Premier League: Arsenal 4-0 Everton, Liverpool 2-0 Wolverhampton

Arsenal overwhelms Everton and rises to +5 on Manchester City with equal matches. Liverpool resolves Wolverhampton in five minutes in the second half and relaunches itself for the race for the Champions League. These are the verdicts of the Premier midweek mini round, the recoveries of two matches postponed to September due to the death of Queen Elizabeth.

Arsenal 4-0 Everton

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Overwhelming. Arsenal returned irresistible and in the second half they tore Everton to pieces, always entangled in the relegation zone. There are the signatures of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, author of a brace, on the triumph of the Gunners who sent the more than 60,000 at the freezing Emirates Stadium into ecstasy: the two wingers, the only couple in double figures of goals in the Premier League (Martinelli 11, Saka 10), unhinged the Everton fort before the break, with Arteta’s team then dominating in the second half. The Gunners now have a 5-point lead over City on equal games (25): they are on their third restarted win, dominant again after that mini slide that had left them four games without a win, and ready to face the 6-game streak in 18 days (Everton was the first obstacle) leading to the break for the national teams. In addition to Saka and Martinelli, an excellent game for Zinchenko and an excellent one for Trossard. Everton paid particular attention to defending themselves but did too little to win, yet the three points for a third-last team in the standings would have been useful.

THE MATCH

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Everton keep the Gunners at bay for the first 40′, but Dyche’s fort falls when Saka, primed by Zinchenko, overtakes Mykolenko in speed and freezes Pickford with an unstoppable right foot. Before the break the daring 2-0 also arrives: the referee gives Arsenal the lead after a foul on Ødegaard, Gueye moves back with the ball but not realizing Saka takes the ball away from him and launches Martinelli’s winning counter-attack. The referee initially cancels for offside, but the Var overturns the verdict and gives the Gunners a double. The second half is a Gunners monologue, with Everton almost never managing to worry Ramsdale. The trio was signed by Ødegaard, served perfectly in the 71st minute in the middle of the area by the excellent Trossard; the 4-0 came in the 80th minute with Martinelli, who touched a brilliant idea from Nketiah, who took over from Trossard after the third goal, at the near post. The Arsenal party can begin

Liverpool 2-0 Wolverhampton

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“If there’s a team that can come back, it’s us.” Jurgen Klopp has managed to convey to his Reds the conviction in the race for fourth place that he had on the eve of recovery with Wolverhampton. In five minutes halfway through the second half, goals from Virgil Van Dijk first and then Mo Salah, two of the big names who have lowered their performance the most this season, relaunch Liverpool’s run for the Champions League. With the third victory in the last four races, the one that shortens the distance from Tottenham, currently fourth, to 6 points, with respect to which Klopp’s team has played one game less. Wolves had just one shot on goal, giving way first in the 73rd minute, when Van Dijk flew in to intercept a cross from a set piece from Jota, and gave up in the 77th minute, when Salah doubled the lead with a diagonal right foot picking up an assist from Tsimikas. It is the victory that Liverpool needed to believe that qualification in the Champions League is still possible, that this unusual season in which the Reds have lost their place among the greats can still be straightened out. Klopp is clinging to small steps right now, but this is a giant step that he will have to take to face Sunday’s match at Anfield against Manchester United. This victory, this streak of positive results (the best of the season) are just that injection of confidence that was needed. The comparison with Ten Hag’s team, probably the most in form team in England at the moment, will also allow us to understand at what level Liverpool are.