Nov 21
Match Report: Sunderland 1-0 Arsenal
Arsenal’s 13-match unbeaten run came to an end after a Darren Bent goal gave Sunderland all three points at the Stadium of Light.
Arsenal failed to score for the first time this season as Darren Bent maintained his impressive record against the top teams in the Premier League to earn Sunderland a 1-0 victory.
Bent has already opened the scoring for Sunderland this season in matches against the rest of the so-called elite – Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea.
Here, his 71st minute header earned Steve Bruce’s team their first victory in five matches and showed his goalpoaching qualities.
Arsenal’s Starting XI & Subs
Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Traore
Fabregas (c) – Song – Ramsey
Rosicky – Eduardo – Nasri
Subs: Mannone (GK), Silvestre, Eboue, Denilson, Arshavin, Walcott, Vela.
It had been a frustrating match for Bent until he headed a corner against team-mate Fraizer Campbell and reacted quickest to lash in the rebound.
It was only Arsenal’s third defeat of the season – an outcome that appeared unlikely after the opening stages of a game that brought Sunderland their first win in five outings.
Cesc Fabregas, who had scored on his previous two visits to the Stadium of Light, was at the heart of most of their best moments as Sunderland soon found themselves stretched.
His persistence enabled him to set up a fifth minute chance for Tomas Rosicky, whose well-struck shot was blocked by the legs of Hungarian goalkeeper Marton Fulop.
Fabregas also went close with two efforts from outside the area in an immensely encouraging start for Arsenal, who were deprived of half-a-dozen of their first team squad through injuries.
However, they possessed enough depth to include players such as Theo Walcott, Denilson and Andrey Arshavin among their substitutes.
Sunderland were also without first-team regulars Craig Gordon, Kenwyne Jones, Michael Turner and Lee Cattermole because of injuries and suspensions.
Turner’s absence brought a recall for Ghana international John Mensah, the defender on loan from Lyon.
But Mensah, chosen ahead of Anton Ferdinand, found it difficult to adapt to the pace and mobility of Arsenal’s attack.
The same was true of several Sunderland’s players, particularly in midfield, but they did finally create two opportunities for Steed Malbranque.
The former Tottenham player, still without a goal this season, twice wasted opportunities after Arsenal failed to cut out crosses from Andy Reid.
They were rare interruptions to Arsenal’s control and Wenger’s side almost went ahead through the best move of the half in the 33rd minute.
Alex Song surged forward and exchanged passes with Eduardo before the striker’s chip drifted past the post.
Bruce’s team proved to be more effective in closing down Arsenal’s midfielders in a second-half that produced few opportunities for either side.
Andy Reid, becoming more influential as the match progressed, was narrowly wide with a 58th minute free-kick.
And, with Arsenal struggling to make progress as Fabregas’s influence waned, Sunderland stunned them by taking the lead in the 71st minute.
Bent’s goal was a reward for the former Tottenham player’s persistence on a day when his supply line was generally poor.
And it was a reward for Sunderland’s ability to recover from such a poor start and pull off a victory that will mean so much to Bruce.
It was a victory that Arsenal rarely threatened to snatch away with the exception of one moment where they forced substitute Ferdinand to clear from in front of the Sunderland goal.
The boys tried only luck wasn’t on our side
We looked like 06-07 team. Pass pass pass and not a single shot. Ramsey + Rosicky + Nasri is too much technique and low speed and hunger. Arshavin and Walcott could have started.
At the end Sunderland outplayed us. Fair result IMO.
agree with u, too player tended to keep the ball under their possession
Couldn’t get a damn stream today so I couldn’t watch. Sounds like we were not at the races today.
so sad!!
ARSers are still not strong enough to win the 1-1 possession fighting with the opponents. After having gained the ball, they played too slow, and then lost it… Miss V.Persie so much, Eduardo played so poor to day… Hope our team will play well next match against Chelsea
wasnt anything to do with luck,we started really well, and we were the better team throughout the match, without creating anything, for maybe only the second time this season we were poor going forward, didnt really create anything of note, and as such deserved what we got from the game… f*ck all… always thought this was going to be a tough game, coming back from the international break, with a few players tired and injured etc… we missed an oppurtunity at sunderland big time… now chelsea next week becomes much more significant, if we dont get three points then we could be as much as 11 points behind them (with a game in hand)
Laughable,a truly limited Sunderland side and we succumb as soon as they shoot for goal,just proves that wenger is talking a lot of nonsense when he says the side has learnt its lessons it hasnt…..same shit as four years ago,zero progressing maybe even regression.
typical arsenal
we get ourself into a good positon then fuck it up
we were better than them the first 20 minutes. we had lots of pressure but failed to score. if we scored early, the game would have been over. sunderland slowly got back into the game and outplayed us second half.
don’t think they did enough to deserve a win. a draw would have been a fair result.
walcott, like last season, can’t deliver a decent final ball. song was great!
Meh! Same ole, same ole. Can’t say I expected differently. Sunderland looked up for it but Arsenal…. well. . Song looked like the only one willing to give it all today. It’s too bad his teammates couldn’t or wouldn’t match him. Once again Wenger has no answers in a tactical battle. Meh.
Challenge premier league? I dont think so as long we dont have our RVP
too many passes without threat at the end corner or cross and concede.We have more chance on carling cup than any other trophy.
No excuses. Sunderland were very disciplined today and played their long ball tactics really well. The boys just have to pick themselves up and look to the next game
I totally agree
we aint gonna win the title to say the fact. we cant be compared to chelsea. if we get a draw next week against chelsea i will be happy. we cant beat them without van persie. anyway we shall see cos the season is still long. am really down and dissapointed with this result.
Alan wiley allowed too much persistent fouling for my liking.
We didnt dribble enough plus not enough forward movement.
On individual:
Traore is just awful, AW made a mistake he should have played Silvestre & he would helped in set-plays.
Nasri needs to learn how to be more efficient with his movement, he just keeps coming to the ball instead of going long and short to keep defenders guessing.
M8! what game were you watching. Traore played a good game and got forward really well. His final balls are alot better than Clichy.
I would rather see Traore allday over Light Bulb Head Silvestre! Silvestre loves to play long balls or pass backs to the keeper, which is not the Arsenal way!!
what the hell are u talking about. traore should be sold or released.
he’s done for at least this season.
anyway this result i was expecting all the players were tired except dudu.
song and verma did really well.
Traore is positioning is awful to start with, no composure in the final third, terrible int the air despite being 6ft 1. Cant wait for AW to sell him.
If we beat chelsea next week, all the moaners will be purring again…and upping our chance for the title. The title race is not over yet, and Arsenal and very much in it! So go gooner, 1 defeat isn’t the end of the world!!!
Do you seriously think we can win the title this season? I’ll settle for second with an FA cup and a good run in the CL.
we just didnt play well 2day end of… we only started 2 pile on the pressure when dey scored instead of pressure throughout..i didnt think we would miss rvp dat much but it seems like we will…?
we can still get a result nxt week against chelsea we jus need 2 attack from the start, they’ve got loads of injuries so we may just edge a 2-1 scoreline
i think we have too much of the ball. we have so much possession, sunderland just had to be disciplined and sit back. we lacked any danger around their box, so they weren’t troubled when they didn’t have the ball. when we lost the ball, they had a good chance to counter, as gallas or vermaelen were in the sunderland box.
wrong tactics played by AW. and some of our players just didn’t show up. if we play like that against chelsea we will be killed.
chelsea is a must win we played horribly fact rosicky and dudu need to get better fact lets now only battering liege and beating chelsea will do we have no rvp but they have injuries as well no excuses
this game proves why we need bendtner. against the lower teams in the league we need a physical presence up top, the attack we had today was too lightweight. this game shows us we need to defend better as well.
sunderland played well, they actually deserved to win, all their players went about and did their jobs right, closed down our players, scored and kept a clean sheet. well done to them. i was impressed with cana aswell.
That’s the difference between starting players and bench players…neither Nasri / Ramsey nor Traore / Rosicky played at their best…Those 4 boys need playing more games and Walcott & Arshavin couldn’t make much more for improving our poor game at second half.
Gallas & Song were very good, without those two boys, it could have been more easy for Black Cats to score. Fabregas, Eduardo, Sagna, Vermaelen & Almunia played only to maintain our style, but we didn’t create enough chances to win the game.
Forget today and concentrate at CL & chelsea games.
Agreed. We have no answer to a physical, aggressive team. We have NEVER had an answer, unless we score early and often. A team of wee people will always be pushed about the pitch. We need to get some bulk, some Tony Adams/Martin Keown-like people to bring the fight back.
Chelsea makes me nervous; we need that win.
Typical, we’re sh**e after an international break again.
Must win next Sunday.
I don’t think Traore had a bad game. The team just didn’t seem hungry today. Eduardo was isolated and seems to be lacking the composure that we usually see from him. Rosicky had a poor game. We lacked presence in the final third. There weren’t enough players trying to get in the box. Disappointed but let’s keep going. Gunners4life.
I’m saving my doom and gloom for after the Chelsea match. We win, we’re right back to where we were before today’s game – 5 points behind with a game in hand. We lose, we’re 11 points behind, though with one fewer game played, and just chasing and hoping for some Chelsea slip-ups.
I also think the result is not terribly surprising, given we had so many players who haven’t been playing regularly. Only Almunia, Gallas, TV5, Sagna, Song and Fabregas (and kind of Rosicky) have been playing regularly for the Gunners lately. The rest, including 2 out of 3 of our substitutes, haven’t been and most were just returning from injury. Then you add in that we had almost zero time to get into sync because of the international break and today’s performance is, sadly, somewhat predictable. You know what Wenger says about putting in 3 or more unfamiliar players into your squad, that it ruins the harmony. We still should have beat Sunderland, but pre-existing conditions certainly hampered us.
1. we lacked desire.
2. ramsey held the ball too much. turned and twisted and lost the ball all the time. he being substituted early vindicated this. he burdened song.
3. nasri should have been in the middle. he is at his best when driving forward from the middle, dribbling and passing around.
4. vela or walcott could have started. granted, they are small but once or twice, they will dribble or run around defenders.
5. we miss RvP. he is tenacious, determined. if he cant receive the ball, he would come down to the middle to carry or help the midfielders pass the ball. he scores and he assist. he shoots all the time, giving confidence to himself and the others to try and attack. his positioning is very good. he readies himself for passes from cesc. dudu lacked this.
almunia
sagna – willie G – Verminator – traore
cesc – song – nasri
walcott/rosicky – arsh4vin – vela/dudu
6. front 3 rotate every 5-10 minutes.
7. everyone played for themselves today. didnt seem liked to pass. if pass, the passes were crap.
I hope decisions will be made after this game. Decisions to arrest this situation from getting worse. What situation?
We cannot pretend Arsenal are not suffering from the “blunt syndrome”.
Apart from the return of players from international break, I am convinced that we do not have a striker who can cover for the absences we have in that dept, at the moment. Physically, Eduardo cannot bear the burden. Eduardo is a very good player, a method player who will do well playing with a razor sharp second striker like Torres. It is madness to imagine that Eduardo could lead the line for Arsenal. He gets barged off the ball so easily that he would be almost invisible throughout a game. What other options have we? If we can’t score against Sunderland, where is the goal or rather where are the goals going to come from against Chelsea?
Let’s be honest, this is a problem we will do well to acknowledge NOW. The link VPersie provided with the midfield and attack was underground work that wasn’t highlighted but it is now showing. There are working partnerships within the team and VPersie and Fabregas has developed a good understanding.
Arshavin is not looking too happy, even before the Interlull he was very sombre even when he scored. Against Chelsea, we must win to get any credibility back. That is the only way to get back in the mix of things. Nothing else will do.
personally i think we were not as physically compatible as Sunderland our players were not not really out there and the physical aspect will show again against chelsea coz they are more physical.Traore is an okay player but he was caught out of position a lot of times look at the glorious opportunities Malbranque had down Traore’s wing if he had buried those it would have been embarassing.i think AW should play Silvestre or Eboue though he is a right back but he has played there before i am sure he would have been better than Traore.overally we just weren’t good enough.I hope the players will be able to look past this game and come out hungry for goals against Chelsea.On a lighter note what the hell is wrong with Wigan they are Making tottenham look way too good that is not cool