Almost 15 years to the day since Wayne Rooney announced himself to the world by scoring that goal against Arsenal, a now 31-year-old Wazza scored another beauty at Goodison Park, giving supporters another false dawn before the crushing reality set to follow.
Rooney was given far too much space and time at the top of the box in the 12th minute and sent a classy effort beyond Petr Cech, providing a huge sense of relief for both home supporters and Toffees under-fire manager Ronald Koeman.
Who else?! ROOOONNNNEY! pic.twitter.com/HzW2GyMwxN
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) October 22, 2017
But Rooney’s fourth goal of the campaign would not be enough. Arsenal would score four unanswered through Nacho Monreal, Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Aaron Ramsey. Ourmar Niasse pulled one back for Everton in the 93rd but Alexis Sanchez immediately restored Arsenal’s three-goal advantage for a 5-2 victory. Everton’s problems were compounded by a red card to Idrissa Gueye in the 68th minute.
Arsenal supporters were treated to a first-ever starting lineup featuring all of Ozil, Lacazette and Sanchez, and a five-goal return represents a pretty promising debut.
After nine matches, Everton — preseason favorites to battle for a Europa League or possibly Champions League place — are in the relegation zone. They sit 18th with a return of eight points. Manager Ronald Koeman’s future is firmly in the balance ahead of a League Cup match against Chelsea.
Results in the Europa League have been no better with Everton sitting bottom of Group E behind Atalanta, Lyon and Apollon Limassol. A summer spending total of £133,100,000 (an expenditure of £38,000,000) has been made to look like a pretty terrible piece of business on the whole.
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