Arsene Wenger spoke in the week about the big gap between Arsenal and the current Premier League leaders might just allow the Gunners to play with some of the old fluency and verve that saw us topping the table at the turn of the year and even though the Gunners were knocked out of the Champions League in midweek, there were enough positives from our performance against Barcelona to give us some belief back.
That certainly seemed to be the case after Arsenal had weathered a fast start from Everton today. Apart from those early minutes it was Arsenal that were generally on the front foot. We loked sharper than the Toffees, both with and without the ball.
So while Koscielny and Gabriel were able to cope quite well with the threat of Lukaku, the Everton team was having a tough time keeping the likes of Ozil and Alexis quiet. But it was the new look front line of Welbeck and Iwobi that did the real damage.
The England striker finished a great slick move to score one of those typical Arsenal goals that we all love so much. We produced a few mose moments like that throughout the first half but it was a counter attack that led to the second, with Sanchez micking the ball and Bellerin playing it up to the excellent Iwobi for him to score on his first EPL start.
Welbeck nearly made it three after the break when he pounced on an error by Stones but after that it was more about making sure the home team did not get back into it. They missed a great chance from a corner after Ospina had been shaken up by a collision buyt that was as good as it got for them.
Giroud was denied a perfectly good goal in the closing stages because of one of a few poor decisions by referee Mark Clattenburg but at least he did not cost us any points this time. A great performance and result from Arsenal that just keeps our title hopes alive.