FA PREMIERSHIP/EVERTON - 0 ARSENAL - 1: Victory may have been scrappy - perhaps even lucky - but, though Arsenal were out of touch yesterday, they remain in touch today.
Sylvain Wiltord's shinned goal edged the Londoners back to within three points of the summit and neatly encapsulated the slapdash nature of this encounter. One-nil to the Arsenal was a fitting way to celebrate Arsene Wenger's 300th game in charge. Why break with tradition?
"It was a dig-deep performance," conceded the visiting manager, whose assessment was littered with buzzwords - "shape, strength, character" - that would have made George Graham drool.
"We were ready to battle but were too timid before the break. With everybody winning over the weekend, we needed something from this. The championship could go down to one point, even one goal at the end. This keeps up the pressure."
Perhaps that same pressure told during a first half in which Arsenal, unbeaten away from home all season, were anaemic at best. For all their possession, the Londoners were blunt where they needed cutting edge, while a makeshift defence creaked with little protection from midfield.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst was anonymous throughout, his £8.5 million fee clearly hanging heavily round his neck. Even Patrick Vieira, on whom so much of their play turns, was out-classed by new-boy Lee Carsley as the Frenchman foundered on a stodgy surface.
But Vieira smacks of a champion, and his emergence from daydreams after the break belatedly stirred Arsenal. His gangly stride found renewed purpose as he strutted around the centre, his presence freeing those midfield team-mates around him.
Ray Parlour burst forward to force Steve Simonsen to spill one shot before skying over from Wiltord's pass.
The breakthrough, though, when it came, owed much to fortune.
Vieira's chip over David Unsworth was hit first time by Wiltord at full stretch as the ball dropped over his shoulder. His connection was poor, but the ball looped off his shin and agonisingly over the retreating Simonsen for the Frenchman's 12th goal of the season.
Wiltord and Thierry Henry between them boast more goals (39) than the entire Everton team. Given that statistic, it came as no surprise that one proved sufficient.
Undeserved defeat left the Blues hanging precariously three points above the drop, the threat of relegation more real with every fruitless week and games against Liverpool and Leeds United looming large.
This was a seventh league reverse in 10 matches, a sequence that even a new £4.4 million midfield partnership of Carsley and Tobias Linderoth failed to arrest.
After all David Ginola's trials and tribulations at Aston Villa, he was welcomed by the Goodison Park faithful as the missing link, the man to spearhead a recovery from their slide. Inspired by the 35-year-old debutant, the Blues duly tore into loftier opponents and should have led by the break.
This was Ginola's first appearance since December 1st, and he seemed intent on making up for lost time. He waited only two minutes before unleashing a right-foot shot which flicked off Igor Stepanovs and was tipped round by Richard Wright.
The Latvian centre-half had been given the runaround by Dwight Yorke on his last Premiership outing, a 6-1 defeat almost a year ago, and was abject again here. His panic-fuelled foul on Kevin Campbell prompted a free-kick from which Ginola clipped the outside of a post.
Then, after Carsley and Jesper Blomqvist had exchanged quick-fire passes for the Irish international to pull back a cross, the Frenchman, unmarked on the edge of the area, dragged a shot wastefully wide.
They did not eke out a better opportunity, though had referee Jeff Winter granted two legitimate penalty claims - the hapless Stepanovs tugged Campbell and Alan Stubbs - then they might have achieved parity.
"They were both fairly clear-cut and why he chose to ignore them is a mystery," the home manager, Walter Smith, sighed.
Yet, long before the end Ginola's swagger had become pedestrian plod as he tired. Even his team-mates were flapping in frustration after he pushed Stubbs away from a free-kick and duly blazed into the Gwladys Street end. The introduction of Paul Gascoigne late on also failed to wrest back the initiative.
As for lucky, lucky Arsenal, the challenge is maintained. "I would have been happy with that result before the game, regardless of the performance," added Wenger. "It'll be so tight for the rest of this season but we're still there."
Guardian Service
EVERTON: Simonsen, Clarke (Moore 86), Weir, Stubbs, Unsworth (Gascoigne 70), Blomqvist (Pembridge 77), Carsley, Linderoth, Naysmith, Campbell, Ginola. Subs Not Used: Gerrard, Cleland.
ARSENAL: Wright, Luzhny, Stepanovs, Campbell, Upson (Dixon 31), Parlour, Vieira, Grimandi, van Bronckhorst, Wiltord, Henry. Subs Not Used: Seaman, Jeffers, Edu, Inamoto. Booked: Campbell, Stepanovs, Parlour, Luzhny, Henry. Goals: Wiltord 62.
Referee: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).
