Gunners close the gap
Winners usually become unpopular pretty quickly because everybody wants to see the best knocked off their perch. After capitalizing on Manchester City and their first defeat of the season to move level on points with the league leaders, Arsenal proved they can be people's champions as well as Premier League champions. A routine 2-0 home win against Everton thanks to goals from defenders Ezri Konsa and Gabriel Magalhães in each half enabled the Gunners to close a three-point gap on City to just goal difference, following Aston Villa's 2-1 win against Enzo Maresca's side earlier in the day. Arteta said they have to just focus on what they can do when asked about the strange situation of battling with City at the top. Arteta added that they are very pleased with 90 percent of their result and performances other than the Brighton game, which ended in a 3-0 defeat last month.
Proving squad depth
With Bukayo Saka, William Saliba, and Christos Tzolis all missing due to injury, and Jurriën Timber, Kai Havertz, Riccardo Calafiori, Bruno Guimarães, and Martin Zubimendi all named on the bench, Arteta trusted his fringe players to deliver and they did. Ben White, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Mikel Merino, Noni Madueke, Eberechi Eze, and Viktor Gyökeres made rare starts and all played their part. Everton are not the strongest opposition, especially without the injured Jack Grealish and Jarrad Branthwaite, but for Arsenal to beat them without half of their first-choice players was still an achievement and a sign of their strength. Everton manager David Moyes said that they have built the squad and strengthened year on year, and that they have a really strong squad because of it. Arteta said he is very happy with the victory and performance given their terrible schedule this week, adding that he loved the mentality of the team and the quality they showed.
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