Arsenal’s title hopes take another knock after goalless draw against Everton
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Inevitability is a dangerous sensation in football. Nothing is ever certain. No matter how great the general sense of domination, no matter how impressive the possession stats, at some point a team still has to actually put the ball in the net. For a long time on Saturday here the feeling was that Arsenal would score at some point. They had to. They had all the ball. There were enough chances and half-chances to maintain the general feeling that a breakthrough would come. But it did not – and so, with Liverpool dropping points, another opportunity to close the gap at the top was missed.
![[Gabriel just fails to connect with a header from an Arsenal corner during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/cb3f36cbd74b67e316c1fad0cdb4ee93fe6da971/0_227_5163_3097/master/5163.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“When you do what we did today you have to win the game,” said Mikel Arteta . “I’m very disappointed not to win. We gave nothing away. If there was one team [that] deserved to win it was Arsenal. But at the end, you need a spark and you have to be precise.”.
![[Everton keeper Jordan Pickford is congratulated by teammate Jarrod Branthwaite after making a brilliant save to deny Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka in the second half.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ffc75e87d2c475be323e7a22b6aafab3faaad14c/0_0_4306_2584/master/4306.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Both those qualities were lacking and, for the second week in a row, Arsenal were short of ideas against a side who sat deep and defended in numbers – even if they might have been awarded a penalty for Vitalii Mykolenko’s lunge on Thomas Partey. Three and a half league games have gone by since they scored from open play. It is one thing to make a virtue of set pieces, quite another for that to become the only means of attack.
There were opportunities. Twice early on Martin Ødegaard missed the target from decent positions and then saw an effort deflected over by James Tarkowski and Jordan Pickford. Pickford kicked away a Gabriel Martinelli effort just before half-time and then, early in the second half, got down well to save a Saka volley. Had any of those gone in, this probably would have been a comfortable win.
