Everton came up against Arsenal at Goodison Park in the evening kick-off, as the two Champions League contenders and title hopefuls went face-to-face in an early season meeting in Merseyside on Saturday afternoon.
It would be interesting to see how the two sides fared in an even test of quality, with Everton having won 3-0 at home last season in this fixture, but Arsenal won the FA Cup tie 4-1 last season aswell.
A new-look Arsenal team was lined up by Arsene Wenger, with the likes of Mertesacker, Ozil and Oxlade-Chamberlain all starting the game with Giroud and Koscielny both on the subsitutes bench for the away side.
As the game kicked off, both sides looked eager to get off to a good start - with Everton being forced to make a substitution early on in the 10th minute with Steven Pienaar being replaced by Leon Osman after struggling to continue, with a knock from an accidental collision with Chambers in the early exchanges.
Everton broke the deadlock in the 19th minute, thanks to a headed effort by right-back Seamus Coleman which flew past a diving Szczesny into the roof of the net. Arsenal must have been disappointed having conceded from a preventable goal, but they almost went 2-0 down within minutes after Coleman's opener, but for a sliding stop by Szczesny who did well to react quickly and come out to parry Mirallas's attempted effort on the counter attack, making a block with his legs from close range under pressure.
After a few yellow cards for late challenges from Baines and Mertesacker respectively, the scoreline stayed at 1-0 despite Arsenal attempting to get back into the match. Oxlade-Chamberlain had a few half-chances on-goal, but was unable to take his opportunity as they all swerved wide of Howard's goal.
And just on the stroke of half-time, Arsenal were given a double blow within seconds. Lukaku burst past Mertesacker with power and speed on the flank, before looking up and picking up the attempted run of team-mate and striker Steven Naismith; who cooly slotted a one-on-one chance with Szczesny into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-0. Then, replays showed that the goal was actually offside, and that it should have been disallowed as Naismith was offside, but the linesman failed to spot the decision as play carried on and he was able to score before the break.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was fuming to the official on the far side, and rightly so with his team going into the interval with a bigger advantage to try and overcome to get a result against a stubborn Everton side.
Arsenal made an attacking substitution at the break, with new Chilean signing Alexis Sanchez being replaced by Olivier Giroud in what looked to be a bizarre change upon first viewing by the manager. Sanchez was played as the lone striker in the first period, but struggled to get any service or touches of the ball and when he did, he was simply outmuscled off it by the likes of Jagielka and Distin in the final third.
A tactical sub was needed, and Giroud almost got himself on the scoresheet within minutes of coming on the pitch. The Everton centre-halves could not contain him, and he was denied by a good stop from Howard, on three separate occasions as Arsenal looked to grab a foothold in the game.
Wilshere, Chambers and Flamini all received yellow cards in the second-half, in a frustrating period for the away side who had to counter-act Everton's slowing down of the tempo to score. They made two more subs, with Campbell and Cazorla coming on for Wilshere and The Ox to add some bite in the midfield.
And then in the 83rd minute, midfielder Santi Cazorla created a chance out of nothing, firing a low delivery into the area for an un-marked Ramsey to slot past Howard into the net and make it 2-1 with 7 minutes plus stoppages to play.
Then, in the 90th minute - Arsenal equalised! Monreal did well on the flank to initially keep the ball in play before cutting back past Distin and crossing into the area, for French striker Olivier Giroud to head into the net to make it 2-2 in dramatic circumstances.
Everton had failed to keep hold of a lead for the second week in a row, and Arsenal had fought late on to get a result yet again, after their last-gasp victory against Palace at home last Saturday.
| Everton (2) | Arsenal (2) | ||
 |  |  |  |
| Howard | 5 | Szczesny | 5 |
| Baines | 7 | Monreal | 5 |
| Jagielka | 5 | Chambers | 5 |
| Distin | 5 | Mertesacker | 4 |
| Coleman | 6 | Debuchy | 5 |
| Barry | 7 | Flamini | 6 |
| McCarthy | 7 | Wilshere | 4 |
| Mirallas | 6 | Ramsey | 7 |
| Naismith | 6 | Ozil | 6 |
| Pienaar | 5 | Oxlade-Chamberlain | 6 |
| Lukaku | 7 | Sanchez | 4 |
| Substitutes | |||
| Osman | 5 | Giroud | 7 |
| McGeady | 4 | Campbell | N/A |
| Atsu | N/A | Cazorla | 6 |