Arsenal remain a team of two halves as they survive another Premier League high-wire act

For much of this season, Arsenal have been playing a game of two halves. So often soporific and pedestrian in the first half of Premier League games before eventually forcing their way to victory in the second.

It's worked undeniably well, but has often felt like Arsenal making life unnecessarily hard for themselves. Last weekend's fraught 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest pushed the approach to its elastic limit, their late winner eventually coming from a heavily-deflected Noni Madueke effort that was their only shot on target.

So what we can say about this 2-0 victory over Everton, kicked off by a seventh-minute Ezri Konsa goal, is that Arsenal at least showed a change of plan. But while this one wasn't quite a game of two halves, Arsenal remain very much a team of two halves.

David Raya did, admittedly, endure a few skittish moments in goal today as is his occasional wont. But he collected another largely facile clean sheet as his customary wont.

Arsenal's defence, even the in absence of William Saliba, remains elite, and there's very little wrong with the midfield either. In the absence of Bukayo Saka, who may well have been irreparably damaged by Mikel Arteta's relentless overuse of him in the last few years, it becomes mischievously possible to make the case for Max Dowman being Arsenal's most compelling attacking player.

Certainly he gave the crowd more excitement as a late sub here than anyone who'd come before him. These are barely criticisms, of course,given where Arsenal sit in the league.

We wouldn't be this harsh about almost anyone else grinding out a 2-0 win over Everton. Arsenal know what they're doing and how they want to do it.

This team, built on resilience that snuffs out pretty much all non-Brighton threat, will wear down almost anyone in the end and find a goal from somewhere at some point. And it will probably be enough for them to defend their league title.

If Manchester City get a punishment this season that sticks, it will almost certainly be enough. Is it so wrong of us to just want something with a bit more meat to it?