Eduardo leads the way for Arsenal as Wenger’s battlers rely on spirit, not style

Everton will claim, with some justification, that Eduardo handled the ball on his way to scoring his 58th-minute second but Arsenal won't care as the title race took another dramatic twist and left them as the best team in the country heading into 2008.

Both sides finished with 10 men, however, as tempers became frayed following the sending-off of Nicklas Bendtner in the 74th minute for a bad tackle on Andy Johnson. Mikel Arteta followed him down the tunnel 10 minutes later for elbowing Cesc Fabregas.

Arsenal must have been delighted to hear that Manchester United had been beaten at West Ham. But any psychological advantage gained by Arsene Wenger was promptly thrown away by the Gunners boss, who fielded an unusual strike partnership of Bendtner and Eduardo,while top scorer Emanuel Adebayor warmed the bench.

Whether or not Everton manager David Moyes made capital of Wenger's rotation' as a mark of disrespect, the home side looked far more up for it than the visitors.

Some of Everton's football was delightful. Arsenal were out-hustled in midfield whenever Tim Cahill dropped back to give his side an extra man advantage and anyone who had turned up having read up on Arsenal's purist football philosophy might have thought they were the team in blue shirts in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Arsenal side resembled Everton in recent seasons before this one; functional and one-paced. Even Fabregas couldn't break out of his end-of-year slump.

It was ironic, therefore, that the goal that put them ahead after 19 minutes was so muddled. Bendtner sliced Arteta's clearance up in the air and Yakubu and Cahill both reacted to the chance at the same time. Yakubu just got his head to the ball first but from a few yards it seemed to glance off Cahill's boot and in.

Many managers would have panicked after such a poor first-half showing. Instead, Wenger trusted his players and two minutes after the restart he was punching the air in delight.

Eduardo's instinctive strike was the 800th goal of Wenger's reign and, amazingly, the 110th Arsenal had scored in 2007 — a year where they took football entertainment to new heights. The stat that mattered for Arsenal,though,was that it took them back level on points with United.

Gael Clichy pinged the ball forward fully 60 yards over the head of Phil Jagielka before Eduardo took one touch to control, and a second to shoot past Tim Howard.

The striker, who has struggled to win a first-team place since joining from Dinamo Zagreb for £7.5million in the summer, then showed his quality, allied to a bit of luck, to fire Arsenal in front just before the hour — and back on top of the Premier League.

Again, the source was Clichy, whose cross was flicked on by Bendtner.

Eduardo turned Jagielka inside-out and as he held off the Everton defender with his left arm, the ball appeared to strike his right. Jagielka fell, claiming a foul but referee Martin Atkinson didn't stop play for that, or for handball. And Eduardo did the rest, calmly slotting home.

Adebayor was waiting to come on for Bendtner when the Dane trod on Johnson as they challenged for a loose ball and was promptly sent off.

Being a man down didn't bother Arsenal,though,and they added a third five minutes later, Adebayor beating Jagielka to Almunia's goalkick and then profiting when Howard and Joseph Yobo left the clearance to each other.

Arteta then saw red before Arsenal added their fourth, Adebayor teeing up fellow sub Tomas Rosicky.