I would be tempted to describe this match as a snoozefest. However, I think there's a better word to describe it, frustrating. Well, I guess it would be frustrating to a neutral like myself, or to an Arsenal fan. For some reason the Gunners just could not finish in this one. Now, I'm sure that suits Everton's fans just fine.
Everton played real nose to the grindstone football, as they are known to do. They certainly don't generally have the fire power to keep up with the Big Four, so they play the way that gives them the best chance, which is just fine. They played well defensively in this one too, but in the end a lot of Arsenal's misfirings came down to them, not the Toffees.
One thing that Everton did extremely well throughout the match was execute the offside trap. Theo Walcott got caught three times just in the opening minutes. Robin Van Persie ended up getting caught as well. It was flag after flag. However, when Arsenal did manage to stay onside, they created some chances. Aaron Ramsey caused the Toffee defense some problems, but couldn't trouble Tim Howard. He missed the target on his best two chances in the the 29th and 32nd minutes, respectively.
After coming out of half time still scoreless Arsenal continued to pretty much much control the proceedings, but they didn't look really great doing it. Everton did finally get a foothold and create some chances though. Their best run came from about the 65th to 70th minutes with multiple chances from Tim Cahill, Phil Neville, and Marouane Fellaini. However, nothing went in the back of the net.
Arsenal Captain Robin Van Persie finally found the goal in the 70th minute. He took a great ball from Alex Song and tapped the prettiest volley you'll ever see into the far post.
In the end, the goal was all Arsenal would need to wrap up three points against Everton. It came on an appropriate day, as the club marked it's 125 anniversary during the pregame ceremonies.
Here's a Youtube link to the RVP goal
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