It is those situations where you wonder what it would be like if we had the likes of Theo Walcott and Tomas Rosicky in the final third. Players who are more natural at scoring goals

Aston Villa turned back up the heat on Arsenal with yet another victory on Tuesday against Portsmouth. It was always going to be a tricky match facing a strong Everton at Goodison Park.

Arsene Wenger rotated the side to bring back the likes of Almunia, Diaby, Adebayor and Denilson with Fabianski, Ramsey, Eboue and Bendtner making way. It was obvious that Arsene was trying to add some height and strength to his Arsenal side to combat the hard working Everton team.

I spent the first 5-10 minutes trying to get a working stream which kept crashing on me, eventually I managed to get one working. The opening stages of the game were dominated with our possession and we took the game to Everton. Everton have been very strong defensively of late.

What grabbed my attention immediately was the intensity from both sides. Closing down, chasing in packs and battling for possession. The Arsenal players were clearly up for the game mentally which is always a very good place to start.

Both sides were unable to find a spark in the final third during the first half and neither keeper had very much in the way of work to do. Gallas and Djourou had plenty to do when it came to dealing with the large afro that is Fellaini. The Gunners handled that threat quite well.

The pendulum swung towards the home team and they started to take a strangle hold of the game, the Arsenal defence looking much more solid than earlier in the season dealt with everything that was thrown at it.

Adebayor had a rare sight of goal in the 34th minute when he drove through into the box but failed to get a decent connection on his shot which was cleared out for a corner. Denilson received the ball from the corner and struck a low shot that flew wide of Howard’s near post.

Half time with not much happening in either final third of the pitch. A majority of the game was played in midfield with both teams cancelling each other out. Samir Nasri clung to the flank a little too much which meant he couldn’t provide Adebayor and Van Persie with enough service.

Last season when we were not creating enough chances Wenger would revert Hleb into the secondary striker position and this made a difference to the attack. During the first half there was not enough link between the midfield and attack.

I was hoping that Van Persie could provide the magic that would get us the goal or an Adebayor header could get us infront.

The best chance of the game fell to Arsenal 5 minutes after half time. Clichy did what he does best and intercepted an Everton player around the half way line he drove forward past another Everton player and played it to Van Persie, Clichy continued his surge forward. Van Persie had the option to slip in Clichy in the left channel but decided to play it right to Adebayor but his pass went behind him to Denilson who was running in from the right, unfortunately it was on his left foot and his curled effort was not controlled and sailed over the bar.

It is those situations where you wonder what it would be like if we had the likes of Theo Walcott and Tomas Rosicky in the final third. Players who are more natural at scoring goals. Those who are in the ‘we do not need another creative player’ should think again. The amount of goals scored by Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg in games where we were struggling to play our best football cannot be counted on both hands.

Everton not wanting to outdone, fashioned their best chance of the game 3 minutes later. Arteta slipped a great ball into the run of Tim Cahill who blasted into Almunia’s side netting from an angle.

The breakthrough came on the hour mark. Good work from Pienaar and Baines allowed the latter to cross from the byline straight to the head of Cahill who powered a header past Almunia into the corner of the net.

1-0 to Everton. Arsenal’s organisation prior to the goal was good but my question has to be, why was one of the best headers of a football in the league being marked by the smallest member of the defence. Someone at the back should have noticed that Clichy was not going to out jump Cahill and should have swapped with him. Djourou was standing near Almunia without an Everton player around him. Surely the roles should have been reversed. It is easier looking back on the game than at the spare of the moment but this group of players need to make instinctive decisions like this.

Van Persie glanced a header into the arms of Tim Howard, it was one of the only efforts we had on target and that just said it all.

Arsene made a double attacking switch on 73, Eboue replaced Sagna and Bendtner replacing Song with Denilson going into the middle to partner Diaby.

Cahill had another strike blocked by Almunia then he limped off with an injury.

Arsenal continued to attack Everton. Robin Van Persie had a frustrating evening and picked up a booking. He couldn’t create enough for others and did not get the service that he needed until the final few minutes of stoppage time. Abou Diaby picked up the ball inside the Everton half with time ticking away, dinked a lovely pass over the defence into the path of Van Persie who took a fantastic first touch on his chest into his path and whipped a superb cross shot across Howard into the far corner of the net 1-1.

I was pleased with the battling display from the team who had to work against a very determined Everton side who are in very good form of late.

The top gun of the day has to go to Robin Van Persie, it wasn’t his best overall performance but he showed his class when it mattered.

The unbeaten run continues, just.