The Football Pink

The north London rain fell all afternoon, and Arsenal were just as relentless. It wasn't always pretty, but by the final whistle the champions were level on points with Manchester City at the top.

It started scrappily. Seven minutes in, Arsenal won a corner, and Ezri Konsa poked the ball in at the back post for his first goal for the club. It was also Arsenal's first set-piece goal of the season that didn't come from a penalty.

Everton had chances to hit back. A George shot took a deflection and flew narrowly wide, and Noni Madueke turned beautifully before dragging his effort wide. Then, a minute before half-time, Ben White's weak header back towards David Raya let Thierno Barry in. Barry failed to take it, and you sensed it might be costly.

The captain answers

On 55 minutes the Emirates held its breath as Gabriel fell awkwardly on his right knee. He insisted on carrying on, and 13 minutes later he rose to head in White's cross. It was his 200th Premier League appearance, and there could hardly have been a better way to mark it.

Gabi is a great example of that, because we were all scared... Immediately he says that he wants to continue and then he scores a goal to help us to win the game.

Mikel Arteta, Arsenal manager

Arteta himself was booked for leaving his technical area, which leaves him one more yellow card from a touchline ban, and he was not best pleased about it. "Thirty-six times in 10 minutes they leave the touchline," he said of the Everton bench. "No yellows."

We gave away a goal very early which meant we were chasing.

David Moyes, Everton manager

Everton were without Jarrad Branthwaite and Jack Grealish and rarely looked like breaking a run that now stands at 14 league visits to Arsenal without a win.