By George Overhill

17th Sep, 2023 | 8:16pm

Everton produce '95 minutes of squalor' in defeat to Arsenal as club chiefs must heed 'growing depths of despair' - Dominic King

Everton produced “95 minutes of squalor” as they lost 1-0 to Arsenal at Goodison Park on Sunday, according to Dominic King.

The Daily Mail journalist reacted to the result via Twitter (17 September) as the Toffees suffered their fourth defeat out of five in the Premier League, to leave them with just one point, to highlight the fact that the next two age groups down also haven’t won a game yet.

He called on “those in positions to change this at Finch Farm” as needing to “understand the growing depths of despair” around the club.

Sean Dyche’s side are 18th in the Premier League, ahead of only promoted Burnley and Luton Town who have three games in hand between them.

Hopeless?

Against a backdrop of stability off the pitch and with a few more points on the board this loss could simply be chalked up to failing to hold out against one of the strongest sides in the division.

But when there looked to be little chance of Everton actually scoring a goal if Abdoulaye Doucouré didn’t do something on his own, and with a general malaise growing amid doubts over the future at board level, it is all the more concerning for supporters.

It has been two seasons of sustained struggle at Goodison Park and already looks like it will be a third, so fans just want something to glean some hope from.

Most indications are that relegation for this side would be catastrophic compared to virtually any other club in the top flight, and yet the team isn’t performing in a way that provides any assurances they will avoid it.

There is finally a takeover on the cards, but even that seems to have thrown up more questions that answers amid a growing number of voices suggesting it is no cause for celebration, and amid questions raised over whether 777 Partners can even afford to take over from Farhad Moshiri.

There seems to be enough in this squad to put together a few results if everyone performs but all too often they are producing as less than the sum of their parts, and Dyche hasn’t made them hard to beat like he often did at Burnley.

Arsenal was always going to be a tough one so the manager can maybe write this loss off, but Brentford, Luton and Bournemouth in the next three Premier League games need to show something and fast.

In other Everton news, Gary Neville couldn’t believe what he was seeing during a “weird” incident in the game at Goodison Park.