The most important aspect of this English Premier League season for Arsenal was going to be about how they stand up against the big teams away from home, after scathing defeats suffered in the last campaign.
Returning to one of those grounds where they were blown away, it looked like being the same old story again for 82 minutes, with Everton courtesy two first half goals via Seamus Coleman and Steven Naismith, seemingly easing to another victory.
But then in came that never-acknowledged Arsenal fight -- Aaron Ramsey tapping-in a peach of a cross from substitute Santi Cazorla, before another substitute – Olivier Giroud – completed a stunning comeback right on 90 minutes to prove to the rest of the Premier League that this Arsenal side might be made of a tougher fibre.
It was not easy, it was certainly not pretty, there was no wonderfully delightful football from Arsenal; but in the end, they found a way to fight their way back after going two goals down – one from an offside goal, and at the very least pick up a point, when for the longest time a point looked as unlikely as a newly-promoted side winning the Premier League.
The game started pretty even, with both sides looking to get that early upper hand. Roberto Martinez, expectedly, began with the same formation that worked so well last season, with club-record signing Romelu Lukaku starting on the right.
That plan did not quite work, though, with Lukaku, who enjoyed himself against Nacho Monreal in the 3-0 win, very much in the periphery in the first half, even if he played a big hand in Everton's second goal.
Arsenal had the first couple of really decent chances, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, looking the brightest going forward, with Alexis Sanchez not quite at his best playing centrally, and Mesut Ozil not really able to get into the game enough on his first match of the season.
Oxlade-Chamberlain took a couple of potshots from distance, before a wonderful chance fell to him off a mistake from Coleman. However, that shot whistled wide, when it really should have been nestling in the bottom corner, and moments later, in the 19th minute to be precise, Everton went 1-0 ahead.
A freekick was worked out to the right by Everton, with the ball eventually coming central to Gareth Barry, who had an outstanding game in midfield for the home side, and the veteran just stood up a ball to the back post for Coleman to ghost in behind and power a header past Wojciech Szczesny.
Arsenal tried to get back into the game, but that cutting edge was missing, with Tim Howard, until well after the hour, not even forced into making a save.
Just when it looked like the match was heading into halftime 1-0, Everton struck again. There was plenty of luck involved, it must be said, with Lukaku getting the ball ahead of the returning Per Mertesacker, and fouling him in the process – which was not given – before running at full steam and picking out a nice through ball for Steven Naismith, who was offside – yet again not given – to slot in between the Arsenal goalkeeper's legs.
Arsene Wenger brought on Olivier Giroud at halftime for the ineffective Sanchez, and the Frenchman nearly made it 2-1 with his first touch, but his volley, off a lofted pass from Ramsey, flew high.
From that point, there was plenty of huffing and puffing from Arsenal, with Giroud definitely giving them more of an edge in the final third, seeing a couple more efforts just not find the target. The more Arsenal attacked, the more Everton seemed to grow nervous, however, and just like that everything changed in the final ten minutes.
Wenger brought on Cazorla and Joel Campbell and the duo, like Giroud, provided that extra spark, with the former firing in a low cross from the left which Ramsey, with great desire, got ahead of two Everton defenders to tap in for his second goal of the Premier League season.
Arsenal still had some time to steal an equaliser, and they did just that with Giroud getting on the end of a beautiful left-wing cross from Monreal to power home a header, after shrugging off the challenge of the muscular Sylvain Distin with ridiculous ease.
