Gunners, Everton share EPL points

Mismatch ... Aaron Ramsey (L) and Toffees midfielder Marouane Fellaini (R) vie for the ball. Source: AFP

Arsenal and Everton played out a 0-0 draw at Emirates Stadium which did little to aid the UEFA Champions League ambitions of the Barclays Premier League rivals.

The Gunners remain third on the EPL table, two points ahead of Chelsea and Tottenham, but having played two games more than the Blues and one more than Spurs, with Everton two adrift of the White Hart Lane club in sixth.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	32	26	2	4	40	80
2	Man City	31	19	8	4	30	65
3	Arsenal	33	17	9	7	29	60
4	Chelsea	31	17	7	7	28	58
5	Tottenham	32	17	7	8	15	58
6	Everton	33	14	14	5	14	56
7	Liverpool	33	13	11	9	19	50
8	West Brom	32	13	5	14	-1	44
9	Swansea	32	10	11	11	1	41
10	Fulham	32	10	10	12	-4	40
11	Southampton	33	9	11	13	-7	38
12	West Ham	32	10	8	14	-9	38
13	Newcastle	33	10	6	17	-17	36
14	Norwich	33	7	14	12	-21	35
15	Sunderland	33	8	10	15	-8	34
16	Stoke	33	7	13	13	-13	34
17	Aston Villa	33	8	10	15	-24	34
18	Wigan	31	8	7	16	-20	31
19	QPR	33	4	12	17	-25	24
20	Reading	33	5	9	19	-27	24

Everton had a good chance to open the scoring with only seven minutes on the clock when Steven Pienaar burst into the box following Phil Jagielka's incisive pass, only to lift his shot beyond Wojciech Szczesny but also over the crossbar.

It took 24 minutes for Arsenal to muster their first shot, but even then Kieran Gibbs' effort from outside the box after being set up by Santi Cazorla following Marouane Fellaini's poor clearance failed to trouble Tim Howard.

There was plenty of bite in the tackles from both teams with Darron Gibson going into the book for a challenge on Theo Walcott in the 28th minute and very fortunate not to see red just six minutes later for a blatant body check on the same player.

Referee Neil Swarbrick's decision-making then came under the spotlight even more when he cautioned Pienaar for an almost identical offence on the England international, with his inconsistency continuing as Olivier Giroud escaped any retribution for going through the back of Seamus Coleman as he shepherded the ball out.

Giroud really should have done better when presented with a glorious chance from Aaron Ramsey's teasing cross from the right but could only fire wide, while Cazorla was denied by a superb sliding challenge from Jagielka after nut-megging Gibson in the area.

There was an unseemly spat between Kevin Mirallas and Jack Wilshere as the teams headed for the tunnel at the interval, with the Gunners finally getting a shot on target after the break as Gibbs' knock-down was fired powerfully goalwards by Cazorla but Howard was equal to the challenge and fisted the ball away at his near post.

Arsenal looked as though they had opened Everton up on the counter in the 78th minute as subsitutes Lukas Podolski and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain combined, but the latter's pass in towards Giroud was superbly kept out by a combination of Coleman and Sylvain Distin, with Giroud blazing over when well placed moments later.

Read more: http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/284111/report

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