What can be said of our eventful trip to Sunderland yesterday? Other than simply turning the air blue after Darren Bent’s 94th minute equaliser, there were quite a few interesting talking points throughout the match. One of the most bizarre goals from Fabregas that we’re ever likely to see, his injury that followed, Song’s early bath, a dodgy refereeing display, Rosicky’s missed penalty and conceding a goal in the time after the extra four minutes had passed.
Where to start then? Wenger fielded the same eleven players that trounced Braga on Wednesday, in fact the squad was identical to that which knocked the Portuguese for six – even the bench was unchanged. I can see the logic in this, constantly changing the starting eleven doesn’t help the team settle and it’s a rarity that we have the ability to name the same squad twice in a row, thanks to our injuries.
My only question mark before the game began was with Wilshire. Starting him against Braga at home was a smart move, that match was perfect experience for Jack as we knew we’d be allowed space to play our attacking game. But I can’t help but wonder why, when Wenger talks about how the team needs to show maturity to win these tough fixtures, that 18-year-old Wilshire was selected above 29-year-old Rosicky. With Diaby out, there’s not much other choice than to field another technical playmaker, but why not go with the extra experience and strength of Rosicky? Wilshire has tenacity and drive, but he’s far too often caught out by defenders or muscled off the ball.
Speaking of Rosicky, I thought he played a decent game yesterday despite his penalty miss. In the latter stages of the game he seemed to bring calm to our team when we were being pressurised so badly, often holding onto the ball and passing his way out of danger. I would have certainly preferred him to have started the game in place of Wilshire. But that’s not to say I blame Jack in any way for the points dropped yesterday.
What’s most frustrating about our draw at the Stadium of Light is that I don’t think there were many faults with our performance. Yes, Sunderland overran us for most of the game, but we defended stoutly against all of their attacks. We were on the brink of grinding out all three points despite not being at our best, something which pundits always lampoon us for. Our performance wasn’t elegant, it was tough and rugged, and just what we needed to claim victory. But, alas, that wasn’t to be the case. I put down our draw yesterday to nothing more than terrible fortune, pure hard luck. Much like at Anfield where we were gifted a goal by Reina, we conceded yesterday because we were unfortunate. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that our defensive display deserved three points. That being said, we have to shoulder the responsibility for not making it 3-0 long before the Black Cats stole that chance to equalise.
Referee Phil Dowd had a game to forget. There were some clear fouls from both us and Sunderland that appeared to just slip by him and, simultaneously, he blew his whistle for some perfectly legal tackles. There was a clear handball in the Sunderland box in the first half and, despite what the commentators said, it should have been an early penalty to Arsenal. Song’s first yellow card was completely unnecessary, there was zero contact made in the challenge and, while overall, Song probably did commit two yellow card challenges, it doesn’t change the fact his first booking was wrong. When looking at a refereeing display, you can’t say “the ref’ made some bad calls but in the end it probably worked out fair” – you have to judge each call on its own merits. And unfortunately for Phil, he made some real stinkers yesterday.
Finally, I hope the Gooner nation can maintain some objectivity about our draw at Sunderland yesterday. We were missing our first choice defender in Vermaelen, one of our strongest midfielders in Diaby, our best right winger in Walcott, our first choice striker in Van Persie, we lost Cesc after 30 minutes and then Song after 60. Yet despite losing the spine of our team, we created chances and defended strongly at a tough away fixture. We all wanted three points yesterday and dropping two with the last kick of the game was inexcusable – but once again our biggest stumbling block was injuries. Other than sharpening up our finishing, I don’t think we need to change much about our play.
The Sunderland game is in the past now – we sit second in the league with 33 games to play. Fingers crossed our players recover sooner rather than later and roll on West Brom and Chelsea.
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