VIEW FROM THE BLUE

Arsenal 2-1 Everton

There is a depressing inevitability about this fixture, one that Everton haven't won in 15 years. For many a year, a trip to Arsenal usually ended in a sound beating ? the nadir, of course, being that 7-0 drubbing at the end of the 2003-04 season that was laughed off in the context of David Moyes's side having just finished in the Champions League places ? but in four of the last five seasons now, the Blues have actually put themselves in the driving seat at the Emirates but failed to come away with a precious victory.

Where last season's 2-2 draw was agonising in its cruelty ? Tomasz Rosciky's injury-time strike taking an all-important deflection off Lucas Neill to take it past Tim Howard's despairing dive ? tonight you were left with the bitter feeling that Everton had surrendered this one rather than being out-played or out-witted by a superior team.

Make no mistake, Arsenal are, of course, the better side but they were frustrated into an at times dirty and cynical performance by a rousing first-half display by the visitors that yielded a hugely contentious goal by Louis Saha that meant Everton led 1-0 until the last quarter of the match. It could be argued that the Gunners took their fury at referee Lee Mason for allowing a goal that was either clearly offside or legitimate because the last touch was a deliberate one by Koscielny out on their opponents but Cesc Fabregas had raked his studs down the back of Mikel Arteta's a quarter of an hour before Louis Saha's superb finish had flown past Szczesny.

As expected Moyes named an unchanged line-up and retained the formation that had proved successful against Chelsea. Jack Rodwell was again deployed behind Saha and Everton took the game to their hosts in impressive fashion from the first whistle. Indeed, Arsenal didn't get near the opposition penalty area until the 14th minute and though that triggered a fairly swift shift in momentum away from the Blues for the next 10 minutes, Arsene Wenger's side weren't able to make it pay.

A typically sublime move that carved Everton open down the right ended with Robin van Persie back-heeling into the path of Fabregas but the Spaniard rapped his shot wide of the target after 15 minutes, and seven minutes after that Theo Walcott found himself with just Howard to beat from the angle but the American saved smartly with his feet.

At the other end, Everton were moving the ball about very nicely at times but had only shown flashes of creating an opening until Seamus Coleman drove forward and poked the ball forward towards Saha. The Frenchman was a couple of yards offside at the time the ball was struck but when Koscielny stuck out a boot and sliced the ball into Saha's path, play was allowed to go on and Everton's no. 8 belted it unerringly into the far corner from outside the box.

The home crowd were incensed and Arsenal responded by upping the tempo, Djourou glancing a corner dangerously across the face of goal, Fabregas racing into the clear only to effect a poor first touch that let Rodwell get back to cover, and Wilshere picking Van Persie out with a deft chip that the Dutchman couldn't clip over Howard, the ball sailing over the bar instead.

Half time and so far so good for Everton. So quite why Moyes, as he is so annoyingly wont to do, chose to mess with a system that was working in favour of his legendary defensive setup would be anyone's guess if we didn't know the manager so well.

When the second half kicked off, Rodwell initially looked to have been pushed back into defensive midfield and Arteta moved in behind Saha but it quickly became apparent that the striker had been deserted completely, left to chase lost causes up front asn Arsenal seized the initiative and pegged the Blues back.

And yet despite having surrended so much possession and territory, Everton held firm for the first half an hour after the restart. Rosicky shot well wide from 20 yards, Van Persie despatched a direct free kick lamely into the defensive wall, Diaby headed over from a corner and Van Persie again shot straight at Howard.

But there were signs as the half progressed that Arsenal would eventually find a piece of magic to unlock the visitors' defence, not least when Andrey Arshavin clipped the ball over the top to Van Persie but he scuffed a half-volley wide. When the Russian found himself on the end of a similarly deft chip from Fabregas, though, via a back-header by Rodwell, the substitute side-footed past Howard to level the game and break the back of Everton's defensive stand.

Five minutes later, after Nicolas Bendtner had planted an overhead kick into Howard's arms, Leon Osman caught the heels of Walcott in full flight setting up a free kick that Van Persie fired towards the top corner, only for Howard to claw his effort behind. From the resulting corner, though, Koscielny was allowed to peel away from his marker ? Sylvain Distin or John Heitinga, it's hard to know which as they both were guilty of ball-watching ? and he had the simple task of nodding home from six yards out.

Moyes responded quickly but with two more utterly baffling decisions, pulling off both Phil Neville and Coleman, throwing Phil Jagielka on at right back and Victor Anichebe up front. Jermaine Beckford, the more mobile and more prolific striker was mystifyingly left on the bench in favour of a bigger physical presence and there was little surprise that it yielded almost nothing but a series of balls pumped aimlessly towards the Arsenal box.

Five minutes of injury time and no sign of anything approaching an Everton equaliser ensued before time was called on another disappointing game against Arsenal. From a position of real strength, the Blues let it all slip away by sitting back and inviting Arsenal forward, compounding that error with poor defending, and then leaving themselves impotent with poor substitutions when chasing the game.

It puts the pressure squarely on their shoulders when they return to Goodison Park for the visit of a Blackpool side that doesn't lack spirit or gumption. Given Everton's frailties, particularly in front of their home fans, it will be a severe test of their mettle at a time when a relegation scrap looks far more likely than one for Europe.

As the first half here showed, this is a decent Everton side that is far too good to go down when it plays the right way but sooner or later they're going to have to start winning... and for that you need to score more than once if you can't successfully defend the lead. The manager appeared to have the right idea against Chelsea on Saturday but for me he got it all wrong tonight and it's hard to escape the feeling that, with such a small pool of players and no prospect of any fresh blood on the horizon, once again we appear to be going nowhere.

Player Ratings: Howard 7, Neville 6 (Jagielka 6), Heitinga 6, Distin 6, Baines 7, Coleman 7 (Anichebe 5), Arteta 7, Fellaini 8* Bilyaletdinov 6 (Osman 5), Rodwell 7, Saha 7

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