Morning all.
The vibes which came out of Mikel Arteta’s pre-match press conference prior to yesterday’s key match at The Stadium of Light gave us the surprising impression that maybe one, even more of our many injured and missed forward players might actually return to supplement the hard working Mikel Merino in our attack which of course was very welcome news. Merino had done a sterling job in midweek in Prague scoring two excellent goals but we wanted to see a Gyokeres or a Martinelli or even more exotically, a Gabriel Jesus.
Arteta was of course stringing us along, not deliberately but if the journalists, and by extension us the fans wanted to believe it then he wasn’t about to correct us and so he named his starting XI with Merino up top supported by Saka and Trossard. On the bench were no surprises just four Hale End lads and a lot of defenders, so we will be waiting until after the international break for reinforcements after all.
Sunderland have generated a febrile atmosphere at their home stadium since they returned to the Premier League and a Tony Pulis approach to opponents who want to play football but this isn’t an Arsene Wenger team, this Arteta team doesn’t fold.
The opening exchanges were tough, really tough with old Arsenal boy Daniel Ballard planting his elbow into the face of Mikel Merino in those opening moments leaving our sole forward needing treatment for several minutes. The referee Craig Pawson was as lenient as lenient could possibly be with the Sunderland players who escaped several yellow card level fouls on Arsenal players. It was almost as if someone from up on high in the upper echelons of football governance and possibly the media had whispered in his ear about not letting Arsenal open up an 8 point gap in the Premier League as that would be bad for the product and the product is sacrosanct.
Conspiracy? Surely not! After around 16 minutes Declan Rice tested the Black Cats/Cloggers keeper from a free kick and gradually Arsenal began to gain some semblance of control. On 23 minutes Eze found himself on the edge of the box as a misplaced pass left him an opening, unfortunately he hit his shot wastefully high and wide whereas Nwaneri would probably have buried it. Shortly afterwards another elbow left Jurien Timber needing a bandage around his head but Pawson looked the other way.
Immediately afterwards Pawson finally showed a yellow card, but to Martin Zubimendi after he had got a touch to the ball before the man but still was penalised. You know the exact opposite to Gyokeres who was fouled in the box by the Newcastle goalkeeper a few weeks ago and a few miles away. It never ends does it?
From the free kick the ball was pumped into the Arsenal box knocked onto Daniel Ballard who muscled his way past Declan Rice and blasted his shot past David Raya. Arsenal had finally conceded and the media duly celebrated. Just prior to half time Saka got up to a cross, headed the ball down to William Saliba who should have scored but he blasted his shot wildly over the bar. H/T 1-0
Arteta got into his players at half-time as they came out flying and laid siege to the Sunderland goal for a good 20 minutes. On 52 Zubimendi put Saka in on goal but he fired wide – he should have scored. Two minutes later constant pressure paid off when Rice dispossessed a Sunderland player and passed to Saka. He in turn passed to Merino who returned it and Bakayo fired low and hard inside the near post to equalise. The Gunners were on it now and two minutes after Timber almost got in on goal, on 58, Trossard put Zubimendi in and he fired narrowly wide – he should have scored. On 61 Eze found some space and got off a good shot but it was saved and on 65 lucky Sunderland saw a powerful drive from Zubimendi come back off of the bar, was it going to be one of those days?
Arsenal continued to probe and in between Raya made a great double save as Sunderland still continued to carry a threat and they were also throwing on fresh legs – Arsenal did not! But on 74 minutes the impressive Leo Trossard worked some magic turning his opponent inside out until a gap appeared and he powered an unstoppable drive into the roof of the net. That should have been the 3 points safe although I wanted the insurance of a 3rd goal.
Raya made another big save as the game approached added time, Eze departed for Mosquera on 88 and I thought that makes sense, shut up shop. But with no Eze leading the press Sunderland pushed forward and a tired Arsenal dropped off which allowed the Black Cats to ramp up the long throws and long crosses into the Arsenal box and from one of those they equalised. It was gutting as we should have been home and hosed by then.
There was still time for one last scramble on the Sunderland goal line, a cross into their box saw Calafiori rising like Haaland to head home, but he isn’t a Haaland and the keeper saved. Ballard blocked the follow up from Merino and so our run of clean sheets and wins came to an end. We should have won but it wasn’t our day.
Bruised and battered, we march on….
By Kev.
Morning Kev, all.
Good post. Credit to Sunderland for executing their plan rather well but what a horrible way to play the game. Ballard should have at least been booked for what I believe to have been a deliberate elbow on Merino. The booking for Zubimendi was farcical. This game highlighted how referees and var are so poor and inconsistent in the PL because I’m 99% sure that had it been Saliba elbowing a Sunderland player, the result would have been a penalty.
Regardless, Arsenal defended poorly, timidly and it cost us. As did the spurning of opportunities at the other end. It happens in football. Whilst I think Arteta could have made more changes after we’d taken the lead, I’m jolly glad Dowman didn’t get on the pitch as he’d have been targeted.
A year ago, I think we’d have lost this one and if Sunderland continue as they’re playing, I think it won’t just be us who drop points at their ground.
As predicted it was physical and I am sad to say we were bullied and the pattern for all clubs to compete against us is laid bare.
Expect more of this as the season goes on.
I just hope that the method they used against us is repeated when they play City , United , Liverpool et al , however I fear that when they do there will not be such a compliant referee as Pawson who looked scared of the noise made by the baying crowd on Wearside.
We badly missed big Vik who would have given Ballard and his cronies something think about in their own area , he is our only physical presence and despite Merino’s ability to pop up with goals he spends much of his time in the midfield and this left the room for their big lumps to wreak havoc all over the pitch.
Before the end of December they are away to Liverpool and City and then are at home to City in January and interestingly they come to us on the 7th of February and what’s the betting that Xhaka gets a red card and misses their next game away to Liverpool.
It’s written in the stars.
Actually they are home to Liverpool just after us.
Good morning Rico and all housers
A good match report Kev. And yes you are right Rico…..a year ago we would have lost that game AND this Sunderland team will knock off some points from those playing at their stadium.
It was a game we should have won easily as Kev pointed out. We had enough chances to do so. We had more possession and dictated the game. The ref was lenient towards them and an eight point gap in favour of Arsenal after 11 games is simply unacceptable.
However, Sunderland played the dark arts as well. They did a simple trick which neutralized our long throws and corner kicks. SOmething which is not against the rules although in the future Fifa and Uefa might have to do something about it and invent another rule to compensate……..Sunderland just did something which not many might have noticed, similar to GG’s gamesmanship…….they moved the adverts closer to the touchline. Brilliant, effective and cunning. In one fell swoop they neutralized our long throws, the corner kicker had less space to run in for corners and they just kicked the ball out for a throw in when under pressure….giving them a man more in the field of play because we had one taking the throw in. Very intelligent. GG used to water the pitch when Wimbledon played at *Highbury* so that their heavy players would find it difficult to be mobile, while when the dippers came home he ordered the groundsman to keep the grass tall making the ball difficult to be controlled.
What the game told us some journalists and pundits have failed or didnt want to point out…..we still created more chances, we still hold the lead on 2nd place (worst case scenario it might go to 4 points but if City and Liverpool draw it will still be 6 points and if the dippers win it will be 5.) We have already played both of them so we will not lose direct encounters which means they will be breathing down our necks.
Yes it finished a draw and we lost our clean sheet record, however if we lose our clean sheet record every 6th game I wouldnt mind. Secondly we still have the EPL’s best defence and 2nd best attack behind the Chavs. So there are positives to take from this game. Just keep in mind that we have no attack and we have to mend here and there and make do with what we have available.
And if VG14 didnt play because of an injury he will not be playing for Sweden in the internationals. So the majority of our attack will be resting at home. Good. I second that.
Nice report Kev,Arsenal get the elbow- like what you’ve done there. We got the elbow alright,to me it was a joke how Sunderland were able to foul with impunity. I suppose we should be used to that. Like Rico and others have said consistency is all you want.
The winning run had to end sometime,away to Sunderland was always going to be a potential banana skin.
Hard to be critical bearing in mind the previous sentence but why only one wsubstitution? Several players looked tired near the and the season is long,so surely a bit of rotation would benefit us. The bench was a bit short of attacking players anyway,why not at least bring on Nwaneri and Norgaard ?
I’m not sure the best result in the City game later,a draw or even a Liverpool win probably. It just goes against all natural laws to see Liverpool win. We certainly don’t want Man City to win.
We move on,hopefully we start to get some injured players back soon,just the little matter of Spurs then Bayern Munich at home,then Chelsea away after the international break.
Morning Rico, that was a hard one to write, the duplicity and double standards of the media shouldn’t surprise any of us and they didn’t let us down in that regard. Sunderland played the long ball game on steroids and whilst previously Arsenal were accused of ‘killing the game’ playing similar tactics, Sunderland were lionised by those same self critics.
Sunderland celebrated a home draw almost as if it had been a win Arsenal looked crestfallen as so they should as they had let 3points slip through their collective fingers but Arteta kept a lid on things even if I suspect that he was seething inside at the referee.
Pawson set the tone, he allowed Sunderland to employ their over-physical approach and seemed happy to see Arsenal beaten up whilst coming down hard on any Arsenal retaliation, so we weren’t intimidated we were competing with one arm tied behind our back imo. There were many fouls that Pawson ignored under the guise of playing the euphemistically termed ‘advantage rule’ but there has to be an advantage. An advantage to Arsenal would have been a free kick from a dangerous position not a foul on our player and another running into a Sunderland roadblock. Pawson in this ‘kept the game moving’ as Sky would probably claim but he played to Sunderland’s strengths and disadvantaged Arsenal. I did read that he hasn’t officiated an Arsenal game for 8 months and I wonder if this had been because of a request from the club following an earlier performance?
We need a draw today at the Etihad, it’ll silence the hubbub around yesterday’s game & psychologically will give us a boost.
Thank Dev, yes I did read about that on the BBC website, everyone else conveniently ignored the adverts being shifted, but I’m not sure it made any difference as Sunderland dealt with most of our set-plays, the ones they didn’t deal with we ourselves messed up. We didn’t deal with their’s and that is the lesson we have to learn.
On a re-watch of the highlights I noticed how timid Raya was with the Sunderland winner, back to the training pitch for him although he had generally a good game.
Cheers Limey, yes the Sunderland left-back got through most of the game fouling Saka and Timber with no recourse from Pawson until the match was almost over, Zubimendi gets booked for his first ‘foul’ the double-standards haven’t gone away we’ve just learned to minimise the opportunities for the officials to exercise those double standards this season.
Rico, I kind of agree on Dowman but maybe he would have earned us a penalty although with Pawson in charge probably not!
Substitutes/ fresh legs is a definite talking point but less so as taking off Eze for Mosquera didn’t really help. I thought MLS earlier in the game as he would have won us free kicks and broke up play, but Calafiori almost won it for us at the death?
Nwaneri would have been eaten up in the maelstrom of the games physicality, Nordgaard was an option but instead of who? Zubimendi possibly. I’m not sure any of our subs would have changed the outcome.
Sadly Potter, I think you will be proved right. One ref rule for us, another for those who the refs quite like. It stinks and no one seems to care. After all, it’s just same old Arsenal, always moaning. Or cheating!
Morning Devil.
I’m not sure why we bother with long throws, it’s not like they end up in the middle of the box and cause mayhem.
Ref aside, we were a bit toothless at times and I still think Arteta could have used more players from the bench. Norgaard and Hincapie especially but instead he watched on as Rice could barely walk let alone run in the finals minutes.
Not a hope imo Kev, I Webb already has his card marked. Honesty does apply to his lot.
I bet if that match was a European one, things would have been very different.
Eze had a poor game, should imo gone off for Nwaneri early second half.
What’s the general view on Eze, pleased, ok’ish or disappointed?
I thought he did ok yesterday Rico, but he needs to start scoring from some of those opportunities.
Hard to say re Eze Kev as he can have a moment of magic but other moments when he’s not in the game.
Good day all.
Holding out for for a one goal lead was a serious mistake by Arteta. Subbing Eze was a necessity, he was pretty well ineffective throughout the game, but to bring on a defender, Mosquera was not the answer. The defenders got in each other’s way and broke up the system. Better, perhaps, to have taken off Gabriel and added Nwaneri to keep some semblance of an attacking threat and Norgaard for Rice would have made some sense.
I said yesterday that the elbow to Merino’s head was a clear red card offense and can see no reason to change my mind. Weak refereeing at it’s most blatant. Mind you had Pawson given the red and resultant penalty, he may not have got away from the ground alive.
I too thought it was deserved of a red card.
Ordinarily, our defence would have held on to a 2-1 lead with just minutes to go, certainly this season but Gabriel and Raya totally cocked up for their equaliser.
Potter, guess what? When Sunderland play those oppenets, they will have up to 9 players away in African Nations Cup from mid-December to early Jan!
We drew but it feels like a defeat .I know a Sunderland supporter who was there yesterday and they feel like it was a victory albeit he said that it’s ours to lose now .
I am not so sure and as Geoff suggested the loss of points yesterday rather than the one gained might have the effect of redoubling our need to not get complacent and believe the hype that has surrounded our seasons start . However we have points in the bag and we need to go again after this international break .
We can argue about Arteta’s game management and I feel that he is still learning , but yesterday we missed a forward alternative especially after we went 2-1 up although it wasnt the day for Dowman or Annous he needs to learn how to keep the ball instead of dropping back and inviting teams on .
Just why I roll my eyes at the Gyokeres critics. A bit like Lacazette in his last year, there is more to his game than just goals.
Only Man City during that period I think Andrew.
That’s one of the two that matters😀
A couple of sending offs wouldn’t go amiss either Kev , the referee is our old friend Chris Kavanagh so we will need a full blown fight for him to give us any help.
Andrew , they will lose their players to Afcon for their home match to City but they will all be back for their away match with us and Liverpool at home 4 days later.