Everton vs Arsenal: 5 Talking Points as Toffees drop to relegation zone
Arsenal finally won a game on the road in the Premier League this season as they thrashed Everton 5-2 at Goodison Park on Sunday. Although Wayne Rooney had opened the scoring for the Toffees, a second-half Gunners comeback after Everton were reduced to 10 men saw Arsene Wenger celebrate his 68th birthday with three points in the bag.
Goals from Nacho Monreal, Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette, Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez consigned Everton to the relegation zone. After spending nearly £150m this summer, Ronald Koeman's side are now 18th in the table.
Here are the major talking points from the game.
#1 Arsene Wenger finally starts Ozil, Alexis AND Lacazette together
They cost Arsenal a total of £118.5m to lead the front-line. But it took Arsene Wenger until the end of October to finally start the trio of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette together.
In every game so far, either one of Ozil or Alexis have missed out due to injury or the player being rested while other games saw one come on as a substitute for the other. But at Goodison Park, they showed fans exactly why they should be starting together henceforth.
Arsenal's movement off the ball in and around the final third has never been smoother this season than it was against Ronald Koeman's side.
Their pass-and-move strategy saw Everton's back-three struggle to mark them and Lacazette not only found himself in a lot of space to receive the ball but also had the time to bring his teammates into play.
Koeman's back-three was supposed to mirror Arsenal and there were concerns that the game would end in a stalemate. But looking at the ease with which they were carved open, it came as no surprise to see Ozil, Alexis and Lacazette get on the score sheet.