A tense atmosphere enveloped the Grove last night as Lee Mason secured more of the spotlight than a referee should but Laurent Koscielny's seventy sixth fifth minute winner saw us take a vital three points from a fierce encounter.
Everton are struggling in the league but as with every team in the Premiership, they provide a stern examination of the opposition every time they take to the field. This test was made even more demanding for us by a referee who was completely out of his depth. He failed to play advantage on a frustrating number of occasions and displayed a worrying lack of consistency when brandishing his yellow card. The most galling error came in the twenty fourth minute when Louis Saha controversially opened the scoring. He was sent clear by Seamus Coleman's pass but only because he was offside by a very obvious margin. Bizarrely, because the ball deflected off Laurent Koscielny before it reached Saha, the linesman, Mr. Child, kept his flag down. All hope was not immediately lost however as Mason went over to discuss the decision with Child but even after a lengthy debate, the goal was still awarded. Wenger later revealed that the decision was justified because the officials had decided that Koscielny had deliberately passed the ball, whichever way you look at it, this was definitely not the case.
After the match David Moyes also stated that the goal should not have been awarded but, as usual, the referee is not required to explain his decision and the whole offside rule is now thrown into further doubt.
Everton held on to the lead until half time and they deserved it, despite the controversial nature of their goal. We struggled to build any momentum and appeared to miss the silky link up play of the injured Samir Nasri. With Man Utd 2-0 up the pressure was building rapidly to ensure the second half would be a true test of our title credentials.
We were a different animal in the second half and gave back every kick that Everton had given us. We combined this defensive intensity with more pace in attack and the introductions of Andrei Arshavin and Niklas Bendtner mid-way through the half ensured that we turned pressure into goals.
In the seventieth minute Cesc Fabregas clipped a brilliant pass over the top, which was deflected in a similar manner to Seamus Coleman's but fortunately Andrei Arshavin was not in an offside position so the officials were spared having to make another controversial decision. The Russian calmly passed the ball into the back of the net and we took the lead just five minutes later when Koscielny headed home Robin van Persie's corner.
Another three points in the bag and a great statement of intent from this increasingly resilient Arsenal side.