Arsenal are back in Premier League action this weekend
The Premier League have announced that Craig Pawson will referee Arsenal’s match against Everton at the Emirates Stadium. Eddie Smart and Con Hatzidakis have been appointed as the assistant referees, whilst Andrew Kitchen is the fourth official.
Meanwhile, Paul Tierney will be on VAR duties with Dan Cook as his assistant. The Gunners are currently sat in 3rd place in the table behind Liverpool and Chelsea and have 29 points on the board from their first 15 fixtures of this season.
Arsenal head into their upcoming match on the back of their 3-0 win at home to AS Monaco in the Champions League last time out. Bukayo Saka scored twice against the Ligue 1 side, whilst Kai Havertz also got himself on the scoresheet.
The Gunners drew 1-1 away at Fulham in their last league outing. Defender William Saliba bagged their goal at Craven Cottage but they weren’t able to find a winner in the end.
‘Very happy’…
Mikel Arteta was happy after the victory over Monaco and said: “I’m very happy – it’s always very difficult to win in the Champions League, 3-0 and a clean sheet puts us in a really good position in the group. I’m really pleased as well to see some players that haven’t played that much – Myles (Lewis-Skelly) coming in and having his [full] debut in the Champions League at 18 years old and performing the way he did, it was great. He’s earned the chance for us to trust him, to believe him.
“Obviously, there are certain conditions that have facilitated him to be here and when he had the chance, he grabbed it. He played with a lot of personality, a lot of courage and competed really well in the game. Bukayo (Saka) is playing at the highest level every three days, he’s contributing in attacking, in defending, in every aspect of the game. And on top of that, he wants more. That’s the environment we want to create.”
Regarding qualification from the Champions League, he said: “I think it will depend on the rest of the results. We are in a good position and we need to get the job done, and there’s still a lot to do.“I’m disappointed we didn’t score another three or four especially in the first half, because we had some big, big chances. That’s going to be crucial and looking at the table and how tight it is, [goal difference] is going to be really important. We’re in a good position, we still have a lot to do, so one more.”
Arsenal’s upcoming opponents Everton beat Wolves 4-0 before their match against Liverpool last Saturday was postponed due to poor weather. Sean Dyche was pleased with their last win and said: “[There have been] a lot of question marks about what we are trying to achieve here and we had to answer them – I think the players have done. It was a good performance, a committed performance. I said in the week to the group that I couldn’t be any more proud of these players. They have been through all sorts and they have kept going.”
