An overview of how the national media covered Everton's defeat at Arsenal
Dwight McNeil and James Garner during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton. Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
Dwight McNeil and James Garner during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton. Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
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Max Dowman stole the plaudits in the national coverage of Everton’s cruel loss to Arsenal but all acknowledged his heroics were only required because of the excellence of the visitors.
David Moyes may have left the Emirates with a 2-0 defeat, courtesy of late goals from Viktor Gyokeres and the record-breaking Dowman, but there was no shortage of credit for his side’s showing on Saturday night.
The performance was so good that most acknowledged the result could have gone the other way, with Dwight McNeil twice going close in the first half and Beto forcing a good save from David Raya later.
In the Times, Jonathan Northcroft waxed lyrical about the grace of Dowman but gave the Blues the compliment of explaining the gamble was required by Mikel Arteta with “a magnificently determined and marshalled Everton proving impossible to penetrate”.
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He later went on to evoke the image of another teenager made famous by this fixture when celebrating Dowman, adding: “How can he only be 16? The only thing you’ve seen like it was when another 16-year-old decided an Arsenal-Everton clash — a young Wayne Rooney in 2002.”
Matt Barlow was another to draw comparisons between Dowman and Rooney but he also had praise for the modern Blues, writing in the Mail: “For so long Everton looked rock solid, their back four becoming six with both wingers tracking back and the full backs squeezing tight to their centre halves, closing channels, shielded by two in midfield and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as a No10 but working tirelessly to help the cause.”
The praise for the Blues continued in the Guardian, where David Hytner wrote: “Everton had been excellent, a colossal test for Arsenal and their credentials.”
He continued: “There is a reason why only Arsenal and Chelsea had better away records in the league than Everton at the beginning of the day. David Moyes has put together a serious team, one which is loaded with all of the attributes that people have come to expect of those he oversees.
“Organisation. Physical fight. They make things so difficult for their opponents. And they can play a bit, too. James Garner, Idrissa Gueye, Dewsbury-Hall, Iliman Ndiaye. All were excellent here. What a job Moyes has done since he returned to a club in crisis in January 2025.”
In the Telegraph, Sam Dean also heaped praise on the Blues, writing: “It had all been made so difficult by a superbly combative and niggly defensive showing by Everton. David Moyes knows how to set up a team for these sorts of matches and his players were diligent and disciplined throughout. On another day they might even have won it, given the quality of the chances they created in the first half.”
In the ECHO, the focus was also on the positives from a Blues perspective - and there were plenty of them, despite the result: “The disappointment from this defeat will linger but this was a performance that should provide hope that Everton can still achieve the unthinkable.
“After years of chaos on and off the pitch, that there lies the potential to qualify for Europe with eight games to go represents an astonishing change in fortunes. For the Blues to reach the promised land of midweek football on the continent, however, they will need to pick up good results against teams chasing bigger prizes - Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool still lie in wait.
“But if David Moyes takes anything away from this 2-0 defeat at the home of the probable champions of England, and potential champions of Europe, it is that his side should fear no-one.”