Arsenal’s pursuit of the league title hit a major snag on Sunday with a frustrating 1-1 draw against injury-plagued Everton.

While Champions League qualification is all but assured, the inability to break down a resolute Everton defence raises concerns as Arsenal prepare for the challenges of Europe’s top competition.

Arsenal drew 1-1 at Everton due to a goal conceded in injury time to confirm that the title and second place are definitely gone. This means Champions League Qualifying Round 1, as like last season, will take place and a potential banana slip is coming our way.

Jonas Eidevall made no changes from the team that had defeated Leicester at the Emirates Stadium: Zinsberger; Fox, Williamson, Catley, McCabe; Pelova, Little; Mead, Russo, Foord; Blackstenius. The substitutes where the same except for D’Angelo who made way for Cooney-Cross.

This game was another example of Arsenal struggling to beat a deep block, with the Arsenal opener by Alessia Russo not coming until the 80th minute. Still, there was time for an equaliser deep into injury time. Luckily, Champions League qualification has already been achieved. But a draw against a team badly hit by injury was not a good result.

The xG numbers say it all. 0.5 for Everton and 2.3 for Arsenal. The usual problem in the final third.

Regarding attacking players, there is good news for the club as the Championship has now concluded with Crystal Palace the champions and promoted to the WSL. They will replace the relegated side Bristol. All the players that were dual-registered can now return and play for the Arsenal. Youngsters who have already signed a professional contract like Agyemang and Godfrey are not allowed to play until the end of the season as their loan term is until 30 June as per the regulations. And Arsenal have a slot open to sign someone out of the transfer window as a replacement for Amanda Ilestedt. So, it would be either Michelle Agyemang or Freya Godfrey to be registered back with the team. The logical choice would be to use Michelle who can play in the 7,9 or 11 position on the pitch .

While Arsenal were battling Everton away, I was in Paris covering the women champions league semi-final between Paris SG and Olympique Lyonnais. Barcelona and Lyon will compete for the third time in the Champions League final in Bilbao on 25 May. Outside the ground, I bumped into our former manager Joe Montemurro who will be coaching the Australian All Stars against us in the post-season friendly. We talked about teams budget, VAR, Leagues improvement, how to coach players against VAR offside, referee errors that cost a lot of money and many subjects. It was a pleasure to chat with him as he is good guy, really friendly.

The Champions League semi-finals between Chelsea and Barca, alongside the game played in Paris, really showed there is still a gap between those four teams and Arsenal. The club will need to buy quality players to raise their level up to be able to compete against best.

It will certainly mean a departure for some fans favourites, but, at the end of the day, you cannot stand still otherwise people will overtake you.