Arsenal 2-0 Everton: Good to Know That If I Ever Need Attention All I Have to Do Is Die

1-0 Olivier Giroud 39'
2-0 Tomas Rosicky 89'

It certainly is nice when the turning point in a game can be a defensive play, and it's actually a positive one for your team rather than a huge blunder. I think it's fair to say that was the case for Arsenal today, in a nice change from earlier in the week where the story was defensive ineptitude. With about ten minutes left in the first half, Everton were playing well and the game was more or less even. Romelu Lukaku -- often a thorn in Arsenal's side in the past -- found the ball in the box on a move forward and appeared to be setting up a shot that, let's face it, was probably going to go in.

Then Gabriel happened.

It was a nice recovery from a poor play earlier that almost gifted Lukaku a goal, but for some exceptional goalkeeping by David Ospina (who, despite one missed catch that almost made me wet myself, played well today). And only a couple of minutes later, Olivier Giroud turned what could easily have been a 1-0 deficit into a 1-0 lead on a Mesut Ozil corner.

Much of the rest of the match was killed off by competent-to-good Arsenal defending, and on a late counterattack, Ozil got his second assist of the day on a very astute cutback pass to substitute Tomas Rosicky, whose shot deflected off of Phil Jagielka and in.

I'd prefer we didn't occasionally have to go through those  weird, bad performances from Arsenal. But it's good to know that they pay attention and react well (usually) when they happen.