The last time Everton picked up three points at Arsenal in front of fans, the FA Cup was still in the Goodison Park trophy cabinet so loyal but long-suffering Blues could be forgiven for celebrating a goalless draw away to a Gunners side, who had scored in 14 consecutive home matches, like it was a win.
Everton have beaten Arsenal once at the Emirates Stadium, but it was behind closed doors action due to the global coronavirus pandemic when they snatched a 1-0 victory on St George’s Day 2021 as home goalkeeper Bernd Leno fumbled the ball into his own net from a Richarlison cross.
Those same sterile and artificial conditions enabled Carlo Ancelotti’s side to record a first win over Liverpool at Anfield since Kevin Campbell’s strike in 1999 but also suffer 10 home defeats throughout a season in which they still finished in the top half of the Premier League table. The most recent occasion that there was actually spectators present to see Everton triumph at Arsenal, the Emirates Stadium was still a decade away from being built
That says it all,” lamented Graham Stuart when chatting to the ECHO’s reporters before kick-off. Stuart, who like Campbell, was born in south London in 1970, scored the Blues’ first goal in a 2-1 victory that day, cancelling out Ian Wright’s 38th minute opener some five minutes into the second half before Andrei Kanchelskis struck the winner six minutes before full-time.
The world was a very different place back then. John Major was Prime Minister, George Michael’s Jesus to a Child had just knocked Michael Jackson’s Earth Song off number one in the charts with Spaceman by one hit wonders Babylon Zoo, propelled into the national consciousness by a Levi’s jeans advert to take top spot the following week, while a mere 4% of the UK population had access to the internet.
Like all of Everton’s FA Cup winners of the previous season – a trophy lifted at the old Wembley, another stadium that no longer exists – Stuart just wants to pass the baton on to a new generation of Blues heroes. Everton have been competing almost continuously at the top end of the sport since the very beginning, but they’ve been also-rans for far too long now.
They’re the only club to be both founder members of the Football League in 1888 – before any of the so-called ‘Big Six’ were taking part – and the Premier League in 1992, who are also ever-presents in the latter. However, among the half dozen clubs who make up that unbroken presence in the rebranded English top flight (with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur being the others), they’re the only one to have gone into the final day of a season with their status in the division on the line, not once, but on three separate occasions, including Sean Dyche’s first campaign in charge.
