We beat Everton 2-0 at the Emirates on October 24, 2026, with Ezri Konsa scoring his first goal for the club in the seventh minute and Gabriel heading the second on his 200th Premier League appearance. Manchester City had lost 2-1 at Aston Villa in the early kick-off, so the win takes us level with them on 21 points at the top after eight games, with City ahead on goal difference. It is seven wins from eight in the league, 11 from 13 in all competitions, and our ninth home win in a row.
We went into the afternoon without Bukayo Saka, who injured his quad in Munich on Wednesday, and early in the second half Gabriel stayed down after a clearance and needed treatment before carrying on. The question the game leaves is in the final third. We had 20 shots, four of them on target, and the only two players to score were our centre-backs.
How did the set-piece drought finally end?
We scored 29 set-piece goals on the way to the title last season, and we had not scored one this season before Saturday. That ended with just over six minutes played. Martin Odegaard swung in a corner from the right, Gabriel headed it into the ground, the ball took a deflection, and Jordan Pickford could only push it onto the crossbar. Konsa reacted first in the scramble that followed and scored at the back post.
Konsa arrived from Aston Villa in the summer in a deal reported at £51m. He started alongside Gabriel on Saturday, and that partnership produced both of our goals. We won 12 corners across the afternoon, and they caused Everton more trouble than most of what we built in open play. After eight league games without one, a set-piece goal was overdue.
Why did 20 shots bring only two goals, both from defenders?
The numbers say we controlled the game. We had 58% of the ball, 20 shots to Everton’s eight, and an xG of 1.96 to their 0.63. Four of those 20 shots were on target. Noni Madueke fired wide twice in the first half, Odegaard tested Pickford in the 51st minute and shot off target again deep in stoppage time, and Viktor Gyokeres, making his first league start of the season, did not score.
This is the part that worries me. In our last league game, at Nottingham Forest, Madueke’s winner came from our only shot on target. Against Everton the goals came from a corner and a full-back’s cross, both finished by centre-backs. Saka is the player who usually turns this kind of territory into goals, and with Arteta already downbeat about his quad, the forwards around him have to start finishing what we create.
What did the bench give us?
Arteta made five changes from the 2-2 draw in Munich, and the decisive contribution came off the bench. Shortly after he was booked for leaving his technical area, Arteta made a triple change that brought on Bruno Guimaraes. In the 68th minute Guimaraes slipped Ben White in down the right, and White, on his 200th Arsenal appearance, stood up a cross to the back post, where Gabriel was unmarked and powered a header into the bottom-left corner.
That is the second time in three league games that Guimaraes has changed a game from the bench, after his winner against Leeds. Martin Zubimendi, who missed Lille after hurting himself in the warm-down against Leeds, came on for Declan Rice in the 80th minute, with Max Dowman replacing Eberechi Eze at the same time. With Saka out, having Zubimendi back gives Arteta one more senior option in a fixture list that does not ease.
How close did Everton come to getting something?
Everton came closer than the scoreline suggests, and twice through lapses of ours. They had made three changes after losing 2-0 at home to Chelsea the previous weekend. James Garner tested David Raya from range, and Raya needed two attempts to hold it. Raya then punched a corner poorly, and Tyrique George’s strike flicked off White and flashed past the post.
In the 44th minute White tried to head the ball back to Raya without enough power, Thierno Barry got there first, and his finish was saved comfortably. Seven minutes from time, Garner crossed and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, unmarked, glanced his header wide. Everton had won once in 21 previous visits to the Emirates. A goal from either chance would have come from our own errors, and a side defending a title cannot keep handing opponents chances like Barry’s.
Our centre-backs scored the goals our forwards could not, and that has us level with City at the top.