Arsenal fans protest over the club’s owner ahead of tonight’s Premier League match against Everton

Premier League
ARSENAL 0, EVERTON 1

ARSENAL were beaten by an own goal that cruelly summed up the club’s week, as several thousand fans protested against its owner outside the Emirates Stadium tonight.

Through no fault of the players or manager, the Gunners were on the back foot before a ball was kicked against Everton, after Arsenal’s involvement in the botched attempt to launch a European Super League provoked a furious response across the country.

The board clumsily tried to explain earlier this week how they had been swept along by the breakaway bid, insisting the focus was on doing the right thing for the club and its fans. The Gooners who chanted, “We want our Arsenal back”, before the kick-off clearly aren’t convinced.

In the circumstances, Mikel Arteta’s depleted side deserve credit for how they started tonight’s match, looking fresher, more inventive and working harder than the visitors who sit a place above them in the Premier League.

With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette missing, a front three of Eddie Nketiah, Bukayo Saka and Nicolas Pepe looked a dynamic threat in the early stages, and perhaps should have put Arsenal ahead by the break.

By the final whistle, they looked a lot more lightweight as an attacking force, leaving Arteta with some difficult decisions over how to arrange his front line in Thursday’s Europa League semi-final against Villareal.

Arsenal looked set to take a deserved lead from the penalty spot in the second half after Dani Ceballos was caught by Richarlison – only for VAR to reverse the decision for an off-side in the build-up.

The winning goal arrived with 15 minutes left to play when Richarlison skipped past Granit Xhaka – the midfielder struggling to deputise at left-back for Kieran Tierney – before rolling in a cross that Bernd Leno somehow diverted into his own net.

Substitute Gabriel Martinelli came close to equalising in injury time, but the Toffees held on for what was their first ever win at the Emirates.

Speaking after a frustrating evening and a difficult week, Arteta acknowledged the strength of feeling shown by fans outside the Emirates.

He said: “We knew that that was happening, we knew that our fans wanted to express their feelings and we made preparations with that in mind and it is not an excuse.

“We lost the game because we had to define the game in the crucial moment, we had the openings or the chances, no clear chances that we wanted, we didn’t do that and then we conceded an own goal.

“Obviously when we earn the right to score with the decision that was taken away.”

He said he was “desperate” to welcome fans back inside the stadium, adding: “This team really needs them.

“We have a really young team that has to experience the emotion and the security and the trust that comes when you feel your people really behind you and that’s something that you have to experience to understand the difference it makes rather than playing at home with none of them.”

ARSENAL: Leno, Saka, Ceballos, Holding (c), Partey, Pepe (Odegaard, 74), Chambers (Willian, 83), Mari, Nketiah (Martinelli, 74), Smith-Rowe, Xhaka.

EVERTON: Pickford, Holgate, Allan, Richarlison (Mina, 89), Calvert-Lewin, Sigurdsson, Digne, Rodriguez (Davies, 86), Gomes (Delph, 65), Godfrey, Coleman (c).