Hello and welcome to live coverage from Goodison Park as Everton take on Arsenal.

Kick-off!

A nice evening at Goodison Park, as well, with the sun still shining there for the time being.

The Z-Cars theme plays, I dance in my chair, the players file out.

Everton and Arsenal have met in the English top flight on 23 August twice before in the top flight, in 1995 and 1977 – Arsenal won both matches 2-0 and 1-0, respectively.

Mathieu Flamini’s Premier League debut was away at Everton on 15 August 2004 – he then scored his first Premier League goal in the reverse fixture that season, on the 11 May 2005, helping Arsenal to a 7-0 win.

If you fancy a flutter on the game you can get Everton at 7/4, Arsenal at 15/8 and the draw is 5/2.

Arsene Wenger: "We have young players, which means that every year they can be better, also the team improves with success, which we had a reasonable (amount of) last year. We have a good opportunity on Saturday to show that we have moved forward and that we are stronger than last year. It will be interesting, because Everton are a team now flirting with the Champions League places. They were close last year. They lost some pivotal games which allowed us to get (back) in front of them after they beat us, but they have the quality, so it is a good, good test."

Roberto Martinez: "You need to face this sort of opposition. What we saw last weekend is that we are really fluid in possession. The thing we need to change is that mentality to keep going forward and keep scoring goals. We didn't get that cushion that could have given us three points. It is true that until you play against sides like Arsenal and Chelsea you don't have the answers on the pitch. As a team we are ready. I feel pre-season was perfect, a real success."

For Everton in comes Mirallas and Coleman for Stone and McGeady.

So looks like Alexis Sanchez will play up front on his own. Plenty of attacking options on the bench for Arsenal though. World Cup heroes Mertesacker and Ozil come back in.

Everton: Howard, Coleman, Jagielka, Distin, Baines, Barry, McCarthy, Mirallas, Naismith, Pienaar, Lukaku. Subs: Robles, McGeady, Besic, Atsu, Osman, Stones, Alcaraz /// Arsenal: Szczesny; Debuchy, Mertesacker, Chambers, Monreal; Flamini, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere; Ramsey, Ozil; Sanchez. Subs: Martinez, Koscielny, Rosicky, Bellerin, Giroud, Cazorla, Campbell