By Moses Okorie
A Viktor Gyokeres penalty was enough to ensure Arsenal won on their first visit to Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium, and ensure they remained top of the Premier League table on Christmas Day.
Swedish striker slammed the ball into the net from 12 yards on 26 minutes after the Toffees’ Jake O’Brien handled inside the box from a corner, to register his seventh goal in red and white.
Arsenal struck the post twice through Leandro Trossard and Martin Zubimendi after the break, but ultimately one goal was enough to keep the club top of the pile, and allow Mikel Arteta’s sixth anniversary in charge would be one to celebrate.
Arsenal found themselves in an unfamiliar position as for the first time since the early days of October, they went into a game not on the Premier League summit after Manchester City moved above them earlier in the day.
But after a quiet opening 15 minutes, they soon went to putting that right. A few early warning signs came when Martin Zubimendi fired over after a poor Michael Keane clearance, and then Gyokeres flicked a header just wide of the post, before they were denied a potential penalty when the Swedish striker was bundled into attempting to head in a cross, but VAR rejected the appeals.
However a minute later those same officials were needed when a corner into the box initially deemed to have come off Riccardo Calafiori’s head, but replays showed that Jake O’Brien inexplicably pushed it off the Italian defender’s head with both hands.
After a long delay, Gyokeres was sent to the penalty spot but he kept his cool to emphatically blast the spot kick past Jordan Pickford to put Arsenal in front.
That was the telling moment of a quiet opening 45 as Arsenal dominated possession and carved out a couple of other half-chances, with Declan Rice scuffing the ball over the bar from the edge of the area before a good sliding challenge by James Tarkowski forced Gyokeres to miss the target after a near through-ball by William Saliba just before the interval.