Arsenal fail to be inspired by farewell to Goodison Park
- By Kaz Mochlinski
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 4 minutes ago
Everton (0) 1 v Arsenal (1) 1
Premier League
Matchweek 31
Talking Points
By Kaz Mochlinski at Goodison Park
From Goodison Park to Aintree Racecourse on the local train service is a journey of three stops, taking only six minutes. On Grand National Day this year, bookmakers could start paying out on the Premier League title.
It was fitting that Arsenal’s remaining hopes of chasing down Liverpool at the top of the table were eventually ended on Merseyside, just yards from Anfield where the English league championship trophy will soon reside.
These last few weeks of the long-standing proximity of Liverpool and Everton across Stanley Park are bittersweet, before the boys in blue move one station along the Merseyrail line and down the hill to the old dockside.
In many ways, Everton will be coming out of the shadow of their neighbours. Exiting Kirkdale station there are only direction signs for Anfield, with none for Goodison. They are entirely spurious, as Liverpool’s stadium is visible anyway, dominating the whole area.
The new arena at Bramley-Moore Dock is already acknowledged with the name being used by Everton in the club WiFi password during their farewell season at Goodison Park, although it is now also being officially referred to simply as the Everton Stadium.
That is likely to be temporary while the Toffees’ new owners seek to sell sponsorship rights for the venue. Financially Everton want to be more competitive with Liverpool, so tradition and history become casualties in pursuit of such objectives.
Everton v Arsenal at Goodison Park is the longest continually-played fixture in the top flight of English football, since the Merseysiders’ promotion back to the old First Division for the 1954-55 campaign.
Only the Gunners have visited Goodison for a league game in every single season for the subsequent 70 years. When the two teams meet in London, they no longer face each other at Highbury, and now Everton are similarly about to leave their famous home.
The Toffees’ presence in the highest division of England’s league structure for the last 71 seasons in succession is the second-best such sequence. Solely Arsenal surpass it with a record 99 seasons in a row in the First Division and Premier League.
The North London club has not been relegated since getting a place in the top league when that was reconstituted after the First World War. Any match between Everton and Arsenal has all this back story behind it, especially at Goodison.
In truth, the final encounter between the Toffees and the Gunners at a venue dating originally from 1892 was not particularly memorable, going out with a contest of little creativity or magical moments.
Perhaps the sole special piece of play was Myles Lewis-Skelly almost making up for conceding the equalising penalty by later producing a thrilling run from his own half to the edge of the Everton penalty area before being stopped with a cynical foul.
Unsurprisingly, it was James Tarkowski who committed it, deservedly receiving a yellow card to set a new Premier League record of 64 bookings without being sent off, the most in the competition by any player.
Leandro Trossard had given Arsenal a one-goal lead, scoring for the first time in the league since getting the winner against Spurs in the middle of January. His successful strike at Goodison Park in the 34th minute was with the first shot on target of the game.
But it was somehow inevitable that the result would be a draw. Everton have finished all-square in exactly half of their home matches in the Premier League this season, drawing eight times in 16 games at Goodison.
Their latest draw was the fourth consecutive time that the Blues have done so in home league fixtures. Concurrently, Arsenal have now drawn each of their last three away matches in the Premier League, which is hardly title-chasing form.
At least the Gunners are still continuing their recent unbeaten away run, which has stretched to five months and 11 league games since they last lost, at Newcastle United at the beginning of November.
Conversely, Everton have gone six matches without a victory in the Premier League, from their previous win at Crystal Palace in mid-February. They have been winless at Goodison Park for over two months.
The Toffeemen have only got three more opportunities to try and triumph for one final time at their home ground of 133 years, with its Archibald Leitch legacy, before departing down to the banks of the River Mersey.
St. Luke’s Church in the corner between the Gwladys Street End and the Main Stand is already boarded up. And the Blue Garden, commemorating Leitch’s iconic Goodison design, has been removed at Kirkdale station.
From next month onwards, Evertonians will head instead to Sandhills station and then turn towards the riverside rather than in the opposite direction. That is if the public transport system keeps functioning.
With Everton playing Arsenal on the same day as the Grand National, the Merseyrail network went into meltdown, after a signal failure on the line caused chaos for football fans and racegoers alike.
There were 39,316 spectators at Goodison Park, and a third as many again at Aintree, where the attendance was 59,920. The increased capacity at Bramley-Moore Dock will pose a challenge on occasions when more than just football is taking place.
Anfield can accommodate 61,276 people, and Everton are initially aiming for 52,888 fans to be fitted in at their new stadium. Already there is official advice being circulated that walking all the way there from the city centre and back again may be necessary…
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