Arsenal's title hopes take another blow after goalless draw against Everton | first division

Inevitability is a dangerous feeling in football. Nothing is ever certain. No matter how great the overall feeling of dominance, no matter how impressive the possession statistics, at some point a team still has to put the ball in the net.

For a long time on Saturday here there was the feeling that Arsenal I would score at some point. They had to do it. They had all the ball. There were enough chances and half chances to maintain the general feeling that a breakthrough would occur. But it wasn't to be, so with Liverpool dropping points, another chance to close the gap at the top was lost.

“When you do what we did today you have to win the game,” Mikel Arteta said. “I am very disappointed not to win. We don't give anything away. If there was a team that deserved to win, it was Arsenal. But in the end, you need a spark and you have to be precise.”

Both qualities were missing and, for the second week in a row, Arsenal were bereft of ideas against a team that sat deep and defended in numbers, even if they had been awarded a penalty for Vitalii Mykolenko's lunge on Thomas Partey. Three and a half League games have passed since they scored in open play. It is one thing to make set pieces a virtue and quite another for them to become the only means of attack.

There were opportunities. Martin Ødegaard missed twice early on from decent positions and then saw an effort deflected by James Tarkowski and Jordan Pickford. Pickford deflected a Gabriel Martinelli attempt just before half-time and then, early in the second half, ducked well to save a Saka volley. If any of them had gotten in, it probably would have been a comfortable victory.

But they didn't and, little by little, the growls of frustration snowballed and Arsenal's reserves of inspiration were depleted. There were many crossings, but few good ones. It was all very Fulham last week: Arsenal controlled the ball without really exploiting their advantage. Ødegaard, whose return from injury has been key to Arsenal's recent recovery, was taken off on the hour mark after, despite those early opportunities, he had not reached the heights of which he is capable.

the threat Everton raised was extremely limited, but it mattered little. “It's very unlikely that you're going to go into places like this and dominate the ball,” Sean Dyche said. “So the important thing is what you do without it. Our approach and attention to detail was excellent.”

Abdoulaye Doucouré had his only chance to score but, following a pass from Orel Mangala, he dallied to allow Gabriel to return and block. But their priority was not to score but to frustrate Arsenal, which they did with relative ease, partly because of their organization and resilience, partly because of Pickford's excellence and partly because of the waste of time, for which they received two yellow cards.

There is a growing feeling at Arsenal that the game is a fun imposition on the real business of the corners. Perhaps they are necessary to establish the context. longueursin the same way that even the silliest of thrillers needs its exposition between shootouts and car chases. But still, the set pieces are the parts that everyone wants to see. From all sides in the modern first divisionHowever, the one that has the least problems with balls into the area is Everton. Dyche lives for set pieces (although he leaves the specific preparation to his assistants Ian Woan and Steve Stone – “Woany and Stoney”); It's almost an insult to your professional pride to think you can beat your team with just dead balls.

It wasn't until the fourth of Arsenal's five corners in the first half that they worried Everton, but Pickford, moving back, was able to deflect the ball. Mikel Merino did reach the first corner of the second half, a shot from Saka, but his header went straight to Pickford. How do you deal with Arsenal's threat from set pieces? How to get Nicolás Jover, your great author of the dead ball, off the hook? Having two huge centre-backs as good in the air as Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite really helps.

Ultimately, if you can mitigate the threat of Arsenal's set pieces, you are a long way from stifling them more generally. Everton's fourth 0-0 draw of the season eases the pressure on Dyche. Arsenal are still in the title race, but their margin for error for the rest of the season is rapidly shrinking.