Everton v Arsenal: Premier League – live | Premier League

30 min: Nketiah tries a one-two with Odegaard down the middle but Mykolenko is wise to the grift and intercepts. No matter, he comes again, and after Saka holds off Mykolenko down the right, he’s released into the box with a cool pass down the channel. He’s one on one with Pickford, but slices wildly into the crowd from a not-particularly-tight angle. A good chance, that.

28 min: Arsenal are struggling to deal with the Everton press at the moment. They’re not their normal fluent selves. Meanwhile Charles Antaki observes: “Things must’ve been really bad here for couple of routine corners now to generate hysterical ecstasy in the crowd.”

26 min: Onana tries to lob Ramsdale from distance. He doesn’t quite manage it. But Everton are on the front foot here. Does this qualify as a honeymoon period for Sean Dyche?

24 min: That little burst of activity has the Goodison faithful in fine voice. Gary Naylor’s high on life too. “Five men in the box in open play for that Iwobi cross, Scott! Is it 1987?”

22 min: Yep, he’s been doing that all right. Everton win a fourth corner in quick succession, and having hit three long ones in a row, this one’s sent from the left by Iwobi to the near post, where Calvert-Lewin glances wide.

21 min: McNeil swings the corner deep. Onana rises at the left-hand post and his presence forces another corner. Iwobi to take this one. That goes deep too, and now Tarkowski forces a third corner. This one’s cleared, but it’s obvious that Dyche has got his men working on set pieces.

20 min: Iwobi whips a cross in from the right, hoping to find Doucoure. Gabriel is forced to head behind for a corner. Everton load the box.

19 min: Saka’s good to continue and, adding insult to injury, is booed loudly upon taking possession of the ball. Tough crowd.

17 min: Saka copped a proper whack there, actually, and his right eye and cheek has swelled up a tad. The physio continues to make some running repairs. Here’s Mary Waltz again: “Well the Goodison faithful are trying to respond to SEAN (what a idiot I am) Dyche’s call for unity, park the bus, good ole route one, shine your boots on your opponents shin, so far so good.”

15 min: Gueye holds off Saka by wafting a few fingers in his face. On comes the physio with the magic sponge. A pause in play. Meanwhile here’s Stephen Carr: “I’m looking forward to the day when we see a plane dragging a banner that says ‘I’m really pleased with how things are going. Another couple of signings and you never know what might happen.’”

13 min: Partey shimmies into space down the middle and lays off to Xhaka, who asks too much of Martinelli down the left with an overly insistent pass. Goal kick. A promising position wasted.

11 min: Partey takes a whack from 25 yards, but it dribbles through harmlessly to Pickford. Arsenal have enjoyed 77 percent of possession so far.

10 min: Replays show that Calvert-Lewin would almost certainly have been flagged offside had he scored, but that’s got the crowd going if nothing else.

9 min: McNeil has a dig from distance. His shot is blocked but nearly deflects into the path of Calvert-Lewin. Not quite, and Ramsdale can deny the striker a chance to shoot with a brave smother.

8 min: Onana goes down, having taken a whack upside the head in an aerial duel with Saliba. He’s up again soon enough. Meanwhile overhead, in the World of Sport style, a plane drags a banner that reads: “LEAGUES WORST RUN CLUB #TIME2GOBILL”

6 min: Everton are set up in a nice, compact 4-5-1. They’re snapping into tackles. Dycheball, right here.

4 min: Martinelli nearly burns his way past Coleman down the left. The veteran Evertonian manages to stay shoulder to shoulder this time, shepherding his opponent out for a goal kick. Only just, though.

2 min: Odegaard probes down the right. Mykolenko gets right up behind him, hassling, harrying, eventually fouling. An early sign that Dyche’s Everton will come out swinging.

Arsenal get the ball rolling. “High-flying Arsenal, visiting Goodison Park to play an Everton side they’re expected to comfortably beat?” wonders Matt Dony. “Everton don’t have some 16-year-old prodigy on the bench, do they? Could come in useful.”

The teams are out! Everton in blue, Arsenal in red. Always a delight when both teams can sport their first-choice colours. A fine atmosphere inside Goodison. We’ll be off in a couple of shakes.

Letters from America. “Morning greetings from California!” begins Mary Waltz, in an email that, as you’ll see, works both as satire and freudian slip. “It’s pitch dark, no moonlight, no starlight. The perfect setting to watch my Everton ride their horse into the valley of…. no, that is too dire an outlook. C’mon Sam, work your relegation magic, Pickford, don’t surrender a goal and we can get a point. Always look on the bright side of life, eh?”

Meanwhile South Carolina resident Mac Millings impressively works himself up into a pun frenzy at seven in the morning: “I’m somewhat puzzled by Arsenal’s ‘TEAMNEWS‘ tweet. Saliba gets a brick emoji because he’s strong and solid. Odegaard gets a wand because he’s a wizard. But why does Martinelli get a fountain pen? The only thing I can think of is that it’s an explanation of why he has been preferred to his new squadmate, Leandro. Because, you know, ‘The pen is mightier than Trossard.’”

Mikel Arteta speaks to BT. “We have done a really good window, but now we move on. It’s great to have good options on the bench. We know we have a big task today. They have a new manager, a new environment, and we have to be at our best. It will be really tough. Our record here in the last few years is not great, so we have to put that to bed.”

That fractious atmosphere, then. A peaceful protest against the Everton board is taking place outside Goodison. Solidarity.

Sean Dyche talks to BT Sport. “You’re trying to fast-track a pre-season’s work, five weeks’ work of blending into five days. The players have been receptive. A lot of hard work, a lot of honesty. So I’m looking to build on that. They’re professional people, they know they’re not firing on all cylinders. A lot of respect for the outgoing manager, they felt they could have done more. I said we need to do more, quite obviously.”

He’s asked whether the squad is good enough to stay up. “We’ll see, we’ll see. But it’s good enough on paper. A lot of these players have been bought for a lot of money. I showed them some of their pasts, their history, some of their achievements. These are good players, they haven’t come here for no reason. There’s a very strong, good group of players. But taking action and delivering, that’s the next step.”

As for the fractious atmosphere enveloping the club? “The fans love and care for the club. It’s easier to care about a club when it’s going great. Now we need it when it’s not going great, now more than ever. So all I can ask is a bit of patience, give us a breather, give the players a breather, give them their support, give me their support, because without that it’s going to be even tougher. So if we can get everyone to buy back into the Everton heartbeat, it’s a minimum, but it’s a requirement. We’ve got to show on there. We’ve got to show as a team, as a manger, that we care. But they just need to give us a chance, and I think they will. Evertonians do love this club, I’m learning very quickly. I’ve got to earn the respect of them, and I intend on doing that with a lot of hard work.”

Sean Dyche’s first selection as Everton manager sees two changes from Frank Lampard’s last. Dwight McNeil and Abdoulaye Doucoure replace Demarai Gray and Yerry Mina.

Arsenal are in If It Ain’t Broke mode. Their Premier League line-up is unchanged.

The teams

Preamble