Everton's Trip to Arsenal: Opposition View as Thierno Barry Praised

The Toffees head to London on Saturday to face the champions, and it’s hard to think of a tougher away day in the Premier League right now.

Arsenal have only failed to win two games this season. They’re also unbeaten in the Champions League, despite being without William Saliba all season. But there's a chance they'll be without Bukayo Saka on Saturday, and Everton are known for their defensive solidity, most of the time anyway. That could make this a tighter game than the table suggests.

To find out how Arsenal have been this season, and where Everton could hurt them, we spoke to Lucas of Arsenal’s Roundtable.

Arsenal won the Community Shield in emphatic fashion against Manchester City, but Lucas admits the start to the league campaign hasn’t quite lived up to that.

“It’s been a positive start to the season, even if the expectations raised by the Community Shield demolition over Manchester City have been tempered slightly. We’ve only failed to win two games, the shock defeat at Brighton before the international break and the draw at Bayern Munich this week, which ended our 14-game winning run in the Champions League league phase.”

The performances haven’t always been convincing, with plenty of narrow wins. Even so, Lucas believes most Gooners would have taken this start given the fixtures and the circumstances.

“A lot of the performances have been far from convincing, with five of our wins decided by a single goal. But we were handed a tough opening run, with trips to Villa Park, Sunderland and Forest, fixtures we took just two points from last season. Add in the injuries and a quick turnaround from the World Cup, and I think most Arsenal fans would have taken this start if you’d offered it to them before a ball was kicked.”

And with Manchester City’s off-field troubles, Lucas thinks the title could be Arsenal’s to lose again.

“Away from Arsenal, Manchester City look like the only side capable of stopping us retaining the Premier League title for the first time in our history. With Maresca’s side facing potential punishment following the verdict on the Premier League’s financial charges, we could find ourselves almost unchallenged on the run to the finish.”

Arsenal’s defence has stayed rock solid even without Saliba, and Lucas believes the midfield remains their strongest area.

“Our status as champions shows how difficult other teams found it to exploit any weaknesses we had last season. That defensive solidity has carried on, even without William Saliba through a back injury, with six clean sheets in eleven games in all competitions. The midfield hasn’t fully gelled yet, with Myles Lewis-Skelly and Bruno Guimarães rotating alongside Declan Rice and Martin Ødegaard, but it’s still arguably our best department and has been crucial in both boxes.”

There is a weakness Everton could target, though, and it should suit Moyes’s side down to the ground. Arsenal’s high line leaves them open on the break, and Lucas points out that Everton are one of the best teams in the league at punishing teams on the counter.

“That said, I think the biggest weakness other teams can exploit offensively is actually our attacking chance creation. At the City Ground last weekend, Noni Madueke’s winner was our only shot on target, and even that took a deflection. We play the highest defensive line in the league, and a lack of quality in the final third is often made up for with sheer quantity. With that, though, comes a real vulnerability on the counter-attack. Alphonso Davies scored for Bayern after our defenders were caught out of position, and Forest wasted several chances on the break last weekend. Ironically, we rank lowest and Everton rank highest for expected goals from counter-attacks this season, though I think the data is slightly skewed by how deep most teams sit against us, which means few sides commit enough bodies forward to punish us in transition.”

Saka’s injury against Bayern is a big blow, but Lucas says Arsenal’s attack has struggled whether he plays or not. A thin squad out wide hasn’t helped.

“Our attack has looked stale for large periods of this campaign, whether Bukayo Saka is in the side or not. That said, we have produced some brilliant team moves, and there has been a clear focus on starting to progress into the box centrally to reduce our reliance on the wide players. That’s especially important after we lost both Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard this summer and only replaced them with Christos Tzolis, who is now out with a hamstring injury.”

Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke are expected to fill the wide spots. But with Arsenal’s strikers misfiring and Everton’s defence in such good form, Lucas isn’t expecting a goal-fest.

“Because of that, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke had been battling for the vacant spot on the left, but with Saka out, it’s now expected both will get the nod, with Eze on the left and Madueke on the right. The pair have shown real moments of quality, and both stood out at the Allianz during the week, but they’ve also been extremely inconsistent and frustrating. Coupled with Kai Havertz being on a seven-game goal drought and Viktor Gyökeres yet to score a club goal this season, our goals have very often come from midfield.

“Add in the fact that only Arsenal, Brighton and Leeds have conceded fewer than Everton in the league this season, and it’s difficult to confidently predict much in the way of end product on Saturday.”

As we always ask when doing these, we tasked Lucas with picking one player from Everton to come into the Arsenal starting XI.

With Arsenal’s strikers struggling, Lucas went straight for Thierno Barry. He’d be a popular choice among Gooners anyway, after his brace against City helped Arsenal win the title last season.

“Our weakest department is by far the attack, so if I had to take one Everton player, it would be Thierno Barry to lead the line. He has scored three times as many goals as Havertz and Gyökeres combined this season, and he’ll always hold a special place in our hearts for the brace that dented City’s hopes of overhauling us in last season’s title race.”

Lucas thinks Barry would jump at the chance, too.

“As a French striker who grew up in the early 2000s, it’s no surprise that he idolises Thierry Henry, the greatest player in our history. His Instagram profile picture is even his face edited onto Henry’s iconic knee-slide statue outside the Emirates. I think he’d love the chance to lead the line for the champions.”

Evertonians will be hoping he saves his next goal for Saturday, not his next contract.

A big thanks to Lucas from Arsenal’s Roundtable for chatting with us.