Arsenal v. Everton: EPL Match Preview

Arsenal vs. Everton
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Kickoff: 2:30 PM EDT
Location: Emirates Stadium, Ashburton Grove, London
Form: ARS: WLWWWW | EVE: LWWWDW
TV Coverage: Fox Soccer Channel

In-form Arsenal host an Everton side tomorrow who's been just as difficult to overcome as of late, raking in 13 points over the past six matches, good for 3rd best in the league (behind Arsenal and Manchester United over the same stretch of matches). The away fixture earlier this season saw our beloved club draw at Goodison Park, which came in the middle of probably the roughest stretch of the season, results-wise. As many have probably willfully chosen to forget, four days previous to Everton away was the Aston Villa draw in the night rain; following were the Swansea City and Olympiacos defeats, along with the infamous Bradford defeat shortly after the loss in Greece. A draw at Goodison Park is always impressive, but it's going to take another solid Arsenal performance missing key players due to injury to repeat, or exceed, that result.

According to many sources, Lukasz Fabianski is a "major doubt" for tomorrow's match and it's not a certainty that fellow Polish keeper, frozen-out Wojciech Szczesny, will step between the posts tomorrow. Doubts have already crept up lately regarding Szczesny's future at Arsenal, and one can't imagine the talk stopping if he's pipped in the starting XI by Vito Mannone. However, it appears that Tomas Rosicky will be joining Per Mertesacker, fresh off his one-match ban due to his red card in the West Brom match, back in the starting lineup which should give Arsene Wenger the always-coveted "squad depth" managers crave as the season nears its end and clubs try to tie up European qualification.

Everton should feel confident coming into north London, with David Moyes having a full squad to select from following their weekend match versus Queens Park Rangers, having no significant injuries to speak of ahead of the match.

Lastly, as I started typing this, news out of Boston started coming out. Details are still murky as I post this so I'll avoid any sort of speculation, but I'll speak for the rest of the writers here at The Short Fuse and say that we have all those affected in our thoughts at this time.

Possible Lineup:

Szczesny

Sagna - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Gibbs

Ramsey - Arteta

Walcott - Wilshere - Cazorla

Giroud

Match Prediction: Arsenal 2-2 Everton