of a nightmare. All the hard work in grabbing the final Champions League place came to nothing as they failed to even reach the group stages following an awful draw which pitted them against Spaniards Villarreal.

And that appears to have knocked the stuffing out of them - they've since been hammered 5-1 in the UEFA Cup by Dinamo Bucharest and head into this match in the Premiership's relegation zone. And the bad news is that despite all their heroics last season, the one team they didn't come close to coping with was Arsenal. They were humbled 4-1 in front of their own fans in their opening game and were then taken apart 7-0 at Highbury.

Admittedly that was right at the backend and had nothing riding on it but it was still a humiliation for David Moyes' side. And in between those two matches, the Toffees' virtual first-choice XI was knocked out of the Carling Cup by a second-string Gunners side!

That then doesn't bode well for Monday night - and neither does Everton's record at Highbury ahead of their final league visit to the north London venue. They've lost their last nine Premiership fixtures there (and by an aggregate 31-8 margin) so the Gunners' move to the Emirates Stadium surely can't come soon enough.

Everything then points to a win for Arsenal but with Henry out, and a couple of subdued performances since his injury layoff still fresh in the mind, it may not be as easy as last season's 7-0. Tthe man who Arsenal will be hoping can orchestrate things in Henry's absence will be Dennis Bergkamp.

His performance in the 7-0 mauling of Everton at the end of last season was simply magical. Just for good measure Bergkamp netted the opening goal in the reverse fixture at Goodison and he comes into the game full of confidence after his last-gasp winner against FC Thun.

Verdict: Easy win for Arsenal
Source