Everton can take positives from spirited defeat to Arsenal

Any Everton fan knew the task in store when travelling down to the capital ahead of Saturday's Women's Super League game, with Arsenal being one of the top teams in the country. But a defiant and determined performance saw the Blues go toe-to-toe for the best part of the match and will take plenty of positives from the 2-1 defeat.

Before the game, Everton boss Brian Sorensen said of the Gunners: “They have an unbelievable squad and really good player experience, so it's going to be a tough, tough task.” The match itself was exactly that as Everton struggled to deal with Arsenal’s quality in attack.

Fans travelling down from Merseyside were left with a nervous wait with a pitch inspection at Meadow Park being announced late the previous night. With supporters already angry at the match not being streamed live, a late cancellation would have only added to the outrage.

But after the pitch was deemed playable, it would have been a tough early watch for those Evertonians as Arsenal were quick out the blocks with Beth Mead striking the crossbar within five minutes as the visitors were being pinned back by the Gunners' high-pressing front four of Alessia Russo, Vivienne Miedema, Caitlin Foord and Mead.

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Sorensen’s side's playing style was clear from the start - they were going to play out from the back, like they do every week no matter the opponent - but in the early exchanges Clare Wheeler and Aurora Galli were being marked out of the game, meaning the Blues defence had no outlet and resulted to going long and losing possession.

This philosophy was echoed in Sorensen's pre-match press