{"id":202632,"date":"2025-12-20T22:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T22:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/202632\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T22:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T22:41:07","slug":"viktor-gyokores-holds-nerve-to-sink-everton-and-keep-arsenal-top-of-pile-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/202632\/","title":{"rendered":"Viktor Gy\u00f6kores holds nerve to sink Everton and keep Arsenal top of pile | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta can toast his sixth anniversary as Arsenal manager from the Premier League<\/a> summit after his team responded to Manchester City\u2019s challenge with a slender yet merited win at Everton. The Christmas No 1 spot is secure, though Arteta will know more convincing performances are required to hold on until the final reckoning.<\/p>\n

Viktor Gy\u00f6keres\u2019 emphatic first half penalty sealed a valuable away victory against an Everton team missing several important components. Arsenal\u2019s display was more efficient than impressive, more resolute than domineering, but this was a test of character after three away games without a win in the league and having lost top spot for the first time since mid-October shortly before kick-off. Arteta\u2019s side ensured City\u2019s stay in first place would be brief.<\/p>\n

There was nothing to report from a tedious opening to the game aside from the pathetic and frequent poverty chanting by the Arsenal away support. Fair play to whoever decided to display an advertisement for \u2018Fans Supporting Foodbanks\u2019 on the giant stadium screens in response.<\/p>\n

Finally, and inexplicably, Jake O\u2019Brien enlivened proceedings with a chaotic cameo. The Everton<\/a> defender nudged Gy\u00f6keres over when the Arsenal striker appeared certain to convert a deflected Jurri\u00ebn Timber cross almost on the goalline. Gy\u00f6keres immediately appealed for a penalty that the video assistant referee checked and rejected on the basis there was no foul. The striker had to be stronger when challenging for the cross.<\/p>\n

But no matter. From the corner that resulted from Vitalii Mykolenko getting the final touch on Timber\u2019s delivery O\u2019Brien clearly handled under pressure from Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapi\u00e9. The referee, Sam Barrott, having missed the offence, was sent to the pitch-side monitor where the sight of the Republic of Ireland international raising both hands to the ball gave him no alternative but to award a spot-kick. Gy\u00f6keres blasted it beyond Jordan Pickford. The power and pace of the penalty gave the Everton goalkeeper no chance despite the fact he dived the right way.<\/p>\n

The remainder of the first half reverted to type. Dull. With Declan Rice and Mart\u00edn Zubimendi controlling proceedings in midfield, Arsenal performed with greater composure although the visitors, and Everton, created little. William Saliba slipped in Gy\u00f6keres shortly before the interval but the forward shot over under pressure from James Tarkowski.<\/p>\n

Jake O\u2019Brien handles the ball to concede the decisive penalty. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Everton\u2019s lack of threat came as no surprise. Without Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Iliman Ndiaye, injured and away at the Africa Cup of Nations respectively, Moyes was missing two of his best and most creative talents of the season. The drop in quality from the absent duo to their replacements, Carlos Alcaraz and Dwight McNeil, was steep and inevitably felt by the home side.<\/p>\n

A more open and intense second half brought welcome improvement. Arsenal were close to doubling their advantage minutes after the restart when Bukayo Saka and Timber combined brilliantly down the Everton left. Having released his overlapping full-back inside the box, Saka followed in for a perfectly weighted return ball. Saka\u2019s low shot beat Pickford but was blocked in front of the line by Tarkowski.<\/p>\n

The visitors also struck the woodwork twice in the space of four minutes. Leandro Trossard curled a first-time shot around Pickford and against the far post after Rice had unselfishly laid the ball into his path instead of taking the shot himself. Trossard should have scored. Zubimendi then swept an effort against the base of the same post from Martin \u00d8degaard\u2019s fine cut-back from the byline.<\/p>\n

Everton\u2019s performance improved too although their best hopes of an equaliser centred on penalty claims. The first was optimistic and ignored when Thierno Barry tumbled under a challenge from Zubimendi after a careless pass out of defence by Saliba. The hosts\u2019 second shout looked stronger when Saliba and Barry challenged for a loose ball inside the box and the Arsenal defender kicked the Everton striker\u2019s foot after the latter had played the ball. VAR deemed there was insufficient contact to award a penalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta can toast his sixth anniversary as Arsenal manager from the Premier League summit after his team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-202632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}