IT was Bukayo Saka who created a slice of history by inspiring Arsenal to a unique century.
And it was a bungling Everton defence who threatened to trash the longest-running fixture in English football.
Saka notched a quick-fire goal and assist to exact revenge on Sean Dyche’s Everton – as Arsenal became the first English club to register 100 league wins over the same opposition.
It helps that Arsenal versus Everton has been played for 68 consecutive top-flight seasons – but there may not be a 69th because the Toffees are a shambles.
Dyche had started a serious Arsenal wobble when his side notched a shock-and-awe win over Mikel Arteta’s men on his maiden outing as Goodison boss just three and a half weeks ago.
But their chances of a sustained revival look bleak because, despite their vast spending under Farhad Moshiri, the Premier League’s worst-run club don’t have any goalscorers and they can’t defend for toffee.
Defeat on Merseyside on February 4 had sparked a run of just one point from a possible nine as Arsenal briefly lost the leadership to Manchester City.
But now, courtesy of Saka’s opener, a double from Gabriel Martinelli and a Martin Odegaard strike, the Gunners are five points clear at the summit after three straight wins.
Arteta, who captained Everton when Everton were Everton, will have taken little pleasure from the identity of the opposition – but he relished his side’s ruthlessness after they had suffered 40 minutes of frustration.
As at Leicester on Saturday, Arteta left Eddie Nketiah on the bench, employing Leandro Trossard as a false nine.
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And there was a lack of early punch about Arsenal, lacking a focal point in attack.
Dyche had handed a first Premier League start of the season to Michael Keane – his most recent one had come in a 5-1 gubbing here last term.
This added to Everton’s Burnleyfication, with three Dyche’s former Clarets players in his starting line-up.
The only early highlight was Dyche bawling out fourth official David Coote after a perceived foul had gone unpunished and hundreds of Londoners behind the Everton dugout responding by yelling out the surname of former children’s TV presenter Brian Cant.
Undeterred, Dyche continued to scream and holler, threatening to burst out of his dark suit with the demeanour of an angry bouncer policing a very short guest list.
Out on the pitch, Amadou Onana kept falling over and everyone kept shouting at him. It was mainly shouting, really, not a lot of football.
It wasn’t exactly ‘school of science’ stuff but Everton were effective enough early on – defending deep, tackling hard, going long and threatening on their occasional breaks until the ball found Neal Maupay and it all broke down.
Then, on 40 minutes, the first meaningful attempt of the night – and the opening goal.
Oleksandr Zinchenko caught out his fellow Ukrainian Vitali Mykolenko with a straight pass, Saka seized on it, turning and walloping into the roof of the net, beating his England team-mate Jordan Pickford at his near post.
Dyche seemed to do an irate Timewarp in his technical area. Everton had barely been threatened until that moment.
Suddenly, it was two – due to an extraordinary brain freeze from Idrissa Gueye and a VAR who finally found in Arsenal’s favour.
Gueye had won possession but then – facing goal near the edge of the Everton box – the midfielder simply decided to stop playing football for a couple of seconds.
He looked up to play a simple pass, then thought better of it, as if two elite forwards like Saka and Martinelli might not converge on him. But they did.
Saka nicked it off his toes, Martinelli drilled past Pickford and after a linesman’s offside flag had been raised, VAR Tony Harrington overturned the decision and the Emirates erupted into belated bedlam.
Arsenal had been robbed by officials against Brentford and Leicester recently, so this was a welcome if only to disprove some of their supporters’ barking-mad internet conspiracy theories.
Unsurprisingly, Dyche hooked Gueye at half-time and sent on Mason Holgate. Arteta replaced Jorginho with Thomas Partey, for his first major run-out since injury.
James Tarkowski hammered Martin Odegaard with a ‘reducer’ and was booked and Dyche doubtless recalled glory nights at Turf Moor.
Maupay, who was hopeless, was soon withdrawn to howls from the home supporters after his lengthy list of ‘previous’ with Arsenal as a Brighton player.
Dwight McNeil forced a decent save from Aaron Ramsdale, but Trossard and Martinelli both duffed good opportunities for Arteta’s side.
The third soon arrived, though, Xhaka releasing Trossard down the left, the Belgian cutting back for Odegaard to thud home via the flailing boot of Tarkowski.
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Then Zinchenko found Nketiah, on as a sub, and he cut back for Martinelli, who prodded home.
Dyche was quieter, now. Perhaps wondering how on earth Everton will survive this. Perhaps wondering why on earth he took the gig in the first place.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
