Arsenal lost in extremis to the ailing Everton on Monday evening: 2-1. Shortly before the halftime signal, Martin Ödegaard scored the opening goal of the encounter at Goodison Park. Ten minutes before the end, Richarlison tied the score. In stoppage time, Demarai Gray even took care of the win for the low flyer from Liverpool. The home team will nevertheless look back on the defeat against with mixed feelings the gunners, because on two occasions a goal by Richarlison was disallowed for offside. In both cases, the VAR ensured that Everton were deprived of a hit, but that did not jeopardize the victory. Arsenal remain in seventh place in the Premier League. The team of manager Rafael Benítez is number twelve after Monday evening.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who performed disappointingly against Manchester United (3-2 defeat) on Thursday, was placed on the bench by manager Mikel Arteta. Instead, Alexandre Lacazette acted as attack leader for the North London club. The conversion, however, gave Arsenal hardly any chances in the opening phase. Everton showed themselves more dangerous from an attacking point of view and a minute before half-time Richarlison seemed to make the 1-0, from a measured cross by Andros Townsend. However, VAR intervened and the opening goal was canceled by referee Mike Dean. Shortly afterwards, Ödegaard scored in the short corner after a smooth counter from Arsenal: 0-1. Disappointment all around, therefore, among the fans of the home club halfway through.
Demarai Gray??
What a wonderful goal in extra time ??
Everton look set to win again against Arsenal ??#ZiggoSport #PremierLeague #EVEARS pic.twitter.com/rqHmJsGUus— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) Dec 6, 2021
VAR got in the way again after almost an hour of play, when it turned out that Richarlison was offside by a toe-length. The exasperated Brazilian nevertheless remained in good spirits and saw his efforts rewarded in the final phase of the duel, which was full of incidents. A shot from Gray came back into the field through the crossbar and Richarlison was there like the chickens to score the equalizer by heading. The goal brought joy to Goodison Park, while Aubamyang came in as a substitute for the visitors. Lacazette gave way to him in Arsenal’s attack.
Arsenal looked to take a point from Liverpool, but Gray had other plans. The wing attacker, picked up by the departing technical director Marcel Brands at Bayer Leverkusen last summer, saw a shot through the post end up in Aaron Ramsdale’s goal: 2-1. Arsenal were crushed by the goal in the third minute of stoppage time and for the London club it is already the fifth loss of this Premier League season and the second loss in five days.