A look at the changes to the starting 11 that Everton manager David Moyes could make for the trip to Arsenal

After suffering a first defeat of the season to Chelsea, Everton manager David Moyes could have some big selection dilemmas to make for Saturday’s trip to Premier League champions Arsenal.

The Blues boss spent 20 months searching for a specialist right-back before finally landing Ainsley Maitland-Niles on transfer deadline day of the summer window. While the 29-year-old has featured in all six matches since signing, including starting five in a row after coming off the bench and scoring a spectacular last-gasp equaliser against Manchester United on his debut, his place in the side against the club where he started his career now comes under scrutiny after varying degrees of culpability in both Hull City’s goals and Chelsea’s opener.

Like he did later on in Saturday’s game when Maitland-Niles went off, Merlin Rohl could switch to right-back while Jake O’Brien finished the match at MKM Stadium there. Another option might be to move James Garner to right-back but with another former Gunner Christian Norgaard looking way off the pace when he came on for his long-awaited debut on Saturday, such a move could leave Everton short of bite in the engine room.

Vitalii Mykolenko was restored to the side at left-back after missing the trip to the Tigers while Moyes confirmed that Jarrad Branthwaite who deputised for him in that position in East Yorkshire, picked up a knock and appeared to be moving somewhat gingerly at times against both Hull City and Chelsea. If he were to miss out, then either the aforementioned O’Brien or Michael Keane could step in although the latter was absent from the squad last time out.

As already discussed, central midfield is the one area where the Blues have plenty of options and despite Norgaard’s baptism of fire, he could still provide an alternative against his previous employers with Hayden Hackney and even Charly Alcaraz also in the mix with Garner, Harrison Armstrong and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall the incumbents in central roles.

Merlin Rohl started on the right wing against Chelsea and while he could reprise that role as a potentially more physical option against Mikel Arteta’s side, with Jack Grealish on the opposite flank, there are also more natural wide men available in the shape of Tyrique George, Tyler Dibling and Brennan Johnson, who also offers a ‘Plan B’ up front instead of the squad’s only orthodox centre-forward Thierno Barry.