Cadamarteri shows his joy after making it 1-0 (CliveBrunskill/Allsport)

In the event, even with Unsworth extending a chronic Everton injury list, Arsenal were the ones who decided to go missing. The real Arsenal, anyway.

When their traditional qualities were needed more than ever to answer the marker put down by Manchester United a few hours earlier, they were nowhere to be seen.

It will hardly help Arsene Wenger's mood that Arsenal were undone by a player whose horizons stretch no further than remaining on the fringes of the Everton manager's squad.

Smith has long since abandoned hope of Danny Cadamarteri's match-winning flair being produced on a regular basis and is reluctant to pick him two matches running, such is his baffling inconsistency.

To illustrate the point, the youngster, hailed as one of the finds of the Nineties after announcing his arrival in the Premiership with a brilliant solo goal against Liverpool, had gone three years without scoring at Goodison Park.

He put that right on Saturday with a smartly taken 54th-minute opener and followed up by making further inroads into Arsenal's defence to set up the second for Kevin Campbell 19 minutes later.

'Danny is a capable enough lad but he does lack a bit in terms of consistency,' said Smith. 'Watching him can be a frustrating experience at times but he never lets you down in terms of effort. You can never criticise his attitude and I was pleased he got some reward for the hard work he put in.

'With 11 players out, I knew we would be up against it and I could not have asked for any more. It is the first time we have beaten one of the top two since I took over and it was a very satisfying victory, given the circumstances.'

In truth, Arsenal bore little resemblance to the side billed as United's

only authentic title rivals, and the sense of foreboding among those who would rather wait a little longer to discover the outcome of this season's race was hardly helped by what they heard afterwards.

Not only did Arsene Wenger concede that any side with title pretentions should steamroller the likes of Everton - and Derby, who took a point from Highbury a week earlier - he freely admitted that his play-ers may have been preoccupied with thoughts of this week's Champions League resumption.

Even the most hardened hack takes a deep breath before attempting to tackle Sir Alex Ferguson on matters that could be construed as even marginally contentious. Indeed, suggesting that United may have underachieved because their minds had been allowed to wander is a line of inquiry yet to be pursued.

Yet, Wenger volunteered as much as he struggled to make sense of the ills that have left Arsenal with just one point from their past two games against relegation-threatened Derby and an Everton side who had as much talent on the treatment table as the team-sheet.

The Arsenal manager at least acknowledged that such a dereliction of duty could not be tolerated as he said: 'If you drop five points against Derby and Everton, you cannot pretend everything is OK and start hoping for too much. Even when you are not at your most fluent, you should be able to break down defences like theirs, and you have to question why we failed both times.

'Our minds seemed to be too much on the Champions League and that is very bad. It is not acceptable to me because it has left us five points behind Manchester United. That is worrying.'

Cadamarteri attempted to switch the spotlight away from Arsenal's failings by saying: 'I don't think it was a case of them taking it lightly as much as us working really hard and putting them under pressure from the outset. That seemed to unsettle them. After supporting Arsenal as a boy, it was always going to be a big game for me.

'I have struggled to get in the reserves at times, so when I found out I was playing against Arsenal, I was determined to grab the opportunity with both hands.'

Arsenal's one moment of menace came in the seventh minute, when Paul Gerrard blocked Sylvain Wiltord's drive and Gary Naysmith's straining neck proved enough to deflect Freddy Ljungberg's follow-up against the bar.

By the time Cadamarteri held off a challenge from Ashley Cole and swept Everton in front, it was abundantly clear there was unlikely to be another. Everton

Teams
Everton: Gerrard; Cleland, Weir, Ball, Naysmith; Cadamarteri, Gemmill, Pembridge, Hughes, Tal (McLeod, 72min); Campbell.