Carlo Ancelotti believes Everton were ‘lucky’ to break their Arsenal hoodoo.
Friday’s encounter at the Emirates Stadium gave the Blues a first win at their hosts since 1996 after Bernd Leno turned Richarlison’s cross into his own net.
The result also ended a five-game winless streak for Ancelotti’s side in the Premier League and kept them in the hunt for a European qualification place.
But the Everton manager conceded that his players were fortunate to take maximum points and pointed to a fortuitous VAR decisions in his reasoning.
“It’s an important result, an important victory,” said Ancelotti.
“It comes after a difficult period where we were not able to win, we had players injured. Now we have a lot of players back and a good result.
“Honestly we were a little bit lucky, I think the fair result was a draw. But anyway, we were a little bit lucky with the VAR decisions.
“But it’s three points and we keep fighting for the rest of the season.”
Everton remain eighth in the Premier League table but have now opened up a six-point gap between themselves and the Gunners in the position below.
Conceivably, they could also be three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea after this weekend while having a game in-hand on the teams above them.
Ancelotti added: “I think that this time has improved compared to last season.
“Now we are in the fight for the European position and this is where we wanted to be at the start of the season.
“We are there with six games to the end, and we have to do our best every game.
“This result is important, if we are able to keep the consistency and solidity we had tonight.”