Caught Sleeping at Sunderland

The final hurrah before the last international break of the year. Our lead at the top of the table was beginning to look quite comfortable, despite a Manchester City resurgence. Arsenal needed to capitalise on the fact that City were up against Liverpool this weekend and that meant, at the minimum, one of these sides were dropping points. If Arsenal secured a win over Sunderland then it would open up a huge gap on one of these teams. However, the fixture at the Stadium of Light meant that Arsenal faced three away games in the space of a week. With an obliterated attack, energy was running low and fatigue will have started to set in.

Sunderland would've known about Arsenal's depleted front line as well as their away days so they brought the energy. The first half was a stop/start affair and that suited the home team. The Sunderland fans were noisy and that gave their players a huge lift. As mentioned earlier, it was half full of stoppages that eventually equated to nine minutes added on at the end of the half. The Gunners really struggled to break down a sturdy Sunderland defence, long balls into the box were just wacked away. Realistically, there was only a couple of half chances that fell to Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze. William Saliba had our best chance of the half when a ball bounced in his path in the Sunderland box, but smashed it way over the bar with no pressure on him. However, that would've just provided an equaliser, not a breakthrough. Around 10 minutes before that chance, Daniel Ballard found some room in Arsenal's box and rifled an effort way out of David Raya's reach. The atmospehere was coarsing through every Sunderland player and Arsenal didn't really know how to cope with it. They stifled every forage forward that we could muster, reducing us to virtually nothing.

The 2nd half couldn't come quickly enough and Mikel Arteta had clearly had a few words with the team at half time. The side that came out was completely different to what we saw in the first half. The passing was quick, the movement was thoughtful and the determination to make something happen was obvious. The North London side had a couple of sighters and they were close enough to know that the momentum was swaying in Arsenal's favour. Thankfully, the equaliser came early on when the pressure was mounting. Rice picked the pocket of a defender, in his own half, which left his side in a 3v1 situation as Mikel Merino and Bukayo Saka were ahead of him. Rice slotted the ball into Merino's feet who then had the option of Leandro Trossard running in or Saka's run, he picked the Englishman and he smashed the ball to the near post. Robin Roefs couldn't get down quickly enough and the ball squeezed past him. 1-1, game on. Arsenal didn't let Sunderland rest at all and were at them again. Eze came close with an effort as well as Martin Zubimendi with a couple of very unlucky chances, one of which smacked off the crossbar. But, with 74 minutes on the clock, Trossard hammered home a rocket of a shot. The diminutive Belgian was working a yard of space on the edge of the box, which the defender wasn't giving him, until a Riccardo Calafiori dart forward confused the defender and it allowed Trossard to work the angle and get a shot off. It was an incredible goal and a worthy winner, but obviously Sunderland didn't think so.

The Black Cats were unrelenting in their pursuit of an equaliser, but weren't really testing David Raya beyond a couple of moments where he had to come and smother the ball. One shot is all it took for Sunderland to get their equaliser. A harmless ball into the box was nodded on by a Sunderland player and then the striker, Brian Brobbey, performed an acrobatic finish to send it past Raya. Heads were in hands and disbelief had set in. The game wasn't over yet though as Arsenal sent a long ball into the box that managed to find Calafiori completely unmarked, but his header was denied by Roefs. The rebound fell kindly to Merino who could only watch his shot slam against a defender and out for a corner. That was it for this game.

Looking at the statistics, it certainly leans towards Arsenal deserving to come out on top, but it just didn't work out that way. The away team had 17 shots with 7 on target, that created an xG of 1.91. That also created 4 big chances. For Sunderland they only had 6 shots, two of which were on target and that generated an xG of 0.44. Within that was two big chances created.

Player Ratings:

Raya - 7 - There was certainly a couple of moments that made you realise how important he is, even when he's hardly facing any shots. He was very quick to get out and smother a couple of good chances, but there is a question mark over his handling of Sunderland's second goal. Should he have come? Why did he come and not try and punch it? All these questions will be asked, but fundamentally it was a very crafty finish from Brobbey.

Timber - 7 - He's always going to have a relatively good game as he always brings that defensive security. Not at fault for either of the goals, an innocent bystander that was let down by his colleagues. Given the nature of our approach, he had a quiet game.

Saliba - 6 - I do believe that he kind of struggled against Wilson Isidor. Physically tried to impose himself, but wasn't clever enough to nullify the threat the Sunderland striker posed. He also really should've buried his chance in the first half, but he had zero composure. He was also beaten in the air for the ball that set up Brobbey's goal.

Gabriel - 6 - This has been the worst game this partnership has seen for a long time. Maybe a touch of fatigue is setting in, but both Saliba and Gabriel weren't on it. Ballard had way too much space for his goal and then Brobbey physically dominated him for their equaliser.

Calafiori - 7 - His 2nd half was much better than his first as he often cut a frustrated figure. But, when Arsenal got back into the game it was because of his runs into the box that created chaos amongst the Sunderland defence. He's always on the hunt to find space and that's a key reason why it felt like there was more space in the 2nd half. Should've won us the game at the death, but unlucky at the same time.

Zubimendi - 7 - It's going to be the same for the rest of the side, but the 2nd half performance was much better. He stuck to his duties and helped give Arsenal a platform to sustain the pressure. He could have even got a couple of goals. When things are bad, you can always rely on Zubimendi.

Rice - 7 - A physical powerhouse and really provided that defensive steel in this game. If it wasn't for his endurance, our midfield would've easily been overrun.

Saka - 8 - He was silenced in the first half, but came alive in the 2nd. His goal was very well taken and just provided that nuisance down the right. It's clear that he needs some sort of rest, but hopefully Noni Madueke will be back after the international break.

Merino - 6 - I'm probably one of his biggest critics at the moment, but I do think he was our weak link throughout the game. He did get an assist for Saka, but the first half he was nonexistent as a striker. We needed someone to just sit in and around the defenders, but he was picking up battles too deep. Gyokeres' power is his determination to give defenders a hard time, Merino gave them a walk in the park.

Trossard - 9 (MOTM) - As I've said previously, sometimes amazing, sometimes horrendous, but he's always up to something. The whole team struggled in the first half, so Trossard along with it. The 2nd half was a complete flip. He was excellent and obviously scored that wonder goal. He's absolutely crucial for us right now.

Substitutes:

Mosquera - N/A -

Unfortunately we ended our win and clean sheet run on the cusp of a two week lay off. Two weeks to stew over what could've been. However, in hindsight, to even put ourselves in a position to win that game, off the back of that first half, shows guts. In reality, it was one of our best halves of football. We were creative, decisive and showed courage. In another game we go on and win, but that's football. You can't win them all. We've got around £200M worth of talent returning to our squad after the international break which will take this squad to the next level. We've got an extremely busy schedule to see out the year, so we're going to need to dig deep. We return against Spurs and I can guarantee that a win against them will help us forget about this result. See you in the next one!