Arsenal 2-1 Everton: Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny send Arsene Wenger's side top of the table in win over 10-man Toffees

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With the sound of Lee Mason's final whistle, Arsenal's players turned to each other and watched the rapturous celebrations taking place in the stands. Even the stadium announcer got caught up in it.

'Arsenal are top of the league,' boomed out of the speakers in all four corners of the Emirates after another win in the Barclays Premier League. Arsene Wenger's team are contenders now.

What a week to be an Arsenal supporter after they followed up that monstrous victory against Bayern Munich with a resilient, gritty performance against Everton. 

Olivier Giroud gave Arsenal the lead with this header that escaped Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard at The Emirates

Giroud managed to beat Howard as the Arsenal striker broke the deadlock in the 36th minute against Everton

Giroud runs away in celebration after scoring the opening goal of the game at the Emirates on Saturday evening

Giroud celebrates after giving Arsenal the lead in the 36th minute over Everton as the rain poured down in north London

Giroud scored his sixth goal of the season following strikes against Watford and Bayern Munich in the past week for Arsenal

TEAMS, PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE AND MATCH ZONE

 

Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Flamini 80), Ozil, Sanchez (Gibbs 88), Giroud

Subs (not used): Debuchy, Walcott, Chambers, Campbell, Macey

Goals: Giroud (36), Koscielny (38) 

Bookings: Coquelin, Giroud

Manager: Arsene Wenger 

Everton: Howard, Coleman (Kone 88), Stones, Jagielka (Funes Mori 52), Galloway, McCarthy, Barry, Lennon (Mirallas 70), Barkley, Deulofeu, Lukaku

Subs (not used): Robles, Naismith, Cleverley, Osman

Goals: Barkley (44)

Bookings: Barry

Sent off: Barry (90+3) 

Manager: Roberto Martinez 

Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire)

 

How Giroud gave Arsenal the lead over Everton. CLICK HERE for more stats from Sportsmail's brilliant Match Zone service

Headed goals from Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny put Arsenal in control, but it was Petr Cech's save from Gerard Deulofeu towards the end that settled it. Titles can be won or lost on such things.

They are top of the pile and even if they are dislodged after the Manchester derby, Arsenal are gathering title winning momentum for the first time since February 2014.

Back then they blew it, failing to recover from a catastrophic 6-3 defeat at Manchester City and a 5-1 pasting at Brendan Rodgers' rampant Liverpool team on February 8.

This time it feels different, with Wenger urging his team to seize the initiative and inviting his team to build on a run of results that has kept alive their dreams of titles at home and abroad. 

Laurent Koscielny doubled Arsenal's lead two minutes after Giroud's opener with Everton goalkeeper Howard again in no man's land

Koscielny beat Howard to the ball to double Arsenal's lead as they secured the Premier League win

Koscielny celebrates after two quick goals by Arsenal gave them a healthy lead at the Emirates over Everton

Between now and December 21, when Manchester City arrive in north London for a real hum-dinger, Arsenal have six fixtures in front of them that could only be dreamed of.

Swansea, Tottenham, West Brom, Norwich, Sunderland and Aston Villa can all be beaten before Manuel Pellegrini's team arrive at the Emirates. Bring it on.

At times this Arsenal team are so easy on the eye, crafting chances and goals whenever the tormentor-in-chief Mesut Ozil drifts into those little pockets on the pitch.

'I prefer to watch him again, rather than talk about him,' admitted Wenger and it is hard to find fault with the Arsenal forward when he plays like this. 

'If you love to watch football, you love to watch Ozil.'

He engineered Arsenal's opening goal from the right, spotting the run of Giroud as he made his way into the area before picking him out with a lazy swing of that left boot.

The execution and fade on the ball took it beyond the head of Phil Jagielka and into the path of Giroud to steer his effort beyond Tim Howard. It was stunning, if only for its simplicity.

Giroud is on fire, hitting the crossbar in the second half when he spotted Howard a few feet off his line as Arsenal searched manfully for the third. It never came.

Instead they had to settle for two, with Koscielny reading Santi Cazorla's tantalising free-kick in the 38th minute to beat Howard with another header.

Ross Barkley shoots to score for Everton before half time after a wicked deflection off Arsenal defender Gabriel

The deflection off Gabriel caught Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech off guard as Everton made it 2-1 before half time

Barkley celebrates with Aaron Lennon after giving Everton hope of finding an equaliser with his deflected goal

Everton were 2-0 down but Barkley's deflected effort before half time gave them hope against Arsenal on Saturday

This Everton fan was dressed for the wet weather with his speedos, goggles and swimming cap at the Emirates

'To win a title you need to score 8-12 goals from set-pieces,' added Wenger. He, like Arsenal's supporters, is talking of winning titles.

To do it they will need Koscielny to perform like this, to make the crunching tackles and the canny interceptions that can make the difference in the biggest games of all.

He is a smooth and accomplished Arsenal player now, probably the best central defender since the great Sol Campbell pulled on this club's colours in his first spell.

In front of him this team looked so comfortable in possession and yet Everton nibbled away, given a puncher's chance when Ross Barkley's left-footed effort deflected off Gabriel on the stroke of half-time.

The Everton midfielder had found some wriggle room down the left and his speculative strike wrong-footed Cech when it clipped Arsenal's Brazilian defender on the way past him.

It was all the excuse one brave Everton fan, dressed in nothing more than a pair of blue budgie smugglers and a bathing cap, needed to launch into some dramatic celebrations in the away end. 

Alexis Sanchez went close to restoring Arsenal's two-goal lead but Everton goalkeeper Howard denied the attacker

Giroud almost scored his second goal of the evening with this shot but could only strike the crossbar

Romelu Lukaku went desperately close to a late equaliser but could only hit the top of the crossbar with this header

Lukaku almost equalised but could only hit the top of the crossbar with his header in the 79th minute

This was sink or swim for Everton, a chance to make waves after failing to record a single victory at Arsenal in the Premier League since Wenger's arrival almost 20 years ago. The wait goes on.

Although Barkley's goal created tension in this Arsenal team, an understandable apprehension that led to some stray passes at the start of the second half, they saw the job through.

Even when Roberto Martinez was forced to make changes, substituting his captain Phil Jagielka because of an injury to his right knee and replacing him with Ramiro Funes Mori, they were still sniffing out an equaliser.

Romelu Lukaku hit the crossbar during a spell of Everton pressure and Cech rescued Arsenal when he came flying out of his goal to prevent Deulofeu equalising.

They finished with 10 men when Gareth Barry was sent off in injury time for a second booking after chopping Kieran Gibbs just outside the penalty area.

By the time he got to his feet, Arsenal were standing over everyone.

Gareth Barry was sent off for this foul on Kieran Gibbs in stoppage time as Everton ended the game with 10 men

Barry could have no complaints as he was sent off for a second bookable offence during Everton's loss to Arsenal

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger pictured as the rain poured down at the Emirates on Saturday evening

Everton manager Roberto Martinez left the Emirates emptyhanded on Saturday as Arsenal beat the visitors