IT’S CECH, MATE
Lacazette & Aubameyang send Emery’s Gunners into sixth place but they have under-fire keeper to thank for a lucky victory over Silva’s Everton
THE Unai Emery revolution is taking shape.
Four straight wins, Arsenal move up to sixth, where they finished last season, and owed victory to a keeper some of the fans have tried to demonise.
Sound familiar? Well, that’s because it does feel like things have changed and yet so much has remained the same. There are even still the same swathes of empty seats in the Emirates.
It is a shame there were so many no-shows because a few of the fed-up stay-away supporters owed Petr Cech a big apology after he made a string of saves to make him man of the match.
They have spent so much of the season criticising his distribution, they have forgotten what a brilliant keeper Cech is and, at 36, he is far from finished. It was Arsenal’s first clean sheet of the season.
Cech made at least six super saves, which tells its own story about a game where Arsenal were more than a little fortunate and Everton were dead unlucky. Thankfully, Emery is sharp enough to ignore the noise and stick with Cech, but he is clearly still looking for the right formula in other areas.
Alexandre Lacazette scored a world-class opening goal, which effectively won the match, but he was pretty dreadful apart from that one moment of magic.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a second, which TV replays showed was miles offside, to condemn Everton to another defeat at Arsenal where they have not won since 1996.
The Toffees were the better team in the first half and Brazil forward Richarlison gave the hosts a torrid time.
But as soon as the Gunners scored you could see the belief ebb away and, for all Everton’s attacking play, they could not find a way past Cech.
Arsenal sub Rob Holding tightened up the home defence after coming on when Sokratis went off injured. The Greece star had hurt himself making a foul, earning a booking, to make up for yet another Shkodran Mustafi mistake.
Lucas Torreira started his first game in the Premier League, but also played within himself, after getting a yellow card for a reckless early challenge on Gylfi Sigurdsson.
It was far from a perfect performance, but maybe Emery should be allowed to enjoy it, because winning when you are not playing at your best is supposed to be the sign of a good team.
Arsenal have a long way to go yet, but at least the confidence should be there, even if the rhythm and the fluidity is still missing. Mesut Ozil was disappointing, Aaron Ramsey struggled and then provided two assists, and Granit Xhaka was frustrating.
The Toffees looked as if they would be good enough to take advantage and yet, from the moment Cech denied Dominic Calvert-Lewin in a one-on-one in the opening two minutes, the Arsenal keeper refused to be beaten.
Richarlison, Theo Walcott, Michael Keane and substitute Cenk Tosun were all denied by Cech, who laid the foundations for the win.
The home side could have had a penalty when Jonjoe Kenny clearly handled in the Everton box after 55 minutes.
But a minute later, Arsenal were ahead. Ramsey’s pass found Lacazette, who had been anonymous and frustrating all game. Yet he found some extra class from somewhere, checked inside, then curled a sublime shot towards the far post. It beat keeper Jordan Pickford and crashed in off the inside of the post.
Three minutes later, Lacazette – who had finally woken up – led a counterbright, attack, fed Ozil and he played it to Ramsey, who nearly fell over, before slipping the ball to Aubameyang, miles offside.
But no flag was raised and the forward duly provided a precision finish to leave Pickford wrong-footed.
Two lovely goals from two class strikers despite their frustrations and yet you wonder whether squeezing them both into the team, with Aubameyang stuck out wide, will work in the long term.
There are puzzles for Emery to unlock but, while it remains a work in progress, this Arsenal side are picking up results along the way.