rewrite this title Everton 1-1 Arsenal: Ndiaye on the spot as points shared – Soccer News

Iliman Ndiaye’s penalty salvaged a point for Everton as they fought back to draw 1-1 with Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday.

Perhaps with one eye on the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid on Tuesday, Arsenal started without Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, but the rotated visitors controlled the first half.

Playing as Arsenal’s central striker, Leandro Trossard gave Mikel Arteta’s visitors a deserved lead in the 34th minute.

After Raheem Sterling capitalised on Idrissa Gueye’s wayward header and scampered upfield, Trossard received his pass, shifted the ball onto his left foot and drilled home.

Trossard went close to adding a second goal just before half-time, and Everton were booed off by their supporters after failing to lay a glove on Arsenal.

However, the game turned on an error from Myles Lewis Skelly just 47 seconds after the restart. After being beaten by the bounce of the ball, he wrapped his arms around Jack Harrison then fell onto his opponent’s calf inside the Arsenal area.

Ndiaye sent David Raya the wrong way from 12 yards, and Everton improved from there despite Arteta introducing his big-name attackers from the bench.

Martinelli drew a full-stretch save from Jordan Pickford late on and Mikel Merino sent a header wide, but neither team mounted a sustained push for a winner.

Arsenal are now 11 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool, who visit Fulham on Sunday and need a maximum of 11 more points to win the title.

Everton move above Tottenham to go 14th on 35 points.

Data debrief: Game of two halves

Everton were desperately poor in the first half, failing to record a single shot on target and drawing jeers from their own fans at the whistle.

Arsenal, to their credit, looked reinvigorated in attack with Trossard leading the line – the Belgian also netted in this exact fixture last season, becoming the first Gunners player to score at Goodison Park in back-to-back campaigns since Alexis Sanchez in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

His last five goals for Arsenal had all proven to be the winner, but that would not be the case here as Ndiaye profited from Lewis-Skelly’s mistake.

Ndiaye has now scored four goals in his last five Premier League starts, more than he managed in his first 18 in the competition (three).

Arsenal had 77.7% of the possession after the break but could only match Everton’s two shots on target as their performance – much like their title charge – fizzled out.