A round-up of how the national media reported on Everton's goalless draw with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium
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Everton's James Tarkowski clears the ball from the corner despite the attentions of Arsenal's Kai Havertz during the match at the Emirates Stadium on December 14, 2024
Everton's James Tarkowski clears the ball from the corner despite the attentions of Arsenal's Kai Havertz during the match at the Emirates Stadium on December 14, 2024
(Image: Stephanie Meek - CameraSport via Getty Images)
Everton picked up a welcome away point at Arsenal with a heroic defensive display at the Emirates Stadium. Here’s how the national media reported on the game.
Everton's will never subsided to earn deserved point
Isaan Khan, Daily Mail
The loud groans from the Arsenal faithful were growing and Mikel Arteta could sense it. He threw his arms up in the air after 70 minutes, in a desperate attempt to whip them up.
Both he, and they, knew that anything but a win would be problematic, to say the least. That’s why full-time was greeted by the kind of boos not heard at the Emirates in some time.
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It’s early on in the season but, after dropping points against Fulham, and the lead Liverpool have already gained at the Premier League table’s summit, the Gunners could ill afford more slip ups. Particularly against a team who are looking over their shoulders at the bottom three. It makes this result all the poorer.
To Everton’s credit, their will never subsided. The tidal wave of red and white shirts kept coming, that desperation for a goal growing as the second half ebbed on.
The north London club weren’t terrible, Jordan Pickford’s aerial punches and reflex saves doing much to thwart the opposition attack. Though Arsenal’s creativity was lacking and when their attackers had chances, they failed to take them.
By the end, a point was what Everton and Pickford deserved.
The threat Everton posed was extremely limited, but it hardly mattered
Jonathan Wilson, Guardian
Inevitability is a dangerous sensation in football. Nothing is ever certain. No matter how great the general sense of domination, no matter how impressive the possession stats, at some point a team still has to actually put the ball in the net. For a long time on Saturday here the feeling was that Arsenal would score at some point. They had to. They had all the ball. There were enough chances and half-chances to maintain the general feeling that a breakthrough would come. But it did not – and so, with Liverpool dropping points, another opportunity to close the gap at the top was missed. The threat Everton posed was extremely limited, but it hardly mattered. Abdoulaye Doucoure had their only chance of note but, set through by Orel Mangala, dawdled to allow Gabriel to get back and make a block.
But their priority was less in scoring than in thwarting Arsenal which they did with relative ease, in part by their organisation and resilience, in part through the excellence of Pickford and in part through time-wasting, for which they collected two yellow cards.
DETERMINED DISPLAY: Chris Beesley's video verdict Increasingly with Arsenal there is a sense of the game being a diverting imposition between the real business of the corners. Perhaps they are necessary context-setting longueurs, just as even the most schlocky of thrillers needs its exposition between the shootouts and car chases.
But still, the set plays are the bits everybody wants to see. Of all the sides in the modern Premier League, though, the one least likely to be troubled by balls into the box is Everton.
How do you deal with Arsenal’s dead-ball threat? How do you defang Nicolas Jover, their great auteur of the dead ball? Having two massive centre-backs as good in the air as James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite really helps.
Of late, if you can blunt Arsenal’s set-piece threat, you are a long way to stifling them more generally. Everton’s fourth 0-0 draw of the season eases the pressure on Sean Dyche. Arsenal are still just about in the title race, but their margin of error for the rest of the season is narrowing rapidly.
Everton defended stoutly with their supporters mocking Arsenal
Gary Jacob, The Times
In a season in which every team have shown flaws, it will rankle at Arsenal that they have been unable to apply pressure on the Premier League leaders for a second straight weekend. After failing to significantly close the gap to Liverpool when the Merseyside derby was postponed, they spurned early chances and then badly ran out of ideas against a stubborn Everton side.
There was a brief flurry of boos at full-time, reflecting Arsenal having almost 77 per cent possession but playing too many hopeful balls and ineffective crosses. They lost their way and lacked cohesion after bold substitutions that never paid off. This time they were not bailed out by their set pieces and Jordan Pickford saved Mikel Merino’s header from the type of corner that had led to their past three league goals.
Everton supporters mocked Arsenal by cheering when their side cleared the first of eight corners. Pickford made an excellent close-range save from Martin Odegaard and then an even better stop to his left to deny Bukayo Saka.
Everton defended stoutly, earning a third clean sheet in four matches and a sixth this season. James Tarkowski was happy to clear headers and block shots.
Excellent Everton defence obliged to play the last 20 minutes at the same frantic pace that most teams defend stoppage-time
Sam Wallace, Daily Telegraph
There are moments when a manager feels like he must simply obey his instincts and perhaps trust a little in the game’s capacity for drama, which may well be what persuaded Mikel Arteta to substitute his captain and chief creator Martin Odegaard just after the hour. It was early for a last roll of the dice, but Arteta did it anyway.
In Odegaard’s place came the Islington teenager Ethan Nwaneri and it is not impossible to envisage a scenario where the 17-year-old sprung open the Everton defence and created a moment that would reinvigorate Arsenal’s title challenge. But Everton would not be sprung and Arsenal dropped two more points on a day when Liverpool were dropping two of their own.
The Odegaard move was unusual because Declan Rice was substituted in the same minute, his withdrawal the consequence of a lingering injury problem. Perhaps Arteta just sensed one of those moments, having of late placed ever more trust in Nwaneri and the 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly, who started the game.
It came amid a grinding battle of nerve with an Everton defence that was obliged to play the last 20 minutes at the same frantic pace that most teams defend stoppage-time. Led by James Tarkowski and also by goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, they were excellent.
They survived a second half VAR review for a potential penalty after a collision between Thomas Partey and Vitalii Mykolenko. They survived five shots on target, and they did so with some composure.
What happened in front of Everton away end summed up huge change with next seismic shift incoming
Joe Thomas, Liverpool ECHO
Jordan Pickford pumped his clenched hand against his heart and fist-pumped the away end once, then twice, then a third time. Abdoulaye Doucoure clenched him in a warm embrace and then James Tarkowski held his attention with what appeared to be a stern lecture on how good the England number one is.
Idrissa Gueye followed Tarkowski before Pickford then climbed over the pitchside hoardings and Everton’s pantomime villain made two Christmas dreams by handing over first his shirt and then his gloves to supporters in an away end that ended their afternoon at Arsenal in full voice.
Pickford, a hero of the draws with Newcastle United, West Ham United and Brentford was once again the most impressive figure in an Everton side that has no choice but to fight when up against title chasers such as the Gunners. But they deserved this point after 96 minutes in which, at times, the hosts laid siege to their goal.
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The most satisfying point was that, unlike some of those aforementioned draws, which felt like sorry missed chances against sides more vulnerable than Everton made them appear, this time Pickford could share the adulation with the players around him.