Ancelotti: Everton showed consistency, top performance today

Playing their third game in a week with virtually the same lineup, Everton dug deep especially in the second half to eke out another three points against Arsenal at Goodison Park.

The Toffees’ third win in a row sees them rise to second for at least a day, after similar battling performances against Chelsea and Leicester City ended in victories as well.

Speaking to MOTD after the game manager Carlo Ancelotti did not hold back with the praise for his side.

“We did very well (in our) last few games. Brilliant performances (and) fantastic results. We showed more consistency.

“This season we started well, then we had a difficult moment, but right now I’m really pleased.

“We have fantastic players on set-pieces we score lots of goals. We work on this because we are very dangerous.

“We are pleased; the position in the table is really good. But as I said last week it is not the end of the season, we have to keep fighting.

“But it was a top, top performance today.”

Everton did have to do a lot of defending, especially in the second half with his side choosing to defend en masse while allowing Arsenal the ball.

“Great result in a difficult game. So difficult, especially in the second half, but in the end we got the result and that is important.

“Honestly Arsenal were better than us in the second half, but we were 2-1 up and we wanted to defend properly.

“It is true we defended, we suffered, but the first half was good and at the end of the first half the result was fair.

The games against the top sides have not been pretty, we will all happily admit. However, this is a results-oriented business and consistently winning against the top sides is how you become a top side yourself.

Onward and upward Blues, and happy anniversary Carlo!