Importance Score: 2 / 100 🟠
Key events
The Premier League table now looks like this. Liverpool can stretch their lead to 14 points if they beat Fulham at Craven Cottage tomorrow. Nottingham Forest visit Aston Villa in today’s late game, knowing a win would take them within two points (and a load of goal difference) from Arsenal in second. Everton, meanwhile, are 15 points (and a load of goal difference) away from the bottom three, and the point takes them above Spurs and West Ham to 14th, for now at least.
Final score: Everton 1-1 Arsenal
90+5 mins: The ball is lifted into the area, where Raya catches it. O’Brien blocks his clearance again, but the referee is busy blowing for full-time.
90+4 mins: A high ball drops towards Tarkowski, and just as he is about to head it Trossard kicks out a foot in his vague neighbourhood. He doesn’t make any contact, but everyone gets very upset about it.
90+3 mins: Arsenal focus an attack on the right, trying to find space either to cross or shoot. They manage neither, but they do force Ashley Young to concede a corner.
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time, and there’ll be four minutes of it, or thereabouts.
89 mins: And another chance! Tierney’s cross from the left is excellent and Merino, now sporting a black bandage around his head, is all but unmarked as he heads wide at the near post.
88 mins: Alcaraz gets a yellow card for stopping Arsenal taking the free-kick after he fouled Trossard.
86 mins: Another player who’s been out since November with a knee injury: Dwight McNeil comes on for Harrison.
85 mins: And a save! Martinelli receives the ball on the left, cuts inside O’Brien and shoots powerfully across goal, but it’s nowhere near the corner and Pickford pushes it away.
83 mins: There is a chance! Tierney, from the left byline, pulls back to Odegaard, who almost completely mishits it off one foot into the other leg and wide.
80 mins: Ten minutes to play, the game in the balance. It hasn’t been short of action or incident, but there haven’t been a lot of chances.
77 mins: Saved! But a foul anyway! Branthwaite and Trossard go for the ball and the Everton player goes down. Trossard, suddenly clear, hits a volley from 15 yards too close to Pickford, who saves just as the referee’s whistle sounds.
75 mins: And that’s the end of Ndiaye’s game. He’s played very well, and gets a standing ovation as Ashley Young replaces him. Patterson also goes off, and Carlos Alcaraz comes on. Arsenal bring Kieran Tierney on for Lewis-Skelly at the same time.
74 mins: A brief stoppage while Ndiaye deals with some cramp.
70 mins: Arsenal take Jorginho off and bring on Odegaard. All of their substitutions have felt predetermined both in timing and personnel, which isn’t ideal but I suppose reflects the position they find themselves in.
69 mins: Raya catches the retake and is blocked by O’Brien as he tries an early clearance. It’s clearly a foul, but the referee ignores it. Meanwhile the blood has started to seep through Merino’s Vaseline carapace, so he is off the pitch.
68 mins: Everton have a corner, and Timber marks Tarkowski. Timber stands in front of the Everton player, his back to the ball, and then goes down after a slight touch just as the ball comes in. The referee has a word with them both before ordering a retake.
65 mins: Everton bring on James Garner and Armando Broja for Beto and Iroegbunam.
64 mins: Saved! Rice hits a shot that is clean, hard, and straight at Pickford, who will have seen it late but barely had to move.
63 mins: An excellent run from Lewis-Skelly ends with him being fouled by Tarkowski, who is booked. Arsenal have another shooting chance from the free-kick, this one even better than the last, pretty central and just on the edge of the D.
61 mins: Arsenal make another substitution, this time bringing Jurrien Timber on for Ben White, who before today had played nine minutes of Premier League football since he sustained a knee injury in November.
59 mins: Saka’s low shot thunders into the wall.
58 mins: Jorginho is fouled a couple of yards outside Everton’s penalty area, and Arsenal will have a decent shooting chance. Rice and Saka stand over it.
55 mins: There haven’t been many replays of the penalty incident, but on first and indeed second viewing it looks a bit weak to me. Lewis-Skelly certainly misjudged the bounce of the ball and found himself very poorly positioned, but I’m not convinced that Harrison was actually brought down.
54 mins: Arsenal win a corner, their second since the goal. The first was underhit by Rice and headed clear, this one is deliberately sent well beyond the far post, from where an unmarked Trossard volleys high.
52 mins: Saved! Everton break, and Doucoure is played down the left. He probably should have looked to centre but when he gets into the area he takes a shot, which Raya beats away.
GOAL! Everton 1-1 Arsenal (Ndiaye, 49 mins)
Ndiaye sends Raya the wrong way, rolls the ball into an unguarded net and it’s all square!
48 mins: VAR confirms the penalty, and Jorginho is booked for arguing about and delaying it. Ndiaye has the ball.
Penalty to Everton!
47 mins: Everton have a penalty! The ball ends up back with Pickford and he plays the exact same pass, long and left to right, and this time Raya stays on his line and Harrison wrestles with Lewis-Skelly on the edge of the area. The Everton player gets ahead and goes down!
46 mins: Chaos! Pickford’s reciprocal long ball finds Raya coming out of his area without getting it, and Bayo briefly scenting an open net.
46 mins: Peeeep! Arsenal start the second half. Really badly, as it happens: Trossard lays the ball back to Raya, and he pumps the ball all the way to Pickford.
The players come back out, and there are substitutions to report: Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka come on for Arsenal, Ethan Nwaneri and Raheem Sterling go off.
An email! “Watching the ball disappear into the midday shadows at Goodison on TV, it strikes me as strange that while Neolithic passage grave builders could calculate the movement of the sun and it’s effects on their constructions, the Victorians and even some mid-20th century stadium-builders failed to do this,” writes Justin Kavanagh. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to criticise the architects behind Goodison Park for being insufficiently considerate, at some point in the late 1880s, of the potential impact of their design on future television viewers.
Half time: Everton 0-1 Arsenal
45+7 mins: The whistle blows, and there are boos from the crowd as the players head for the tunnel.
45+6 mins: Everton manage to work a shooting chance for Ndiaye on the edge of the area, but the shot curls over the bar.
45+3 mins: Now they nearly score! The ball is lifted over the Everton defence and Trossard runs through. As he prepares to shoot Tarkowski slides in from behind, and if Trossard had gone down over him he would surely have won a penalty. Instead he stretches for the ball and prods it into Pickford, the ball then rebounds to Rice whose shot on the turn is blocked.
45+2 mins: Arsenal have dominated possession since the injury hiatus. They’re not doing anything much with it, mind.