Arsenal’s title hopes take another blow after goalless draw against Everton | Premier League

Inevitability is a dangerous sensation in football. Nothing is ever certain. No matter how great the overall feeling of dominance, no matter how impressive the possession stats, at some point a team still has to go and actually put the ball in the net. For a long time on Saturday, the understanding was that Arsenal would score at some point. They had to. They had all the ball. They only played against Everton. There were enough chances and half-chances to maintain the general feeling that a breakthrough was coming. But it didn’t – and when Liverpool dropped points, another opportunity to close the gap at the top was missed.

For the second week in a row, Arsenal lacked ideas against a team that sat deep and defended in numbers – even if they might think they were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty for Vitalii Mykolenko’s late lunge on Thomas Partey. It’s three and a half league games now since they scored from open play. It’s one thing to make set pieces a virtue, it’s another thing to make them the only means of attack. Twice early on, Martin Ødegaard missed the target from decent positions and, after being picked out by Bukayo Saka on the half-hour, his shot hit James Tarkowski and Jordan Pickford on their eccentric path over the bar. Pickford kicked away a Gabriel Martinelli effort and early in the second half got down well to save a Saka volley.

Slowly the grumbling sense of frustration grew. There were many crosses, but few of them good. It was all a bit like Fulham last week: Arsenal created more chances than their opponents without really driving home their advantage. Ødegaard, whose return from injury has been so key to Arsenal’s recent upturn in form, was withdrawn on the hour. He had had three decent chances and there was the occasional link with Saka, but as at Craven Cottage, he did not control the game as he can.

Everton’s threat was extremely limited, Abdoulaye Doucouré taking an age after being freed by Orel Mangala, allowing Gabriel to get back and make a block. But it hardly mattered; their job was to thwart Arsenal and draw 0-0 – which they did with relative ease, partly through their organization and resilience, partly through Pickford’s excellence and partly through time wasting, for which they received two yellow cards. .

There is a strange feeling that in these days of the game Arsenal are a diversion between the real business of the corners. Perhaps they are necessary context sentences longueursjust as even the most sleazy thrillers need their exposition between the gunfights and car chases. But still, set plays are the plays that everyone wants to see, presented with a big dramatic pause before delivery at the box office. Of all the teams in the modern Premier League, however, Everton are the least likely to be troubled by balls in the box. Sean Dyche lives for set plays; it’s almost an insult to his professional pride to think you can beat his side with set pieces alone.

It was only in the fourth of the five corners (plus a free-kick from wide which Ødegaard whipped into the box) Arsenal had in the first half that they troubled Everton, but the back-pedaling Pickford was able to tip the ball over. away. Mikel Merino got to the first corner of the second half, an inswinger from Saka, but his header was straight at Pickford. How do you deal with Arsenal’s set-piece threat? How do you intercept Nicolas Jover, their great auteur of the set-piece? Having two massive centre-backs as good in the air as Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite really helps.

And lately, if you can blunt Arsenal’s set-piece threat, you go a long way towards keeping them quiet more generally. Arsenal are not yet out of the title race, but the margin of error for the rest of the season is getting smaller and smaller.