A potentially pivotal day in the title race saw Arsenal extend their lead to nine points, thanks to a late, late win over Everton.
From a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) perspective, the Gunners now sign off for a month. A blank awaits in Gameweek 31, followed by a three-week gap to Gameweek 32.
Here are our Scout Notes from the Emirates.
TIMBER INJURY – BUT NO UPDATE
There were plenty of defensive points to go around at the Emirates, with David Raya (£6.0m) and three of his defenders sharing 33 of them.
Sadly for Jurrien Timber (£6.3m) owners, the Dutchman was left marooned on one.
Having needed treatment early in the game, he lumbered on till the 38th minute before admitting defeat and signalling to the bench.
It looked like a contact injury, with Iliman Ndiaye (£6.2m) seemingly catching him on the right ankle.
Alas, not the post-match presser, nor the interviews with the BBC or Sky, elicited any update from Mikel Arteta.
At least Timber doesn’t have a Gameweek 31 fixture. If owners are selling him to get 11 active players out, an injury doesn’t make a difference. For those keeping him and benching him through the blank, Arsenal have at least three other fixtures – Champions League, EFL Cup, FA Cup – to come before their Gameweek 32 hosting of Bournemouth. Plenty of time to recover, and plenty of (probably useless) updates to come from Arteta.
MOYES COY ON TARKOWSKI + BRANTHWAITE
Two of Everton’s key defenders didn’t even make the game.
James Tarkowski (£5.7m) and Jarrad Branthwaite (£5.3m) both missed out, a day after David Moyes had been optimistic about the latter’s availability.
Unlike Arteta, Moyes was asked about injuries post-game. And, indeed, pre-game.
The Everton boss, however, was in one of his moods.
“I am not sharing anything with you, you have named the changes already! We are missing two centre-halves today, but we have also got two who have done really well for us as well.” – David Moyes, pre-game, on the absences of James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite, via Everton’s live blog
“Nothing to say about them. Nothing to say about them.” – David Moyes, post-game, on the absences of James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite
The usually reliable El Bobble claims that Tarkowski picked up an injury in training:
Jarrad Branthwaite does not feature today for the game against Arsenal whilst James Tarkowski misses out due to an injury sustained in training 🔵 https://t.co/bgPHXZgplF
— The Bobble (@ElBobble) March 14, 2026
THE xG DOESN’T TELL THE FULL STORY
It’s rinse and repeat for Arsenal in these Scout Notes, with their defence a lot more convincing – albeit a bit lucky on Saturday – than their attack. That’s been the case for a good while now.
The xG made it look like the Gunners were fairly convincing winners but it wasn’t really the case. Their two goals were of the open-net variety, and gifted to them by the usually reliable Jordan Pickford (£5.6m). His flap at a Max Dowman (£4.2m) cross ultimately presented Viktor Gyokeres (£8.8m) with an unmissable point-blank-range chance, while teenager Dowman finished into an empty net deep into stoppage time when Pickford went up for a corner.
The rest of their shots, all 23 of them, amounted to just 0.80 xG. A lot of the attempts were from distance, Eberechi Eze (£7.2m) having six outside of the box. Bukayo Saka‘s (£9.8m) one half-decent opportunity was shovelled away, rather than brilliantly saved, by Pickford, whose only ‘worldie’ was for an offside Saka header. Declan Rice (£7.4m) was more perspiration than inspiration, although did finish with a game-high three chances created.
At the other end, Raya was forced into two very good stops from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5.1m) and Beto (£5.0m). And, in the same 16th-minute passage of play, Dwight McNeil (£5.5m) was denied by a Higuita-esque Riccardo Calafiori (£5.6m) block and then the woodwork, with the ball ricocheting off Ndiaye and wide.
“The block from Dwight McNeil from Calafiori is unbelievable and it tells you a little bit about maybe the way Arsenal are fighting for it. They’re defending their goal with their lives. Probably in the end, I think Raya probably made more saves than Jordan Pickford in the game but the block from Calafiori was amazing.” – David Moyes
Moyes summed it up above. While you’d ideally like the defensive effort to be more preventative than the nail-biting, last-ditch John Terry variety, Arsenal are defending like their lives, and the title, depend on it. At least it helps on the DefCon front: William Saliba (£6.1m) and, for the third week running, Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.2m) both made the required total:
As for Everton, lots of encouragement from this display, at both ends of the field. They created chances against the division’s best defence, and comfortably saw off any threat until Pickford’s late aberration. Chelsea won’t have it easy in Gameweek 31.
REMEMBER THE NAME
With the senior attackers toiling, Arteta turned to the impetuousness of youth. On came Dowman, playing with the carefree swagger that many of his bogged-down teammates lacked. It didn’t always come off, but ultimately it was his contribution that led to both goals.
What chance of a £4.2m attacker forcing his way into the starting XI, then? Don’t hold your breath with the cautious Arteta; these were Dowman’s first league minutes since Gameweek 3.
“Calm! Let’s come down to earth today and enjoy the moment because it was intense and it was worth it and we’ll see tomorrow.” – Mikel Arteta on whether Dowman could start soon
