Arsenal 0 Everton 1
It was far from being Arsenal’s most costly own goal of the week, but it still felt entirely apt. They did not deserve to lose to Everton after an improved second-half performance but then came the kind of moment that was blighting their season well before the term “Super League” became common currency.
Richarlison had collected a raking pass from Allan and, skipping past a carelessly wafted leg from Granit Xhaka, attempted to drill across goal in search of a decisive touch. He could not have expected that to come from Bernd Leno, who appeared to have got behind the ball but glanced back in agony as it squirmed through him and over the line. Everton held on for their first win in six, reigniting their bid for European football.
Defeat capped a miserable night for Arsenal, who must now pin everything on the Europa League and need to cast recent upheaval aside. Around 3,000 fans had protested in front of the Emirates before the game in response to the Kroenkes’ hideous misstep and ultimately they were offered nothing to lighten their mood.If nothing else it must have been a novelty for both sides’ players to kick off with chants ringing in their ears. The supporters outside had not taken Jon Moss’s whistle as an invitation to head home and continued to make their feelings heard at a volume that could not have escaped those on the pitch. It was a surreal backdrop to the most distracting, disorientating of weeks: nobody in the game has been unaffected by such a crude attempt to jam football’s compass irrevocably south, and Arsenal’s players could not fail to be touched in some shape or form by the anger and frustration aimed at the club’s ownership during the previous five days.
Was it a blessing, for those attempting to win a football match, that 60,000 supporters were not baying for the Kroenkes’ blood on the other side of the advertising hoardings? The chants from out on Hornsey Road continued to filter through well into the opening period but their message would have reverberated even more shudderingly in pre-pandemic times. Perhaps the only positive for Mikel Arteta in such a rotten buildup had been that everyone knows, in their heart of hearts, that there is scant domestic cause for Arsenal to pursue in the final few weeks. Had the Super League cataclysm struck before next week’s Europa League semi-final against Villarreal the consequences might have been stark; here, in a clash of ninth against eighth, it was primarily a case of keeping the show on the road.
Shorn of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Arsenal’s problems with firepower needed little elaboration. They only worked Jordan Pickford once in the first half, through a snap shot from Bukayo Saka, although Mason Holgate made one brave block from Eddie Nketiah.
It was Everton, winless in five but retaining hope of joining next season’s merit-based European party, who went inside unfortunate not to lead. Leno saved well to his right from Richarlison shortly before the half-hour after the forward had turned inside Pablo Mari; then Gylfi Sigurdsson produced a textbook free-kick from 25 yards that popped off the top of the crossbar. The football had been watchable enough, the sides more or less evenly matched, but the sense remained that the bigger story lay elsewhere.
VAR would still have a grab at the headlines in the event of an impending apocalypse. A far livelier start to the second half had seen Rob Holding deny Sigurdsson a certain goal before, in the 52nd minute, Arsenal thought they had a chance to clear their heads. Richarlison’s kick on the right shin of Dani Ceballos, who was turning away from goal inside the area, was foolish but ultimately unpunished.
Moss pointed to the spot but it transpired Nicolas Pépé had been offside by an arm’s width earlier in the move; the penalty was overturned and Arsenal would have felt even more aggrieved moments later if Everton, appealing loudly, had been awarded one of their own when a Richarlison cross hit Granit Xhaka’s arm.
Arsenal were channelling the night’s mood far more positively now, Calum Chambers blasting just over and Ceballos drawing a smart parry from Pickford.But then Leno blundered and the gloom shows no sign of lifting. – Guardian
