Arsenal’s Calafiori taught disbelieving Moyes & Everton never to break into ‘our house’ | OneFootball

The save of the season competition was perhaps always likely to have a new entrant when Arsenal hosted Everton at the Emirates.

Jordan Pickford produced the frontrunner for that honour against Newcastle, and may have been frustrated to learn his wonderful reflex stop to keep out a Bukayo Saka header in the first half was rendered moot by an offside flag.

David Raya has been in exceptional form all season and his 15th clean sheet of the Premier League campaign – four more than any other keeper with a record-equalling third consecutive Golden Gloves award on the horizon – was owed to a literal handful of decent saves.

But the best of the game came from neither No.1. It was instead Riccardo Calafiori, whose inventive belligerence left David Moyes astonished.

“The block on Dwight McNeil from Calafiori is unbelievable,” the Scot said. “It tells you a little bit about maybe the way Arsenal are. They’re fighting for it, they’re defending their goal with their lives.”

It was a sentiment the Italian himself echoed. “You really have to think someone is hurting you when you concede a goal,” Calafiori said after the game. “We really want to defend our house, our goal.”

The heel that a prostrate Calafiori flicked up when confronted with an unexpected intruder in McNeil was the perfect insight into the lengths the Arsenal defender will go to in thwarting a trespasser.

He will fashion something out of bedsheets and an alarm clock if necessary.

It was the ideal improvised weapon to repel the Everton forward with – and at a crucial time with the scores level.

Raya might have kept out McNeil’s shot – and could have done better at dealing with Iliman Ndiaye’s cross in the first place.

But Calafiori’s innovation helped explain the complete non-secret behind Arsenal’s brilliance; there is a reason they have conceded at least six fewer goals than any other Premier League this season.

“That’s what we need from players, we need those performances in the key moments,” said Mikel Arteta after Raya’s heroics against Brighton in December.

Those “key moments” are generally associated more with players scoring or excelling in the game’s individualistic roles: Your Goalkeepers and The Strikers Of This World.

Arsenal supporters will be able to list Max Dowman’s game-changing cameo among the Raya saves and myriad set-piece strikes when reminiscing over what could still be a historically brilliant season.