LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 14: Gabriel and Jurrien Timber of Arsenal look dejected after drawing with Everton during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Everton FC at Emirates Stadium on December 14, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 14: Gabriel and Jurrien Timber of Arsenal look dejected after drawing with Everton during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Everton FC at Emirates Stadium on December 14, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Everton boss Sean Dyche believes that Arsenal abandoned their game-plan as time wore on during Saturday's stalemate.
The Gunners were held to a draw for second Premier League game running, failing to capitalise on a slip-up from leaders Liverpool, who also drew on Saturday. Mikel Arteta's side squandered a series of chances and were frustrated by Everton's determined defending along with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford's superb saves.
Dyche feels that Arsenal started to 'force' crosses into the box late on as their frustration grew and the clock ticked towards 90 minutes. "You have to know how to work it without the ball. It's difficult at these grounds to think you'll have the ball therefore you have to do the other things well," the Toffees manager explained.
"These a fine side, we know that. They often dominate the ball, they often dominate chances, I don't think we gave them too many. Jordan made a big save to his left.
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"The players put a big shift in. The commitment to doing the basics as I call it, pressing and recovering and staying true to it for 90 minutes. I was proud of the players. They ask questions, they probe, in the end they tried to cross it to force something which shows how defensively solid we were."
England No.1 Pickford was named man of the match, pulling off five saves to keep Arsenal at bay. The Gunners had their best chances through Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard but both efforts were kept out.
Arteta heaped praise his players for some 'unbelievable' elements of their performance and felt that they weren't rewarded. "We're very disappointed not to win the game because if there was a team obviously that deserved to win it that was Arsenal," he said post-match.
"We did everything that was necessary overall apart from the fact that we didn't score a goal. We conceded absolutely nothing, dominated all the direct play, didn't allow them to run and conceded no set pieces.
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Sean Dyche feels that Arsenal 'forced' crosses in their 0-0 draw
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Image:
ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
"But we go there in so many occasions, we created three or four big chances, didn't score from there, and then the frustrating part is that at the end of those games when they come that way and you are able to do so much to restrict the opposition, which is very difficult to do, at the end you want to be rewarded for what you've done and the difficulty is that we haven't tonight.
"It's all the moments that we need to have a little more composure and more quality in those moments, that's normal. That's it. Tracking back? Unbelievable. Putting in the high press? Unbelievable. Dominating a lot of things? Unbelievable, but the disappointing thing is that you want to come away winning after what you've done on the pitch."
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