After losing to Barcelona midweek, Arsenal had been knocked out of two competitions in less than a week. A loss against Everton on Saturday and their title hopes would be all but over.
The north London side came out of the blocks fast and were showing real promise. This domination turned into a goal for the Gunners after wonderful link up play from Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez gave Danny Welbeck a chance to take the lead for the Gunners, which he did with great composure. Arsenal continued to control the game and Alex Iwobi, who was making his first Premier League start for the Gunners, grabbed his first goal after an excellent long ball from Hector Bellerin.
Everton had the upper hand throughout the second half as Arsenal held a 2-0 lead. The Toffees pushed desperately to find a way back in the game, but Arsenal’s defence were too stubborn and the Gunners came out the match with a clean sheet.
An excellent 2-0 win for the Gunners. Could this be the push Arsenal needed to fight for the title?
Here are how the players rated against Everton.
David Ospina: 6.5/10
A comfortable game for Ospina, who wasn’t really troubled in the first half. There was an injury scare for him after being clattered by Romelu Lukaku, but he managed to soldier on until the end of the game.
The Colombian kept his first Premier League clean sheet since he has come in to cover for the injured Petr Cech.
Hector Bellerin: 7.5/10
A great performance from Bellerin who played with great composure and confidence. He was a constant threat down the right hand side and he even managed to grab himself his second consecutive Premier League assist with a good long ball to Alex Iwobi.
Gabriel: 6/10
A shaky performance from Gabriel, who didn’t look too comfortable when put under pressure. He constantly relied on the help of his partner in Laurent Koscielny.
The Brazilian’s performance did improve in the second half though.
Laurent Koscielny: 8/10
The skipper was excellent and led the defence by example with some excellent clearances and interceptions. The Frenchman even managed to bail out his partner Gabriel a couple of times. played a big part in Arsenal maintaining a clean sheet in today’s game.
Heplayed a big part in Arsenal maintaining a clean sheet in today’s game.
Nacho Monreal: 7/10
A good performance from Monreal. He was solid when dealing with the in-form Aaron Lennon and provided attacking threat going forwards.
Mr. Consistency.
Francis Coquelin: 7/10
A very solid performance from Coquelin who controlled the midfield. There seems to be a very good partnership emerging with him and Mohamed Elneny.
Mohamed Elneny: 7/10
The Egyptian seems to be growing with confidence as every game passes by and he was excellent again against Everton. He was very composed and distributed the ball well.
Alexis Sanchez: 7/10
A much better performance from Alexis. His link-up play with Mesut Ozil was a joy to watch and this led to the Chilean providing an assist for Danny Welbeck.
Alexis also had a penalty wrongly denied, after being brought down by Phil Jagielka.
Mesut Ozil: 7.5/10
A very good performance from Ozil, who was marvellous when involved with the link-up play. The German was involved with the first goal for the Gunners after an audacious flick to Alexis paid off and was a constant threat throughout.
Alex Iwobi: 8/10 (Man of the Match)
Iwobi started his first ever Premier League game and it was an amazing performance from the young Nigerian.
He was involved in everything and his great display was topped off with a first goal for the Gunners with a well-slotted finish past Joel Robles.
Iwobi grabbed Man of the Match for his excellent performance.
Danny Welbeck: 7.5/10
Welbeck has been one of the best players in what has been a difficult period for the Gunners. His impressive performances continued as he managed to find the net after rounding the ‘keeper with ease gave him an open goal to pass the ball.
Substitutes
Kieran Gibbs: N/A
Olivier Giroud: 6/10
Giroud had a goal disallowed following an Iwobi push on Jagielka.