What a fantastic result! I'm serious. I've never seen any other team dominate possession against the Arsenal like Sunderland did. By that reckoning alone, a draw is a fair result. Yes, perhaps the equaliser was difficult to swallow because it came 15 seconds from the end (read: they only had to hold on for another 15 seconds to walk away with all 3 points), but in the end, it was Arsenal hitting the all too familiar self destruct button.
My worry is what this will do to the team's confidence. Will they take it all in stride and emerge stronger or will they spectacularly collapse like we've seen them do every season for the past 5 years?
Have no doubt, Sunderland dominated this game. If they had a more potent attack and if Arsenal's 2 centre backs not had a good game, we'd have been well and truly fucked. Plus, being down to 10 men with over half an hour to play against a side that looked like they came for a proper scrap makes dropping 2 points acceptable.
Let's face it: The past 5 years without a shadow of a trophy leaves lots of doubts in the Arsenal players' heads and only serves to galvanise teams like Sunderland whom the Invincibles would have probably dispatched with ease within the first 30 minutes.
Teams know they can beat Arsenal these days and they're not wrong. It's not that others like manure or chelski can't be beat - it's the psychological advantage they have which comes from being consistent winners and this also serves to add doubt into the opposition's minds.
Sunderland had no doubt. They'd beaten us there last year. They knew they could do it again.
The Arsenal performance was lethargic at best. Always slower to the ball for long spells, unable to get out of their own half.
I have to say - credit to the 2 centre backs for doing a commendable job throughout. Sebastian Squillaci is the unspectacular yet effective CB which is great. We always need players like that. Laurent Kosciely puts himself about more. It worries me a bit because I think that is what is going to do him in against a striker like dogba. Anyway, he's been doing reasonably well so far so credit to him for that.
Sagna was his usual self. Gael Clichy on the other hand, I feel, hasn't proven he's better than Kieran Gibbs at the moment and really should be benched for a while. I'll get to his involvement in the equaliser later.
The game started off with Arsenal being pegged back for the most part. Then Cesc Fabregas popped up with a freak goal. He closed down anton ferdinand's clearance from the back and the rebound looped over the keeper and into the goal. Great stuff. But that also signaled his final contribution to the team as he limped off a little later with a hamstring problem. Rosicky came on in his place.
Andrei Arshavin still isn't performing and should be benched too. He doesn't have fight in his belly. A fair weather player. Sell him, I say.
Jack Wilshere did ok. He got caught in possession once and nearly screwed it up but fouled and picked up a card. Fair enough.
Alex Song wasn't at his best and eventually got sent off early in the 2nd half. Deserved if you ask me. That meant we were going to be stretched a bit.
AW took off arshavin for denilson who is NOT a replacement for Song. He never fights for the ball after losing it or after the attacker gets past him. Wrong attitude, kid.
Maroune Chamakh did all he could being up alone most of the time.
Tomas Rosicky then missed a penalty. I had a feeling he would. He's hardly been scoring goals of late and I'd say his confidence in front of goal is pretty much depleted. Samir Nasri should have taken the kick and sealed the win.
Instead, Sunderland ramped things up after that and we were made to pay in the last few seconds of the game.
Gael Clichy panicked and tried to scramble a clearance away only to hit Koscielny and darren bent was at hand to blast in the equaliser. Horrible defending from Clichy. He should have just cleared the ball into an area he could see clearly rather than towards his back where he can't see where it's going to go. Simply blast the ball into row Z and eat up more time. We would have won. Silly git. Bench him, I say. Send him to the reserves.
Anyway, I'm just trying to look at the positives from this match. The CBs did well and we didn't lose even when we weren't playing anywhere near our best. The possession stats say it all.
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