Demolition can’t hide the painful truth that Arsenal have bottled it
THE hope lasted for all of 16 minutes at the Emirates Stadium as news of Tottenham’s opener at Norwich killed the mood. Credit to the Gunners, they did their job. Unfortunately for them, so did Spurs as Mikel Arteta side’s Champions League dream went up in smoke. Instead, Arsenal will play in the Europa League — no mean feat for a side who were bottom after starting the season with three straight defeats. In time, Arteta and his players will see it that way. But right now the wounds are too raw. It was within touching distance but they bottled it. Maybe that’s harsh — this is a young Arsenal squad after all. But right now it’s difficult to put an alternative spin on their end-of-season capitulation. Following a run of five defeats from their final nine matches prior to this demolition of Everton, there’s little to be positive about right now. It’s hard to look beyond Monday’s loss at Newcastle and the harrowing defeat by Spurs four days prior. They needed three points from a possible six. They got zero. Of course, success or failure is decided over the course of the season but those two punishing defeats will be hard to shake off. The fact it was that lot from down the road who have capitalised on their collapse merely makes matters worse. ‘We needed a miracle and it didn’t occur — the league table doesn’t lie,’ said Arteta. On the final day of the season, Arsenal took out their frustrations on Everton, who were safe ahead of this game following Thursday’s epic comeback victory at home to Crystal Palace. This was one game too far for them, their cup final was four days ago. But
Everton surely can’t endure another campaign like this and Lampard is already planning to avoid another relegation battle. ‘I’ve started looking at next season because we can’t stand still,’ the Everton boss said. Indeed, you’d imagine his team will look significantly different in August. Not that their fans seemed too concerned about getting slapped 5-1 yesterday, the biggest cheer of the afternoon from the away end wasn’t to greet Everton’s only goal of the afternoon — scored by Donny van de Beek — but Ilkay Gundogan’s third for Manchester City that killed Liverpool’s quadruple dream. Arsenal were superior in every department. From the moment Gabriel Martinelli slotted home a 27th-minute penalty awarded by VAR after Alex Iwobi handled, this result was never in doubt. Four minutes later, Eddie Nketiah doubled their lead, nodding home from close range after Martinelli’s deft flick from Bukayo Saka’s corner. Van de Beek halved the deficit on the stroke of half-time but Everton hardly deserved their goal. It didn’t matter in any case as Arsenal plundered three more goals courtesy of Cedric Soares (left), Gabriel and Martin Odegaard to put a fairer reflection on the scoreline. Not that the Everton supporters appeared to give two hoots about the result as they left the Emirates in jubilant mood. No prizes for guessing why. ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Ramsdale 6; Soares 8, Holding 6.5, Gabriel 7, Tavares 6.5; Elneny 7, Xhaka 7 (Sambi 63min, 6.5); MARTINELLI 8.5, Odegaard 8, Saka 7.5 (Pepe 78); Nketiah 7.5 (Lacazette 6, 67). Scorers: Martinelli 27 pen, Nketiah 31, Soares 56, Gabriel 59, Odegaard 82. Manager: Mikel Arteta 7.5. EVERTON (3-4-3): Begovic 5; Holgate 5, Keane 5, Branthwaite 5; Iwobi 5, Doucoure 5 (Van de Beek 37, 5.5), Davies 6 (Price 77), Kenny 6; Gray 6.5, Calvert-Lewin 5, Alli 5.5 (Gordon 67, 5). Scorer: Van de Beek 45+3. Booked: Davies. Manager: Frank Lampard 5. Referee: Andre Marriner 6.5. Attendance: 60,201.