After the disappointment of a Merseyside derby defeat on Wednesday night, Everton could ill afford a slow start against Arsenal. A glaring error almost gifted the Gunners the breakthrough, as Jordan Pickford’s miscued clearance inside two minutes fortunately didn’t end in a goal. There was still a lot of work for Arsenal to do from there, but Raheem Sterling had a gilt-edged chance to fire them ahead, seeing his effort from 12 yards blocked by Tim Iroegbunam. The Toffees were sluggish throughout the first half and were eventually punished when a swift Arsenal counter-attack ended with Leandro Trossard arrowing an effort across Pickford and into the bottom right corner.
Everton’s best chance of the half came courtesy of a generous Ben White back pass, which was pounced upon by Beto, who subsequently rounded David Raya, only for his cut back to be scrambled away to safety. Mikel Arteta’s men will be kicking themselves that they didn’t take a two-goal lead into HT. Trossard was the tormentor-in-chief again, breaking in behind only for Pickford to deny him before Declan Rice’s goalbound follow-up was heroically blocked by James Tarkowski.
For all of Arsenal’s first-half dominance, their hard work was undone within five minutes of the restart. Recently capped Miles Lewis-Skelly misjudged the bounce of the ball and dragged down Jack Harrison inside the area, and after a lengthy VAR check, Iliman Ndiaye converted from the penalty spot.
Arteta had introduced Bukayo Saka at HT, but it was one of Arsenal’s historical big-money signings who came close to finding an instant response, with £100m-man Declan Rice seeing his free-kick from the edge of the area repelled by England teammate Pickford.
While it would perhaps be unfair to suggest the Gunners’ performance today was one indicative of that of a side who know the title is gone, it certainly had an end-of-season feel to it. Gabriel Martinelli did come close to finding a late winner when his curling effort forced a spectacular one-handed save out of Pickford again. The Gunners were forced to settle for a point that draws Liverpool even closer to the title, while a point does little to impact Everton’s season.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jordan Pickford (Everton)
