Arsenal beat Everton 2-0 as Ezri Konsa and Gabriel pull the Gunners level with Man City

Arsenal took full advantage of Manchester City’s first league slip of the season. Hours after City lost 2-1 at Aston Villa, the Gunners beat Everton 2-0 at a rain-soaked Emirates Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 24, with center backs Ezri Konsa and Gabriel Magalhães scoring the goals.

The win leaves Mikel Arteta’s side level with City on 21 points after eight games, with seven wins each. Only goal difference keeps Arsenal second.

Arsenal vs. Everton: final score and goals

The match kicked off at 3 p.m. UK time (10 a.m. ET), according to Sky Sports.

Ezri Konsa’s first Arsenal goal

Arsenal went ahead in the seventh minute from their third straight corner. Martin Ødegaard’s delivery was flicked on by Gabriel, and Jordan Pickford tipped it onto the crossbar. The Guardian reported that Vitaliy Mykolenko failed to clear under pressure from Gyökeres, and Konsa reacted first to force it in from close range.

It was Konsa’s first goal for the club and Arsenal’s first set-piece goal of the season, excluding penalties. According to Opta figures cited by The Guardian and Arsenal, it ended a run of 13 games without one dating to May. Sky Sports credited Gyökeres, making his first Premier League start of the season, with the assist.

Arteta praised the defender’s quick adjustment. “To come to a huge club like Arsenal, with no pre-season … and performing at the level that he’s doing and building already a chemistry and a partnership with Gabi that seems so solid is very difficult to do,” he told Sky Sports.

Gabriel’s header on his 200th Premier League appearance

Arsenal created plenty but could not add a second before halftime. Noni Madueke dragged one effort wide and hit the side netting with another, and Ødegaard was stopped only by a sliding Mykolenko block after dribbling through the Everton defense, the club’s report said.

Everton nearly equalized just before the break, when a weak Ben White header back to David Raya let Thierno Barry in, but Barry could not take the chance.

Early in the second half, Gabriel landed awkwardly on his right knee and needed treatment, Sky Sports reported. He stayed on and sealed the game in the 68th minute, heading in White’s cross at the back post. It came on his 200th Premier League appearance, and Arsenal said it was his 21st Premier League goal and the first that did not come from a set piece.

“Gabi is a great example of that, because we were all scared,” Arteta said of the injury scare. “Immediately he says that he wants to continue and then he scores a goal to help us to win the game.”

Everton substitute Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall flicked a late header just wide, but the visitors never seriously threatened a comeback.

Arteta’s yellow card

Arteta was booked for leaving his technical area, his second yellow card of the season, which Sky Sports said leaves him one away from a suspension. After the game he said he keeps video of other managers doing the same thing. “I have a massive storage of images,” he said. Everton manager David Moyes was also booked, The Guardian reported.

Everton’s struggles continue

Everton were without Jarrad Branthwaite and Jack Grealish, who was ill. After an unbeaten start in the league, they have now lost two in a row and are still looking for their first away league win of the season, Sky Sports said.

“We didn’t really get to a level which I think would have been good enough to win on the day,” Moyes said. “I didn’t feel we’d done enough on the attacking part of the game.”

Both The Guardian and Arsenal noted it was the 400th defeat of Moyes’ managerial career across all competitions, 31 of them against Arsenal.

Arsenal vs. Everton standings: what it means

• Arsenal: 21 points, level with leaders Manchester City and behind only on goal difference.
• Everton: Ninth with 10 points, according to the BBC Sport table after the match.
• Rare company: According to Arsenal and The Guardian, this is only the third top-flight season in which two teams have won at least seven of their first eight matches.

There was one note of disagreement in the reporting: The Guardian said Arteta made five changes to his lineup after Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich, while Sky Sports counted four changes from Arsenal’s previous Premier League game, a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest.

What’s next for Arsenal

Arsenal visit fourth-tier Fleetwood Town in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, then travel to Liverpool next Sunday before a Champions League trip to Slavia Prague on Wednesday, Nov. 4, the club said.

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