Everton face their toughest Premier League assignment on Saturday as they travel to champions Arsenal, a fixture that has historically been their most difficult away test. The Blues have lost 26 of their 34 Premier League matches at Arsenal, with just two wins and six draws, giving them a points-per-game average of 0.35 – their lowest on the road against any opponent in the competition.
This poor record predates manager David Moyes and has continued through his time away from the club. Everton's only victory at the Emirates Stadium came behind closed doors on St George's Day 2021, a 1-0 win secured by a Bernd Leno own goal in the 76th minute. The closest other occasion was on January 9, 2010, when Steven Pienaar put the visitors ahead with a delicate chip on Landon Donovan's debut, only for Tomas Rosicky to equalise in the 92nd minute.
Last win at Arsenal came in 1996
Evertonians last witnessed their side beat Arsenal away on January 20, 1996, over 30 years ago. Ian Wright gave the Gunners a 37th-minute lead – his 13th goal against Everton – but Graham Stuart equalised in the 49th minute before Andrei Kanchelskis scored an 84th-minute winner. The winger latched on to a Barry Horne throw-in, cut inside from the right and fired a left-foot shot past David Seaman.
That goal was the sixth of 16 Kanchelskis scored in his only full season with Everton, who finished sixth – their solitary top-half placing in the first decade of the Premier League – but missed out on European football to Arsenal on the final day.
Kanchelskis transfer saga revealed
After that defeat, Arsenal boss Bruce Rioch, who played for Everton in the 1970s, admitted he had tried to sign Kanchelskis the previous summer after learning he was preparing to leave Manchester United. Rioch was unable to hijack the club-record £5 million transfer to Goodison Park – a fee football finance expert Kieran Maguire calculated earlier this year would be equivalent to £104 million in the current market.
Rioch lamented: "I didn't talk to Andrei because he doesn't speak English. But I did talk to his wife and his interpreter about a move here." The language barrier prevented Rioch from selling Arsenal to the Russian international directly, and by the time Highbury directors moved, Kanchelskis was already on his way to Merseyside.
Moyes' poor record and wider away form
Moyes has been in charge for 13 previous trips to Arsenal as Everton boss, including the infamous 7-0 defeat in 2005 after the Blues had secured a Champions League qualification spot, and has never beaten them. Since the 2021 win, trips to the Gunners have continued to prove difficult.
Everton's away record against other ever-present Premier League clubs is also weak: they average 0.47 points per game at Chelsea, 0.5 at Manchester United, 0.6 at Tottenham Hotspur and 0.62 at Liverpool, with Bournemouth also at 0.6. In contrast, against their current 19 Premier League rivals, Everton average at least one point per game away at 10 of them, with their best record at Nottingham Forest (2.11 points per game) followed by Crystal Palace (1.82).
