Arsenal vs Everton: Gunners don't deserve top four finish, Laurent Koscielny ruled out of FA Cup final
Five things we learned: Hector Bellerin enjoys his best performance in months, Sanchez fitness in limbo and was this goodbye from Barkley?
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Your support makes all the difference.Stupidity rules Koscielny out of the FA Cup final
The game was not even 14 minutes old and Arsenal were cruising. 1-0 ahead thanks to Hector Bellerin’s opener and Everton playing extremely poorly, a regulatory victory looked on the cards for Arsenal. But a turn of pace from Enner Valencia and a stupid tackle from Laurent Koscielny suddenly changed the course of the game.
The tackle itself was a poor one, as Koscielny caught Valencia firmly on his ankle before following through with the scissors motion that so often results in a straight dismissal. He waited to check on Valencia before leaving the field to applause, but it seemed that neither he nor the fans realised he will now miss the FA Cup final providing a possible appeal doesn’t succeed.
Koscielny was undone by Valencia’s superior pace, but given that it took place nearly 40 yards away from the Arsenal goal, there was no need to dive in so recklessly.
Sanchez absence makes Arsenal task even harder
If facing newly-crowned Premier League champions Chelsea in the FA Cup final wasn’t hard enough, Arsenal look like they might have to do so without Alexis Sanchez. The forward went down midway during the second half – leaving his side temporarily down to nine men when Everton had an equaliser disallowed – and he limped off to be replaced by Alex Iwobi.
Sanchez has been the heartbeat of this side during a largely disappointing 2016/17, and to miss their most important match of the season is both cruel on him and also disastrous for Arsenal’s chances. The one glimmer of hope is that if the injury is not a serious one, Sanchez has shown in the past he is not afraid to play through the pain barrier.
Bellerin shows signs of old in confident display
Hector Bellerin was meant to be Arsenal’s new bright young thing, but his development has stalled this season and the change to three at the back – combined with the form of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – looked to be threatening his place in the Arsenal side.
But injury to Oxlade-Chamberlain, plus a reduction in the rumours about his future and a potential return to Barcelona has seen Bellerin find his form again, and he was a lifewire throughout the first half here.
Given there are still questions about his defensive capabilities, a switch to wing-back might be exactly what he needs as it allows him to express the best of his attacking talent.
Arsenal don’t deserve to be in the Champions League
The Gunners did what they needed to do with victory over Everton, but they could not rely on Middlesbrough to give them the help they needed as Liverpool’s victory at Anfield secured them the fourth and final Champions League spot, ending Arsene Wenger’s 20-year run of qualifying for the competition.
But do Arsenal deserve to be there? No, is the very simple answer to that question. Arsenal’s form after the turn of the year was nothing short of terrible and the internal fighting, combined with the doubts over Wenger’s future, only hindered the club.
The tournament is called the Champions League for a reason, and until Arsenal can show that they are capable of challenging for the Premier League, they don’t deserve to sit at the top table with Europe’s best.
Was this bye-bye for Barkley?
The sight of Ross Barkley’s name among the substitutes at the start of the match suggests that Ronald Koeman has finally lost patience with his contract stand-off, and a summer move now looks pretty certain if a rival club is prepared to cough up the rumoured £50m that it will take to sign the midfielder.
However, he got his potential farewell as early as the 25th minute as a ruthless Koeman substituted Tom Davies and sent on Barkley in an effort to get Everton back into the game. That they went 2-0 down just minutes later made that challenge much harder, but Barkley injected some life into the Everton attack and did at least help the Toffees to make a contest of it.
Whether the 23-year-old has done enough to convince the likes of Manchester City, Tottenham or, even Arsenal, to spend a lare amount of money on him on the summer remains to be seen.
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