Mikel Arteta was left ruing his team's inability to capitalize on their dominance against Everton.
Arsenal did everything needed to win against Everton...except score a goal.
The Gunners dominated every facet of the game, but a defensively resolute Everton team gave the home team little reward for their dominance.
Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard couldn't bring the magic to the Emirates, while Gabriel Martinelli couldn't even make life tough for a 39-year-old Ashley Young as the Gunners, for all their dominance, the good vibes came to a screeching halt in the final third.
With Liverpool dropping points at home to Fulham, it was a superb chance to close the gap on the league leaders, but Arsenal's inability to pick the lock of the Everton defense meant it was forced to settle for a draw - much to the annoyance of Mikel Arteta.
"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," Arteta said via arsenal.com. 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.But at the end you have to try to generate the highest winning probability. Now that you draw the game, you want more. Even if we win it, we always want more. But I cannot ask much more to the boys apart from putting the ball in the net.”
Bukayo Saka
The result now makes it four points lost in the Gunners' last two games against teams that they "should" be beating. On both occasions, despite dominating every facet of the contest, they came unstuck in the final third.
With Odegaard or Saka are creating individual pieces of brilliance, the Gunners lose a lot going forward. Of course, Martinelli having a stinker didn't help either.
But the most frustrating part is that Arsenal was clearly the better side. They gave Everton absolutely nothing, yet the Toffees escaped with a priceless point in a game where if the Gunners had their magic, it could have been a dominant win.
Alas, that was not the case, and the Gunners failed to take advantage of Liverpool's slip-up. We aren't sure how many more chances they'll get to reel in Arne Slot's team, but this was yet another one they let slip through their fingers.