Arsenal ease to victory over Everton to stretch lead at top
Mikel Artèta can be coy no longer. Buckle up Arsenal fans – your team is hurtling along nicely in the title race for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Thirteen games to go and this emphatic revenge win over Sean Dyche's struggling Merseysiders places Arsenal five points clear of defending champions Manchester City. Both teams have played 25 matches and with just one match to come between the two title contenders the destiny of the coveted trophy is out of City's control.
Arteta has been trying to play down the hopes of the youngest side in the Premier League since they hit the front last summer. They have recovered in style from a recent blip in results , which included a home defeat by Pep Guardiola's City and a surprise loss at Everton a few weeks ago, to once again be rightly regarded as the team to beat.
That is not to say they are favourites or WILL be champions but they will have only themselves to blame if they are not still competing at the top come the season end on 28 May.
It should be a bit warmer by then, but it was only the poor Everton fans who had nothing to clap, cheer and dance about to keep them warm at a bitterly cold Arsenal stadium last night.
What a change from a few weeks ago at Goodison when Everton, lifted in Dyche's first game in charge, rose out of the relegation zone with an impressive win. This defeat leaves them third from bottom and they could be propping up the entire Premier League if Bournemouth and Southampton below them win their games in hand.
'You're going down,' sang the gleeful Arsenal supporters as the once-packed away section became increasingly threadbare with ten or so minutes to go.
Everton were four goals down by then and the 'OLE's' had already long been bouncing around the terraces in between choruses of 'we are top of the League.'
Arteta's men showed the right combination of the guile and patience they lacked away from home but Everton were their own worse enemy too, with some schoolboy defending.
Arsenal were unchanged for the 12th time this season after a comfortable weekend win at Leicester. Everton, hoping to bounce back from their defeat to Aston Villa, have made just one change – bringing defender Michael Keane back for the dropped Conor Coady.
Poor Keane last started a Premier League game at the Emirates, on the final day of last season, with Arsenal smashing five goals past Everton.
He must have felt like it was going to be a bad case of deja v=u all over again when Everton's dogged resistance ended after 40 first half minutes.
The ever-impressive Alex Zinchenko unlocked the Dyche defence and sprung Bukayo Saka clear. The young England winger blasted a shot into the roof o his international team0-mate Jordan Pickford.
Pickford had earlier set the tone for gamesmanship when he started time-wasting with just over five minutes gone. He was well supported in breaking up play by the likes of Amadou Onana who spent as much time rolling around in the throws of imaginary injuries as he did trying to get on the ball and attack.
But Arsenal and Arteta knew it would have been foolish to prepare for anything else. Their job was to show they had learned from the defeat in Liverpool and not allow themselves to be riled, certainly not visibly, when Dyche's men refused to make it easy for them.
Saka's strike was his tenth of the season and sixth in 11 since the World Cup. Throw in his three in Qatar and that is nine in 17 for club and country.
Referee Michael Oliver was getting to blow his half-time whistle and put Everton out of their misery when Saka caught Idrissa Gueye dawdling in possession and Arsenal finally had a VAR decision rightly go their way.
Gueye dithered when a simple back pass was all required of him. But he had his pocket picked by Saka, who won the ball and released Gabriel Martinelli in one action. The Brazil forward did not hesitate and showed his immense finishing ability.
Game over?
It felt that way and even more so when Arteta sent on Thomas Partey for Jorginho during the half-time interval;. What a luxury to be able to replace one of the best midfieldcrs in the Premier League in recent memory with one of the best midfielders in the world. Gueye did not appear for the second halkf either – Dyche at his most ruthless!
Everton were spent and Arsenal made it three through captain Martin Odegaard after 70 minutes and a perfect assist by Leandro Trossard.
Arteta piled on the attacking agony with the introduction of striker Eddie Nketiah and it was he who laid on Martinelli's second and Arsenal's fourth with ten minutes to go.
Ramsdale 6, White 6, Gabriel 7, Saka 7 (Smith Rowe 82), Odegaard 8, Martinelli 6, Saliba 7, Trossard 6 (Nketiah 72), Jorginho 6 (Partey 45), Xhaka 6 (Vieira 72), Zinchenko 7 (Tierney 82)Â
: Turner, , Kiwior, Holding, Tomiyasu.
Pickford 6, Tarkowski 6, Keane 6, McNei 5l, Onana 5, Doucoure 7 (Davies 79), Iwobi 6, Mykolenko 6, Maupay 5 (Gray 61), Coleman 5 (Godfrey 61), Gueye 4(Holgate 45).
: Begovic, Mina, Vinagre, Coady, Simms.
Michael Oliver
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
