EVERTON VS ARSENAL 2-2 DRAW REVIEW

With the midweek game against Besiktas in mind and some of the Arsenal squad still to get up to speed, Arsene Wenger opted for a bit of an experimental selection for the away game with Everton. And with last season’s naive performance at Goodison still fresh in the memory, the Gunners were determined to be more solid and hard to beat.

It was working fairly well until Everton stunned us with the opening goal against the ruin of play. A bit of a defensive switch off and a great ball in from Gareth Berry left Coleman the freedom of the penalty area to head past Szczesny.

Then the old adage that goals change games came into play, with us looking more nervous and Everton with their tails up. We still played some good stuff and could have scored with a bit more luck and a bit more sharpness around the box from Ramsey and the Ox. Then our bad luck really hit home, with the Toffees getting away with a Lukaku foul and a Naismith offside to hit us with a real body shot on the stroke of halftime.

Wenger brought Giroud on for Alexis for the second half, hopefuly to save the Chilean for Wednesday rather than a knock. And the Frenchman nearly got us back into it straight away, but his well struck volley flew over. We were not quite firing in attack, but Everton were very good defensively, throughout their team. When we did get it right, they were always there to snuff out the danger.

Arsenal finally broke through with Cazorla feeding Ramsey from the left but there was not long left and Everton were doing their best to kill the game, but the big man showed his strength and Monreal found him with a pinpoint cross to get us a point.

This was miles from the drubbing we got there last season, but we nearly got nothing from the game and will need to bounce back well to make the Champions League group stage. And I think Giroud will be starting that game!

ARSENAL OFFER WALCOTT IMPROVED CONTRACT

Walcott set to re-sign by arsenal wiki

According to many sources, Arsenal have offered Theo Walcott a new 4 year contract with much improved terms than there £80,000 p/w offer which was made 2 weeks ago. The wage offer is set to remain at £80,000, however the club has added an improvement percentage clause.

Walcott’s new contract agreement will be subject to a certain yearly percentage increase for next 2 years. This will be determined by his performance and how his ability increases.

Fans’ opinions are divided on Theo Walcott and many have called for him to be sold, however I think that it would be a massive mistake selling him as I firmly believe that next season will be his year. Many have said he has never lived up to his potential and I agree, however he is still young and I think last season he began to show what he was capable off. Some of his performances were magnificent especially his performances against both Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Tottenham Hotspur at The Emirates.

He may not be worth the £100,000 p/w wage he supposedly wants, but there’s no doubt that he is starting to show his worth and we certainly shouldn’t be looking to sell him.

I was very disappointed that he wasn’t offered a contract extension before the euros and I wrote an article about that a few days ago but the club must now act quickly to offer him a contract before more suitors come in to sign him. There have been reports that Arsenal will speak with Robin Van Persie, Theo Walcott and Alex Song while they are on the Asia tour as the publicity will be significantly less involved.

Chelsea, Liverpool, Juventus and Spurs (apparently) are all interested and Chelsea have even made an inquiry but Arsenal rejected their talks. Hopefully a deal for Walcott can be struck in the coming weeks, as we don’t want another player at the club with speculation driving the players down