Mikel Arteta can toast his sixth anniversary as Arsenal manager from the Premier League summit and with the Christmas No 1 spot secured once again. Behind the headline positivity, however, must be a realisation that more convincing performances are required to hold on until the final reckoning.
Viktor Gyökeres’ emphatic first-half penalty sealed a slender yet merited win over an Everton team missing several important components. Arsenal were more efficient than impressive and rarely troubled throughout a scrappy contest. But this was a test of title-winning character as much as quality after three away games without a win in the league and having lost top spot for the first time since mid-October before kick-off. In that respect Arteta can be encouraged by a reaction that ensured Manchester City’s stay in first place would be brief and Arsenal would be top at Christmas for the third time in four years.
“It gives me belief and confidence, the level of performance and the consistency of that,” said the Arsenal manager. “It is very difficult to do that in this league. We are going to have to go to difficult places but we have to enjoy the process of winning.”
There was nothing to report from a tedious opening aside from the pathetic and frequent poverty chanting by the Arsenal away support. Fair play to the Everton employee who decided to display an advertisement for ‘Fans Supporting Foodbanks’ on the giant stadium screens in response.
Finally, and inexplicably, Jake O’Brien enlivened proceedings with a chaotic cameo. The Everton defender nudged Gyökeres over when the Arsenal striker appeared certain to convert a deflected Jurriën Timber cross almost on the goalline. Gyökeres appealed for a penalty that the video assistant referee checked and rejected on the basis there was no foul. The striker had to be stronger when challenging for the cross.
No matter. From the corner that resulted from Vitalii Mykolenko getting the final touch on Timber’s delivery O’Brien blatantly handled under pressure from Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapié. The referee, Sam Barrott, having missed the offence, was sent to the pitchside monitor where the sight of the Republic of Ireland international raising both hands to the ball gave him no alternative but to award a spot-kick. The Arsenal captain, Martin Ødegaard, insisted Gyökeres take it. The power and pace of the forward’s penalty gave Jordan Pickford no chance despite the fact he dived the right way.
The remainder of the first half reverted to type. Dull. With Declan Rice and Martín Zubimendi controlling proceedings in midfield Arsenal performed with greater composure although the visitors, and Everton, created little. William Saliba slipped in Gyökeres shortly before the interval but the forward shot over under pressure from James Tarkowski.
Everton’s lack of threat came as no surprise. Without Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Iliman Ndiaye, injured and away at the Africa Cup of Nations respectively, David Moyes was missing two of his best and most creative talents of the season. The drop in quality from the absent duo to their replacements, Carlos Alcaraz and Dwight McNeil, was steep and inevitably felt by the home side.
A more open and intense second half brought welcome improvement. Arsenal were close to doubling their advantage when Bukayo Saka and Timber combined brilliantly down the Everton left. Having released his overlapping full-back inside the box, Saka followed in for a perfectly weighted return ball. Saka’s low shot beat England colleague Pickford but was blocked in front of the line by Tarkowski.
The visitors also struck the woodwork twice in four minutes. Leandro Trossard curled a first-time shot around Pickford and against the far post after Rice unselfishly laid the ball into his path. Trossard should have scored. Zubimendi then swept an effort against the base of the same post from Ødegaard’s fine cut-back from the byline.
Everton’s performance improved too although their best hopes of an equaliser centred on penalty claims. The first was optimistic and ignored when Thierno Barry tumbled under a challenge from Zubimendi after a careless pass out of defence by Saliba. The hosts’ second shout looked stronger when Saliba and Barry challenged for a loose ball inside the box and the Arsenal defender kicked the Everton striker’s foot after the latter had played the ball. VAR deemed there was insufficient contact to award a penalty. “It could have been given,” said Moyes.
The Everton manager added: “Arsenal give up very few chances but, even so, we didn’t create as many as we’d have liked. We started better than Arsenal but the penalty turned things. We gave away a stupid penalty kick.”
