Premier League

IT was Bukayo Saka who created a slice of history by inspiring Arsenal to a unique century. And it was a bungling Everton defence who threatened to trash the longest-running fixture in  English football. 
Martinelli scored a brace to take Arsenal to victoryCredit: Richard Pelham / The Sun
Bukayo Saka opened the scoring with a brilliant finishCredit: Rex
Saka notched a quick-fire goal and assist to exact revenge on Sean Dyche’s Everton – as Arsenal became the first English club to register 100 league wins over the same opposition.
It helps that Arsenal versus Everton has been played for 68 consecutive top-flight seasons – but there may not be a 69th because the Toffees are a shambles. 
Dyche had started a serious Arsenal wobble when his side notched a shock-and-awe win over Mikel Arteta’s men on his maiden outing as Goodison boss just three and a half weeks ago. 
But their chances of a sustained revival look bleak because, despite their vast spending under Farhad Moshiri, the Premier League’s worst-run club don’t have any goalscorers and they can’t defend for toffee.  
Defeat on Merseyside on February 4 had sparked a run of just one point from a possible nine as Arsenal briefly lost the leadership to Manchester City.
But now, courtesy of Saka’s opener, a double from Gabriel Martinelli and a Martin Odegaard strike, the Gunners are five points clear at the summit after three straight wins. 
Arteta, who captained Everton when Everton were Everton, will have taken little pleasure from the identity of the opposition – but he relished his side’s ruthlessness after they had suffered 40 minutes of frustration. 
As at Leicester on Saturday, Arteta left Eddie Nketiah on the bench, employing Leandro Trossard as a false nine. 
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Arsenal put in a dominating display
And there was a lack of early punch about Arsenal, lacking a focal point in attack.
Dyche had handed a first Premier League start of the season to Michael Keane – his most recent one had come in a 5-1 gubbing here last term. 
This added to Everton’s Burnleyfication, with three Dyche’s former Clarets players in his starting line-up. 
The only early highlight was Dyche bawling out fourth official David Coote after a perceived foul had gone unpunished and hundreds of Londoners behind the Everton dugout responding by yelling out the surname of former children’s TV presenter Brian Cant. 
Undeterred, Dyche continued to scream and holler, threatening to burst out of his dark suit with the demeanour of an angry bouncer policing a very short guest list.
Out on the pitch, Amadou Onana kept falling over and everyone kept shouting at him. It was mainly shouting, really, not a lot of football. 
Martin Odegaard got involved in the scoring actCredit: Richard Pelham / The Sun
Odegaard was the key man for Arsenal
It wasn’t exactly ‘school of science’ stuff but Everton were effective enough early on – defending deep, tackling hard, going long and threatening on their occasional breaks until the ball found Neal Maupay and it all broke down. 
Then, on 40 minutes, the first meaningful attempt of the night – and the opening goal. 
Oleksandr Zinchenko caught out his fellow Ukrainian Vitali Mykolenko with a straight pass, Saka seized on it, turning and walloping into the roof of the net, beating his England team-mate Jordan Pickford at his near post. 
Dyche seemed to do an irate Timewarp in his technical area. Everton had barely been threatened until that moment. 
Suddenly, it was two – due to an extraordinary brain freeze from Idrissa Gueye and a VAR who finally found in Arsenal’s favour. 
Gueye had won possession but then – facing goal near the edge of the Everton box – the midfielder simply decided to stop playing football for a couple of seconds.
He looked up to play a simple pass, then thought better of it, as if two elite forwards like Saka and Martinelli might not converge on him. But they did. 
Martinelli now has four goals in his last three gamesCredit: Richard Pelham / The Sun
Saka nicked it off his toes, Martinelli drilled past Pickford and after a linesman’s offside flag had been raised, VAR Tony Harrington overturned the decision and the Emirates erupted into belated bedlam.
Arsenal had been robbed by officials against Brentford and Leicester recently, so this was a welcome if only to disprove some of their supporters’ barking-mad internet conspiracy theories.  
Unsurprisingly, Dyche hooked Gueye at half-time and sent on Mason Holgate. Arteta replaced Jorginho with Thomas Partey, for his first major run-out since injury. 
James Tarkowski hammered Martin Odegaard with a ‘reducer’ and was booked and Dyche doubtless recalled glory nights at Turf Moor. 
Maupay, who was hopeless, was soon withdrawn to howls from the home supporters after his lengthy list of ‘previous’ with Arsenal as a Brighton player. 
Dwight McNeil forced a decent save from Aaron Ramsdale, but Trossard and Martinelli both duffed good opportunities for Arteta’s side.  
The third soon arrived, though, Xhaka releasing Trossard down the left, the Belgian cutting back for Odegaard to thud home via the flailing boot of Tarkowski. 
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Then Zinchenko found Nketiah, on as a sub, and he cut back for Martinelli, who prodded home. 
Dyche was quieter, now. Perhaps wondering how on earth Everton will survive this. Perhaps wondering why on earth he took the gig in the first place.  More

ASTON VILLA paid ex-owner Randy Lerner a whopping £10million last year as part of Tony Xia’s 2016 disastrous takeover of the club.Xia agreed to pay the American tycoon the cash if Villa remained in the Premier League for three seasons after winning promotion.
Aston Villa paid ex-owner Randy Lerner a whopping £10million last yearCredit: Rex
Tony Xia agreed to pay if Aston Villa remained in the Prem for three seasonsCredit: Getty
And although Xia sold Villa to current billionaire owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens’ NSWE Group in 2018 with the club on the brink of administration, Xia’s liability to Lerner fell on the club.
A statement released by Villa, to coincide with the release of the club’s 2021-22 accounts, revealed: “Exceptional administrative expenses included a payment of £10m to Randolph D Lerner following the retaining of Premier League status for the third consecutive season since promotion.”
Lerner also pocketed a £30m payment after Villa won promotion back to the top flight four years ago, as part of the same 2016 deal with Xia.
Villa reported a £400,000 profit for the financial year, despite a drop of around £5m in revenues to £178.4m.
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However the bottom line was massively boosted by the £100m British record transfer of Jack Grealish to Manchester City, with the club spending £203.5 on signings including Emi Buendia, Leon Bailey, Danny Ings and Lucas Digne.
Meanwhile, Gustavo Goni, the agent of Villa’s World Cup winning goalie Emi Martinez, has denied there is a rift between his client and Villa manager Unai Emery, describing their relationship as “rock solid”.
Martinez has made it clear he wants to play in the Champions League but Goni told Italian media: “His relationship with Emery couldn’t be better. He is a leader of the group.
“He would like to play and win the Champions League, let’s hope he can do it with Aston Villa.”
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Villa are currently 11th in the Premier League table after a notable improvement under new manager Emery.
The Spanish tactician replaced Steven Gerrard at the helm in October.
Since then, the ex-Arsenal boss has amassed a total of six wins and six losses in 13 matches across all competitions. More