Dave Jones predicts Everton vs Arsenal result for Sky Sports
Everton will continue to wait for their first Premier League win of the season thanks to defeat at home to Arsenal this week, predicts Dave Jones.
The Sky Sports host gave his view of the result for Sky Sports Super6 on the broadcaster’s website, were he backed Mikel Arteta’s side to leave Goodison Park on Sunday (17 September) with a 2-0 victory.
Sean Dyche’s men recorded their first point and first goals with a 2-2 draw at Sheffield United prior to the international break but have been on the wrong end of a pair of 1-0 defeats at home so far.
The Everton boss’ first game in charge of the club last January was this fixture, where a James Tarkowski goal secured a 1-0 win [BBC Sport, 4 February], which he could badly do with replicating at the weekend.
Uphill struggle
It won’t come as a surprise to anybody that last season’s Premier League runners-up coming to a team that only escaped relegation on the final day is going to be a tough assignment.
But when Everton have had their backs against the wall over the past two seasons they have managed to produce some of their best performances against the big six in front of the Evertonians.
Dyche needs to recapture some of the formula which got his tenure off to a solid start on Merseyside last term, keeping it tight at the back nicking one at the other end, something which has dissipated in the months since.
Nicking anything in front of goal has been a major challenge so far in the new campaign, but with Beto brought in late before the transfer deadline to cover for the absence of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and wide men returning from injury the Toffees should be better equipped to change that.
It looks like events off the pitch aren’t going to calm down any time soon but the squad needs to start righting things as soon as possible by picking up points.
Opportunities for that don’t come much tougher than an Arsenal clash at the moment but Dyche has managed to get his team to do it once already so it is far from impossible.
In other Everton news, the club have been proven right in the transfer market for once after a sad situation left a player “practically in tears”.