Arsenal surprised as lot of people yesterday by battling back from a goal down to beat Everton 4-1 at Goodision Park.The win moved Arsenal to the top of the Premier League - 2 points clear of Manchester United - to see in the New Year.
However, Everton manager David Moyes says that he thinks that Everton were the better footballing side during the game.
He said: "For all the stuff talked about the way they play, it was not their usual type of goals that beat us. We cannot hide that we made mistakes for the goals, but I will take some convincing that Arsenal were better than us.
Moyes continued "It was us who played the football and Arsenal who went direct. I'd find it hard to view it differently."
Of course what Mr Moyes is ignoring is the fact that on a cold, wet Merseyside night Arsenal scored four goals away from home to win by some margin.
Both sides had 10 shots, although Arsenal were more accurate with a 7-3 advantage on target - however the biggest difference was in the accurate finishing and quality defending.
For all the talk that Mr Moyes offers about the Everton style of play - the passing movements only really happened after Everton were 1-2 and then 1-3 behind, and Arsenal allowed the Toffees to play in the middle 3rd of the pitch.
Yes - Everton did make more passes - when they were losing on the scoreboard and Mr Moyes ignores the key areas of the game in his assessment.
The league table is NOT ranked according to possession stats - if it was then Arsenal would be runaway champions - instead it's ranked according to match results and goals scored and conceded.
Arsenal made one defensive mistake (and were punished) while Everton made half a dozen - and at the top level that's far too many to expect to win.
Quite simply Arsenal were better because they scored four times while playing away from home - and that's usually enough to win any game ...
(unless of course you are Reading)
