Leandro Trossard’s goal ended Arsenal’s woeful run at Goodison Park but the nature of their 1-0 victory over Everton was far from convincing for would-be Premier League title contenders.
The Belgium international’s second league goal for the club he joined in January was a paltry return for the dominance the Gunners enjoyed but it proved enough to halt a sequence of four defeats and a draw in L4.
But it was enough to extend this season’s unbeaten run and lift them back to within two points of leaders Manchester City and behind only Tottenham and Liverpool on goal difference.
For a team who enjoyed so much possession, Mikel Arteta’s side created very little with it until Trossard’s 69th-minute breakthrough – highlighted by starting centre-forward Eddie Nketiah’s paltry 10 touches before he was withdrawn three minutes before the goal.
Arsenal will have wished he had one fewer as it was his lay-off returning from an offside position which resulted in Gabriel Martinelli’s first-half goal being ruled out for offside.
On-loan Brentford goalkeeper David Raya was similarly underemployed having been handed his debut as part of Arteta’s rotation policy between the posts and the manager will not have learned much about his fellow Spaniard against an Everton side short on shots and attacking intent.
However, squeezing out a win on a ground which has recently proved a huge stumbling block for the north Londoners will have at least given the Gunners boss some satisfaction and the travelling support sang their appreciation of a scoreline with which they have become synonymous.
Not so his Everton counterpart Sean Dyche, whose side have now lost all three home matches this season, have only one point and remain in the bottom three and facing a third successive relegation dogfight.
While they posed little realistic threat, they did not do much wrong in frustrating their opponents for long periods and the return of Dominic Calvert-Lewin as a second-half substitute and winger Dwight McNeil starting his first game of the season should offer some grounds for optimism.
But with only two goals, both scored at Sheffield United immediately before the international break, and with summer signing Beto showing every inch of the “rawness” Dyche claimed he had, something has to improve up front.
The same could have been said for Arsenal on this occasion as they did not really pick up the pace until the start of the second half when Martin Odegaard forced Pickford to parry a fierce shot.
But desperation was started to show on the hour when the players frantically appealed for handball after Oleksandr Zinchenko’s drive from distance hit the diving James Tarkowski but his arm was tucked into his body.
Both managers decided a change of strikers was what needed to change their luck in the 66th minute and Calvert-Lewin – wearing a protective mask after a recent facial injury – and Gabriel Jesus arrived at the same time.
But it was first-half substitute Trossard who made the difference from an Arsenal short corner.
The ball was worked between Zinchenko and Odegaard to Bukayo Saka whose cutback was cleverly steered in left-footed via the far post by the Belgian for his first goal since February.
However, it was not much of an improvement on a forgettable first half, in which Everton matched the visitors for shots on target (one) despite having only 20 per cent possession, and the only real talking point was Martinelli’s disallowed 19th-minute goal.
Beto, making his home debut, charged down Gabriel and the ball rebounded to Nketiah, who laid off to Fabio Vieira to thread a pass in for his team-mate to curl a shot past Jordan Pickford only for VAR to chalk off the effort.
It was Martinelli’s last involvement as injury forced his replacement by Trossard.
Abdoulaye Doucoure wanted a penalty after breaking from midfield, lobbing Declan Rice, and cutting inside onto his right foot only to be clipped by William Saliba but referee Simon Hooper saw no infringement.
Barcelona must 'work hard' to achieve Champions League glory, says Flick
Hansi Flick tempered expectations of Barcelona's chances of silverware in his first season in charge ahead of facing Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League.
Flick has led Barca to 13 wins from 15 games in all competitions, scoring 50 goals in those games while conceding just 14 times.
Some standout matches have seen Barca thrash Clasico rivals Real Madrid 4-0 while also brushing aside Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League in their last match in the competition.
While Flick understood the fans' excitement after those results, he urged his side to keep their feet on the ground with a long season still in front of them.
"We have to work hard. There are many teams who dream of the same thing, of winning (the Champions League)," Flick said.
"For the moment, we're going to focus on working hard and grinding out, so then we'll see what happens. We have to focus on our goal which is to keep improving.
"A team's form fluctuates a lot over a long season. The important thing is to focus on winning the next match. Sure, after the match against Bayern everything changed.
"But we are just starting. The important thing is how we finish the season. We could say that our goal is to be in the top eight."
Flick, however, insisted he was not surprised by his side's impressive start to the campaign despite enduring a trophyless season last term.
Barca are nine points clear at the top of LaLiga and 11th in the Champions League table ahead of facing Red Star, who are without a win from their three games so far.
"Before we came here we analysed the whole team, every player. We realised that there was very good quality overall," Flick said.
"Another thing to point out is that we wanted to improve how we defend and did small changes in the way we play. The players liked it and they are happy working on it.
"The players play a big role, they are helping us a lot.
"The start was already good on the pre-season in North American and the players are very happy, although there are still many things to improve."
And Barca will be confident of keeping their fine form going against a side that has lost 81% of their matches in the Champions League (P21 W2 D2 L17).
This is the first European meeting between the two sides since October 1996 in the Cup Winners’ Cup, a 1-1 draw with Giovanni cancelling out a Zoran Jovicic's opener for the Serbians.
PSV 4-0 Girona: Dutch side get first win of Champions League
PSV Eindhoven won their first match in the Champions League this season as they thrashed Girona 4-0 at the Philips Stadion on Tuesday.
Ryan Flamingo got the scoring under way after 16 minutes as he turned Malik Tillman's long throw home, despite replays showing that it should have been disallowed as Tillman's foot was over the byline before releasing the ball.
Tillman got himself on the scoresheet 17 minutes later with a fine finish after he arribed into the box unopposed.
Things went from bad to worth for Girona after half-time, with Arnau Martinez receiving a red card 10 minutes into the second half for a second bookable offence.
From then, it was all one-way traffic and PSV might feel aggrieved not to have won by a bigger margin given their glut of second-half chances.
Ismael Saibari was next to put the ball in the back of the net, although his effort was ruled out for a foul in the build-up following a VAR review.
Johan Bakayoko did get PSV's third with seven minutes to go, before a Ladislav Krejci own goal wrapped up the rout in the 88th minute. The result leaves Girona 26th in the table on three points, while PSV are 19th with five points.
Odegaard returns to full Arsenal training ahead of Inter tie
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has returned to full training after spending two months out of action with an ankle injury.
Odegaard has missed 12 matches for the Gunners in all competitions after damaging his ankle ligaments against Austria while on international duty with Norway in September.
The 25-year-old midfielder trained with Arsenal ahead of their trip to the San Siro to face Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta's side have, however, struggled in Odegaard's absence recently, failing to win any of their last three games in the Premier League.
In the seven games that Odegaard has missed in the top-flight, Arsenal's win percentage dropped from 66.7% to 42.9% after going unbeaten in their first three games.
The Gunners have also averaged 1.6 points per game without Odegaard, compared to 2.3 points won with the Norwegian in their ranks.
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