It was six years this week that Mikel Arteta, his appointment as Arsenal manager imminent, sat in the directors’ box at Everton to observe the size of the task ahead of him, as his side played out a moribund goalless draw.
Anniversaries bring a reckoning with them — in Arteta’s case, that perennial question of whether he really can take this grand old club to the title. It’s been 21 years now.
It was a new Everton stadium he arrived at this time but the challenges were very familiar: the brooding presence of his nemesis Manchester City, the shadow on Arsenal’s wall, back at the top of the league for the first time in 14 months after their victory over West Ham, and the perennial struggle for goals which has been a soundtrack to these past six years.
By kick-off, Arsenal had managed 10 fewer goals than City and for all the ink we have spilled about their need for a prolific finisher, nothing has changed. None has really arrived.
The win is hugely significant in a place where the hosts looked to create an atmosphere and a cauldron, to go with an impressive pre-match light show. With Everton desperately weakened by the absence of their best attacking creative players, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Iliman Ndiaye, it was a story of men against boys. So Arsenal reclaim the peak and, for now at least, keep the noise away.
But given the machine that City have become, the question of goals and attacking menace does disappear into the night. The handful of Arsenal players with four goals to their name was still as good as it got for them before 8pm last night, by which time Erling Haaland had extended his Premier League tally to 17. It said everything for the need to build some self-belief into Viktor Gyokeres that when Everton’s Jake O’Brien gifted Arsenal a first-half penalty, with a two-handed basketball manoeuvre from a corner, Martin Odegaard, the usual taker, passed the ball to the Swede.
It was six years ago that Mikel Arteta sat in the stands at Goodison Park ready to take on the Arsenal job
Now he has the chance to end the Gunners’ 21-year wait for the Premier League trophy – but it won’t be easy
He did the job, dispatching the ball firmly to Jordan Pickford’s left, though for long periods Arteta’s players did little to quicken the pulse. A Martin Zubimendi snapshot flew over the bar. Bukaya Saka traced a ball into the channel for Jurrien Timber to deliver into the six-yard box. Saka was unmarked to shoot from 10 yards around the hour mark but the redoubtable James Tarkowski blocked.
Arsenal’s intellectually enlightened contingent could think of little to contribute for a period in the first half than ‘Feed the Scousers’ — a tediously dull contribution and, frankly, an embarrassment to their club. Everton advertised Fans Supporting Foodbanks on their big screen through the game and Arsenal have supported the cause in previous years. Haven’t we moved on from chants like this?
By the time Leandro Trossard arced a ball against the upright after a brilliant passing move as Arsenal turned the screw on Everton just past the hour, Gabriel Jesus was preparing to replace Gyokeres.
It’s also the sixth anniversary of what proved to be a sliding doors moment for David Moyes, too. When Arteta took his seat in Goodison Park in Christmas week, 2019, Carlos Ancelotti was in attendance, about to be appointed Everton manager instead of Moyes.
How differently the course of Everton’s intervening years might have been with Moyes at the helm, but instead he finds himself in the foothills of a rebuild.
The diminishment created by the absence of a few good men here revealed how far he has to go. Jack Grealish, who began this season like a train, couldn’t make much impression. Carlos Alcaraz was poor.
Viktor Gyokeres scored the game’s only goal with a well-taken penalty dispatched above Jordan Pickford
The Swede set the game alight, but for long periods Arsenal failed to quicken the pulse
Their travelling contingent resorted to cries of ‘Feed the Scousers’. Are we not past chants like this?
Moyes has inherited some giants in central defence, though. Tarkowski was a leader once again and it has been gratifying to see Michael Keane, who has had his difficulties over the years, enjoying such a fine season.
It was also a night of fine defensive challenges from Tim Iroegbunam — offering more evidence of the qualities Moyes has imbued the side with.
A weakness against set-pieces revealed itself again, just as it had in the concession of first-half goals to Spurs and Newcastle in this place.
And though there were howls of protest when a penalty was not given after William Saliba chased Thierno Barry on to the fringe of the Arsenal area, there was contact but VAR saw no need to intervene.
Barry’s tendency to go to ground is so pronounced that they have been purposely ignoring him when he goes down in training. As Everton laboured to test Arsenal’s rear-guard, Dominic Calvert-Lewin was scoring at Leeds. A case of what might have been, had he not fallen out of love with this place.
For all of his early season successes, Jack Grealish struggled to make any sort of impact
David Moyes is in the foothills of a rebuild on Merseyside, six years after he was overlooked for the job
Arteta would have taken a position like this for his anniversary week. Holding onto it may be a different story. It looks like a tough road ahead
Gradually, Arsenal established a supremacy. Odegaard pulled a ball back for Zubimendi, who pinged another shot against the post, though it was from an offside position and wouldn’t have counted.
Saka, whose interventions provided some of a drab game’s glitter, tried to go all the way to goal by himself, though Keane stuck with him, making the crucial block to prevent the shot.
Everton celebrated as if they had scored, in that moment. They still seemed to harbour belief that they could take something from the match.
At the end, Arteta punched the air and ventured out into the chilly night air. The buoyant Arsenal away contingent chanted ‘We are top of the league.’ Supremacy retained for now, then. Arteta would have taken a position like this for his anniversary week. Holding onto it may be a different story. It looks like a tough road ahead.
