Obdurate Everton dig in to stymie Arsenal

Arsenal 0 – 0 Everton

Everton successfully frustrated title-chasing Arsenal with an impressive defensive stand at the Emirates to take a valuable point back to Merseyside.

Jordan Pickford made key saves and James Tarkowski was in the right place at the right time to make crucial blocks as the Blues kept the Gunners at bay, restricting them to few clear-cut chances and becoming only the third team this season to come away from this part of North London with a positive result.

With Dwight McNeil rested with an ongoing knee injury, Sean Dyche deployed Jack Harrison wide on the right in an otherwise changed side from that which beat Wolves 10 days ago.

But it was Abdoulaye Doucouré, starting again in the role behind Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who had the first chance of the game and the best opening Everton would have all game when Orel Mangala slipped the ball in behind the home defence.

Unfortunately, Doucouré delayed his shot long enough to allow Gabriel Magalhães to chase him down and deflect the ball behind for a corner. That set-piece, like all of the dead-ball situations for either of these two teams so reliant on them to score their goals, came to nothing and Arsenal soon established a vice grip on possession.

In the eighth minute, Gabriel Martinelli was played into acres of space behind both Harrison and Ashley Young but Tarkowski got across well to charge his shot down and behind for a corner while Martin Ødegaard swept Mikel Merino’s cross narrowly over and then screwed a decent chance wide of the target from 20 yards out.

As Mikel Arteta’s orchestrator in the middle of the park, Ødegaard was a constant threat but when Arsenal’s best chance fell to the Norwegian after Bakayo Saka had skinned Vitalii Mykolenko and then easily gone around Jarrad Branthwaite just before the half-hour mark, Pickford was there again to pull off a terrific save.

And when Branthwaite sloppily gave it away shortly before half-time, he was bailed out again by his goalkeeper who denied Kai Havertz.

Already Everton’s man-of-the-match contender, Pickford was called into action less than two minutes into the second half when Merino beat Tarkowski in the air and the ball dropped to Saka at the back post but his England team-mate was there again to save down to his left.

Dyche made a double change mid-way through the second period, withdrawing Calvert-Lewin and the ineffective Harrison in favour of Armando Broja and Jesper Lindstrøm and while the former made a pest of himself in and around the home side’s defence, he didn’t get any genuine openings to pull off a stunning winner on the counter.

Instead, Everton dug in and repelled everything Arsenal threw at them in the closing stages and held on for a hugely creditable draw that further dents the Gunner’s title charge but keeps the Toffees on their established pace of around a point per game this season.

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