Arsenal vs Everton LIVE: Gunners hope to take one other step in direction of Premier League title
Arsenal will hope to take another step towards a first Premier League title in 22 years as they play host to Everton this evening.
The Gunners capitalised on Manchester City’s shortcomings against Nottingham Forest last Wednesday, seeing out a 1-0 win at Brighton to stretch their lead at the top of the table to seven points with nine games to play.
Hoping to pile more pressure on City before their clash with West Ham, Arsenal will hope to maintain this advantage against Everton, who have proved a difficult side to beat this season and come to the Emirates off the back of two league wins.
Mikel Arteta will need to his team to shake off an underwhelming evening in the Champions League, however, with a contentious late Kai Havertz penalty only enough to salvage a draw at Bayer Leverkusen in their last-16 first leg.
Follow all the action from the Emirates in our live blog below:
Moyes on Arsenal
“No, I don’t think they’ll be fearing us because of the level of the player, but I hope that they will give us the respect which we deserve because we have been performing well enough,” said David Moyes when asked whether Arsenal will fear his side and their away record.
On Arsenal’s set-pieces, he adds: “It’s part of the game. And if there’s this thing out there where everybody has to play the beautiful game and everything has to be perfect, well, if we all done that it would be boring. Football would be boring.”
David Moyes explains how Mikel Arteta has ‘evolved’ Arsenal ahead of meeting with Everton
Moyes, who signed Arteta as a player in his first spell with the Toffees, does not understand the backlash.
Mikel Arteta makes peace with Fabian Hurzeler after Arsenal time-wasting jibe
Hurzeler accused the Gunners of “making their own rules” following last week’s 1-0 loss to the Premier League leaders and on Friday revealed he had exchanged texts with Arteta, telling the Spaniard he had “huge respect” for the Arsenal boss and everyone at the club.
Arteta refused to reveal the details of their exchange and doubled down in his defence of their approach ahead of Saturday’s top-flight meeting with Everton.
When is Arsenal v Everton?
Arsenal host Everton at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday 14 March, with kick-off at 5.30pm GMT.
How can I watch it?
Viewers in the UK can follow the clash live on Sky Sports Main Event and streaming service Sky Go. If you’re not a Sky customer, you can grab a NOWTV Day Pass here to watch without a subscription
Predicted line-ups
Arsenal XI: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Rice, Zubimendi, Saka, Eze, Martinelli, Havertz
Everton XI: Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Garner, Gueye, McNeil, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye, Barry
Team news
Everton are without Jack Grealish and Carlos Alcaraz but should have a full-strength squad otherwise, with Seamus Coleman expected to recover from a minor issue.
Team news
Mikel Merino is absent with a foot injury for the hosts Arsenal, who may also be without Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard.
The pair missed the Leverkusen tie and remain doubts for the weekend, but Arteta received a boost in defence as Ben White and Riccardo Calafiori both recovered from knocks to make the bench and are fit to feature at the Emirates.
Arsenal vs Everton LIVE
In the top flight however they are on safer ground and will bid to extend their seven-point lead at the top of the table against David Moyes’ Toffees, who ran out 2-0 winners over struggling Burnley last time out.
Everton themselves are pushing for a European place and sit one point off seventh-placed Brentford, so will hope to continue their fine away record and get revenge for their 1-0 loss in the reverse fixture earlier this term.
Good afternoon
Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live blog coverage of today’s Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at the Emirates.
The Gunners come into the game hoping to stretch their lead at the top of the table to 10 points ahead of Manchester City’s fixture against West Ham this evening, and we’ll have all the latest team news, build-up and updates right here.
