Arsenal's roll continues

Everton 0-1 Arsenal

Arsenal's strong finish to the season has continued with a victory over Everton that takes them to second in the Premiership.

Marc Overmars' first-half strike ensured the Gunners' 10th straight win - six of which have been in the league.

Match facts

20 mins: Keown and Hutchison clash

35 mins: Overmars puts Arsenal ahead

54 mins: Kanu's header nearly makes it 2-0

Stephen Hughes produced most of Everton's good early play and delivered some crunching tackles, but for the most part Arsenal dominated.

A neat lay-off by Don Hutchison gave John Collins the home side's best shot on goal only for the shot to skim over the bar from 15 yards.

Arsenal stuck to their guns and kept possession, distributing the ball with customary ease on a slightly sodden Goodison surface.

Ray Parlour and Kanu combined for a strike at the Everton goal after 20 minutes, but it was turned away by Paul Gerrard. Dennis Bergkamp also went close shortly afterwards.

Hutchison and Martin Keown became involved in a scuffle, which fortunately did not result in any cards being shown and the match continued in a generally good-natured vein.

Lucky Everton

Overmars finally found the only goal of the match on 35 minutes after a brilliant individual effort culiminated in a 40 yard break and a shot that slammed into the bottom corner.

Bergkamp was again narrowly denied moments later and Overmars nearly made it two just before the interval, but his shot went over.

Everton's decision to bring on Francis Jeffers and Michael Ball succeeded in its aim of closing down Parlour and Overmars.

Kanu, however, was still at large and narrowly missed heading home a corner in the 54th minute.

Hutchison again hit wide on 84 minutes to deny Everton their last chance of equalising, but in reality they were lucky to only lose by a goal.

Teams

Everton: Gerrard, Unsworth, Weir, Xavier, Dunne, Pembridge, S. Hughes, Collins, Barmby, M. Hughes, Hutchison.
Subs: Ball, Jeffers, Jevons, Ward, Simonsen.

Arsenal: Seaman, Silvinho, Adams, Keown, Dixon, Overmars, Petit, Grimandi, Parlour, Bergkamp, Kanu.
Subs: Winterburn, Vieira, Manninger, Luzhny, Black.

Referee: D Gallagher (Banbury)