FA Premier League
ARSENAL 0
EVERTON 0

ARSENAL had a chance of winning the league title on the last day of last season.

It’s hard to imagine that they will be in range when this campaign plays out after another toothless performance in which they could not convert control against Everton into goals.

You don’t need another suggestion that Mikel Arteta has undermined his hard work reviving Arsenal by failing to acquire this generation’s equivalent to Ian Wright or Thierry Henry.

The lack of selfish, goal hungry marksman is a problem exposed too often and today was another perfect example of how the Gunners are so heavily reliant on Bukayo Saka.

They probably could have played for another 20 minutes and Arsenal would not have found the net as Kai Havertz turned in a stinker and Gabriel Jesus frustrated the fans who used to worship him.

When Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice left the pitch fatigued, the game fizzled into a panic for a goal in a desperate last 15 minutes in which Jordan Pickford made every Arsenal chance look more dangerous than it was, flapping around and full of theatrics.

He won’t care that he was booked. Everton came for a point and got one.

Arteta said afterwards: “.I feel very disappointed not to win the game, because, obviously, if there’s a team that deserved to win, there’s only one, which is Arsenal. We gave nothing away, no shots conceded, dominated our play, not allowed them to run, no set pieces. High-press, excellent. We got them there. We generated the chances, but the last 20 metres was missing to score goals, which is what you have to do with all the dominance because we have never been able to dominate it that way.”

“t I cannot ask much more to the boys apart from putting the ball in the net.”

ARSENAL: Raya, Timber, Lewis-Skelly (Partey 69), Gabriel, Saliba, Rice (Jorginho 62), Odegaard (Nwaneri 62), Merino (Gabriel Jesus 69), Saka, Martinelli (Trossard 74), Havertz
SUBS: Neto, Tierney, Jorginho, Kiwior, Sterling,

EVERTON: Pickford, Mykolenko, Tarkowski, Mangala, Branthwaite, Young, Harrison (Lindstrom 66), Doucoure, Gueye, Ndiaye, Calvert-Lewis (Broja 66)
SUBS: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Beto, O’Brien, Colęman, Armstrong