Arsenal had a lot of chances to beat Everton and messed it up

If you just watched the run of play between Arsenal and Everton, you wouldn’t be alone in being shocked by the Gunners 2-1 loss. A late Everton goal, a last-minute red card for the Toffees, and an absolutely jaw-dropping sequence at the end that almost saw the Gunners equalize if not for two huge blocks and a goal line clearance. That was all before Everton nearly scored into an empty net going back the other way.

For how chaotic that incredible ending to the match was, Arsenal fans would be completely correct in believing that it never should have happened. Until the final 15 minutes of the match, Everton were there for the taking — Arsenal just completely failed to finish the job.

For the vast majority of the match, Everton were playing very poorly, and at times it was hard to tell if they were playing at all. Ashley Williams and Phil Jagielka were constantly getting caught out of position, the midfield trio were playing individually instead of as a unit supporting their team, and the attack was constantly adrift and struggling for support. They’d been lucky to score their equalizer, and at times they were almost begging for Arsenal to come forward and score at will.

But Arsenal never did. Oh, they held the ball plenty, with nearly 60 percent possession, but they hardly did anything with that possession. They got only nine shots away all match long, many of them from poor positions. Their goal came off a tremendous deflection — straight off the head of Everton defender Ashley Williams. Everton’s equalizer came because Seamus Coleman was allowed to make an untracked run all the way to Arsenal’s six-yard box to get a free header from a Leighton Baines cross.

It was a poor performance from the Gunners, and honestly not one that was worth them winning. Of course, Everton weren’t very good either until the final 15 minutes, but they were able to take advantage of Arsenal’s lack of focus and drive to get their first win since October. One shouldn’t read too much into this from the Toffees’ point of view — they’ll have to be much better going forward for this to be a real turnaround moment — but Arsenal fans have plenty to worry about.

The fact that Arsenal were unable to take advantage of a very poor Everton team has to be a major point of concern. It’s not as though Arsenal were playing a heavily-rotated side that needed to gel -- this was very close to a full-strength side for them. Despite that, they looked out of sorts and, perhaps most distressingly, disinterested for much of the match. That allowed Everton the time they needed to fix their own issues and get organized, which i proved to be the deciding factor, even if it did take far too long for Everton to get to that point.

Arsenal have, for the most part, just been kind of coasting along for the last couple of months, relying on momentum and talent to see them through a number of matches. That method stalled out in a bad way against Everton, and cost themselves three points that they should have won quite easily. This needs to serve as a wakeup call for Arsene Wenger and company — it’s time to refocus and improve themselves. The Gunners can’t afford to rest on their laurels any more. Tuesday’s loss demonstrated that in a stark and severe way, and they can ill afford further slip ups like that.