Neal Maupay rattled Oleksandr Zinchenko during Everton 1-0 Arsenal

Neal Maupay is certainly not the most popular of figures among Arsenal fans.

In past battles against the Gunners, the French striker has well and truly rattled the north London club.

From scoring winners at the Emirates to inadvertently injuring Bernd Leno, Maupay has been a thorn in Arsenal’s side on numerous occasions.

So when Gooners saw the former Brentford man come off the bench for Everton in the second half of Saturday’s early kick-off, they were likely fearing more annoyance from him

And that’s exactly what they got in an eventual 1-0 defeat.

Shortly after he replaced Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Maupay was incredibly lucky not to give away a penalty for a challenge on Gabriel Magalhaes.

VAR reviewed the incident, but decided not to go against the decision made by the referee.

Read more – Everton 1-0 Arsenal: Should the Gunners have had a penalty?

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 04: Takehiro Tomiyasu of Arsenal makes a pass whilst under pressure from Neal Maupay of Everton during the Premier League match between Everton FC and Arsenal FC at Goodison Park on February 04, 2023 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Sadly for Arsenal supporters, that passage of play wasn’t the end of Maupay’s antics.

In the sixth minute of stoppage-time, when the away side were desperately trying to salvage a precious point, Maupay decided to take an opportunity to rattle Oleksandr Zinchenko.

The two players got into a bit of a tussle off the ball and that saw tensions reach boiling point.

After he’d been brought down by Maupay and saw his adversary sprawled out on the turf, Zinchenko reacted with pure fury.

Things nearly kicked off between the two sets of players, but the situation eventually calmed down.

Check out the incident in question…

Video: The moment Maupay rattled Zinchenko at the end of Everton 1-0 Arsenal

You can see why Zinchenko was so angry, although he was quite lucky not to receive any form of punishment for his fiery reaction.

Per journalist Sam Dean, Arteta had to intervene after the full-time whistle to stop Zinchenko getting involved in another skirmish.

He wrote on Twitter: “Arteta dragging Zinchenko off the pitch after the final whistle. The Arsenal left-back had a few things he wanted to say to some Everton players.”

Maupay is certainly not going to be on the Ukraine international’s Christmas card list.

So, Arsenal now face the daunting prospect of Manchester City cutting their lead at the top of the Premier League to just two points when they travel to play Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

The match between the top two at the Emirates on February 15th just got even more tense for both sets of supporters…

Premier League quiz: Can you name these 40 players from the 2010s?

1 of 40

We’ll start easy…

Michu Chico Flores

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