Arsenal 2 Everton 0: Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on target as Gunners seal fifth straight win

There are times when Unai Emery’s ‘fab four’ will flatter to deceive but when Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette combine as effectively as they did in the second half of their 2-0 win over Everton Arsenal will be a force to be reckoned with.

A three-minute double by Lacazette and Aubameyang was enough to carry the Gunners past a hard-pressing, direct Everton side who might just wonder what hit them early in the second half.

They had had Arsenal where they wanted them but out of nowhere the game was swept away from them.

Emery’s richly talented frontline is a cadre that includes two players who view themselves as No.10s and another two as No.9s. It was remarkable, then, how little Arsenal were able to create through the middle of the pitch in the early stages of this encounter.

For much of the half they simply left Everton centre-backs Kurt Zouma and Michael Keane to their own devices.

Lacazette stationed himself on the right in a bid to prey on the defensive vulnerabilities of Lucas Digne. Aubameyang patrolled the other flank whilst Ozil and Ramsey flitted. The efficacy of that approach was typified when Nacho Monreal got in behind the defence and crossed low only to discover that Ramsey was the only man in the box, marshalled by three Everton defenders.

Marco Silva’s visitors may have seen less of the ball but they were doing a great deal more with it. Inside the opening two minutes they should have led.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin was played onside by Hector Bellerin but bearing down on goal made the wrong call, trying to round Petr Cech only to be denied by the goalkeeper’s boot. And they said he couldn’t be trusted with his feet!

Cech had to be at his best throughout the half, denying Richarlison smartly on more than one occasion and saving a well-struck Digne free-kick. Arsenal were nearly undone by Theo Walcott, whose warm reception on his second return to north London didn’t extend to an easy goal as he was denied by his former team-mate in goal.

Cech undeniably earned Arsenal’s first clean sheet of the season and with performances like that Bernd Leno will have to endure more frustration on the Arsenal bench.

A first half wobble is no new experience for Arsenal - their early season has been pocketed with them - but they have been usually followed by a decisive turnaround often brought about by an Emery switch at the break. He had already made his first substitution before the opening period was out, replacing the injured Sokratis Papastathopoulous with Rob Holding, but still the revival came.

After only 11 minutes of the second half they found the opener, Lacazette picking up an Aaron Ramsey pass on the left corner of the box and curling it into the far corner via the post.

Aubameyang soon added the second after Ozil had combined with Lacazette down the right. Awaiting the German’s cross Ramsey slipped but had the foresight to slip a back heel for his team-mate to tap in. The goal should never have stood, the Gabon striker was at least a yard offside, but the front four that had looked so laboured in the first half had discovered their menace.