The hosts had emerged from a poor start to dominate the game, and were deservedly ahead through Tim Cahill's header on the hour.
Everton grew in confidence from then on, but with seconds ticking away, Van Persie - Arsenal's best player - stole in behind the defence to lash home an angled drive for a draw.
Arsenal desperately needed something from this game with a fourth place finish looking in serious danger as Aston Villa continued their march into the top four last night.
Everton had record signing Marouane Fellaini back from a two-match suspension, while fellow midfielder Mikel Arteta had recovered from the rib injury which kept him out of Sunday's FA Cup draw at Liverpool.
Arsenal made six changes from the side that drew in the Cup at Cardiff, with Manuel Almunia returning in goal and defenders William Gallas and Gael Clichy back from injury and suspension respectively.
Fog was swirling around Goodison Park at the start, and Everton saw little of the ball in the opening spell - due to Arsenal's neat passing and possession.
But the nearest the visitors came to an opening goal was Van Persie's 20-yard free-kick which was deflected wide when it looked to be heading into the top corner.
Everton finally responded with a Cahill header wide from a corner, and an effort from the same player at full-stretch which ended in the arms of Almunia.
It took a lunging block from Gallas to stop Fellaini reaching a near-post cross from Leighton Baines, after Steven Pienaar had played him in down the left.
Arsenal still had the edge but Arteta and Pienaar started to have an influence on the game, nether afraid to run at defenders.
Pienaar was cut down by Abou Diaby after 26 minutes, the Arsenal man receiving a yellow card from referee Andre Marriner.
Samir Nasri's 33rd-minute cross from the left created an opportunity for Van Persie - but the Dutchman was stretching and could only hit the ball down into the ground and up over the bar.
Nasri was booked three minutes later for kicking Tony Hibbert's ankles as the full-back ran away from him, the half failing to produce a single shot on target.
The second period opened with more swirling fog as both sides fought to break the deadlock.
Cahill had a close-range shot charged down in the box, while Van Persie set-up Denilson at the other end, only for the Brazilian to lift his shot high over the bar.
Cahill was coming to life, and a quick turn in the box onto an Arteta pass ended with the Australian firing a fierce drive into the side-netting.
After 61 minutes the Australian put Everton ahead - Baines crossing from the left and Cahill climbing above Clichy to power a downward headed past Almunia.
Cahill has now installed himself as Everton's top scorer this season since being moved into attack as a makeshift centre-forward due to Everton's chronic injury problems in that department.
The Gunners responded with a strong Van Persie header which provided Tim Howard with his first save of the night.
Arteta was booked for a foul on Denilson before the north Londoners made a double substitution after 73 minutes, with Nicklas Bendtner and Emmanuel Eboue replacing Alexandre Song and Bacary Sagna.
Tony Hibbert was booked for a foul on Nasri after 76 minutes, with Everton going forward with confidence in search of a second goal.
Cahill limped away with an ankle injury to a rousing ovation with four minutes left - Victor Anichebe taking over.
The victory looked assured, but in injury-time Van Persie got on the end of a long ball from Diaby and blasted an undeserved equaliser past Howard.
Unfortunately, both team has to settle for a draw
Everton boss David Moyes was furious with the late error which gave Arsenal an undeserved 1-1 draw at Goodison Park.Moyes said: ''In the end we should have run the ball into the corner rather to concede possession like that. We did not need to give them ball away in that situation.''We are disappointed we ended up with one point when we were so close to three. To concede a goal in the 93rd minute is hard to take after we had played so well.''Overall we deserved the points. Now we have conceded a late goal to Arsenal not long after we did the same thing against Aston Villa, and that game we lost.''We have been caught by very late goals by two of the teams we are challenging with for a place at the top of the table.''But it is worth saying that it shows how far we have come when we are upset about only drawing with Arsenal.''Those two points would have been crucial to us if we were really going to make a bid for a Champions League spot.''That would have put us much close to the teams above us, and I feel Aston Villa will be the team who are more delighted with this result than either us or Arsenal.''It is a long way to go to catch Villa or Arsenal now. But we are playing well enough to do that, we are showing confidence and we just lacked that little bit to finish them off.''But good players like Van Persie can do that, he took his chance very well.''Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger conceded that the last-ditch equaliser has increased their chances of clinching fourth spot, and also holding off Everton's challenge.He said: ''After the result last night (Aston Villa winning at Portsmouth) we knew we could not afford to lose this game.''It was a game of quality and we were playing against a good team, and we needed character to come back like that in injury-time.''You cannot predict you will score that late, but I knew the team would keep going and we have shown that again.''It was very important not to lose. We needed to keep Everton at a distance from us, and three points would have put them very close to us.''Van Persie's finish was an exceptional one. But when you see the ball dropping like that towards his left foot, you always think that he can hit the target.''He will make the keeper work, he will never put the ball into the stands from a position like that.''Wenger also revealed there had been no further progress in his bid to bring midfielder Andrei Arshavin to the Emirates.He said: ''There is nothing new on Arshavin, I have been concentrating on the game and not taking calls.''But the deal is maybe 90% completed. However, the final 10% of any deal can be the most difficult.''Maybe in the next two days. In this kind of job it can be difficult at this stage because people can change their minds completely.''
My verdict:
I think that Arsenal has done their best against Everton and in fact, from this game, we can see how Everton has improved their standard in football throughout the years. A deserving one point for both the teams although I would hope to see Arsenal taking all the three points. Nevertheless, another game of fine performance by the young Gunners!!
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