» The Gooner World

What a poor poor performance from Arsenal. Wenger said this would be the 2nd part of the reaction after last weekend’s game against Hull, and the team disappointed. The team lacked incisiveness, creativity and width. Song replaced Nasri in the starting 11 from the mid week CL game. The formation however was a strange 4-3-3, or 4-5-1 at times, with RvP out wide left, Denilson slotting in just inside him, Cesc & Song in central mid field, and Ade upfront. Sunderland learned from Hull City last weekend, started with a 4-5-1 with a plan to choke all the play in mid field, not give any space to Arsenal to play their passing game and it worked for large parts of the game. Clichy and Sagna were disappointing as they didn’t overlap and bomb forward, Sagna being defensively suspect having an off day.

Sunderland had more chances in the first half, the first of which came with Malbranque playing a nice through ball to Whitehead. Toure made a fantastic last ditch tackle to get the ball and clear the immediate danger. The first half chance for Arsenal came in the 12th minute, off a corner. RvP played the short corner to Cesc whose cross was headed wide by Song. Arsenal’s passing game seemed to be affected by the weather, with strong winds. The next Sunderland chance came off a poor backpass from Theo which was intercepted by Cisse. His shot was well saved by Almunia who has had some solid games in goal for Arsenal. Sunderland were keeping their shape well and were well-organised, it looked as if Keane had learned some lessons from Hull City.

The only other half chance in the half came off Theo’s cross from wide right which was palmed wide by Craig Gordon and then cleared by the defence. Arsenal created nothing else of note which was poor by Arsenal’s standards. On the break, Sunderland had a couple of chances. Cisse had a good run down the right, and he put in a good cross for Andy Reid, who found himself in acres of space on the left but couldn’t control his header.

The refereeing was a bit rubbish. He blew too often for fouls which spoiled the whole flow of the game, apart from frustrating both teams with bad calls for non-existent fouls. In total, there were 5 or 6 yellow cards dished out and there was not one rash tackle in the whole game.

The second half started off more promising for Arsenal, Wenger probably having a tough talk with the team. They looked sharper in possession, looking to build and create some attacking moves. But that was only for a period of 15 minutes, after which the fizz went out of Arsenal again. There was a corner from RvP which was headed wide by Ade. He did well to get to the ball, but the finishing could have been better. Then came the controversial moment of the game. Theo did well with a run down the right, and crossed from the byline into the 6 yard box which was put into the goal by RvP, making a good run. However, the linesman ruled that the ball went out of play before Theo crossed the ball. Replays were inconclusive on the subject. To me, it appeared as if the ball was still in play, but it was a very close call.

Arsenal made their substitutions, Bendtner and Nasri coming on for Theo and Denilson. The team looked to finally line up in the favoured 4-4-2 with RvP going wide left, Nasri going wide right, Bendtner and Ade upfront. Sunderland could have had more chances. Sagna did poorly and couldnt hold onto the ball from Almunia’s throw, when Reid challenged him. Cisse was in space on the right, but the cross was poor. The best chance of the game then went to Arsenal, the three strikers combining beautifully. Bendtner and Ade played a nice 1-2, and then Bendtner, from the edge of the box, played RvP into the penalty area with a nice looping ball in. RvP's point blank effort was saved well by Gordon. The closest Arsenal had come to scoring all day.

Then came the moment I had feared, a Sunderland goal. It was almost predictable, as Arsenal looked average all day and were always at risk of conceding a late goal to lose all 3 points. Leadbitter found himself in a bit of space, with Song not closing him down quickly enough. He let off a ripping shot on goal, and Almunia had little chance to block it. Sunderland up 1-0 and only had to hold on for a few minutes to earn all 3 points, deservedly so. Wenger then put on Vela for Song in an attempt to save a point. Incredibly it came in the 2nd minute of added time, RvP's corner met by Cesc, of all people. His first goal couldn’t have come at a better time for Arsenal. Arsenal were not satisfied with that and tried hard to get the winner, but there wasn’t any time to score that. Sagna’s cross was met by Ade with his hands up and he fouled Gordon for which he was deservedly yellow carded. So the game finished 1-1.

I thought Arsenal deserved nothing from that game and were fortunate to come away with even one point. A poor performance in general and the different formation (4-5-1, 4-3-3) didn’t help. When the team saw that Sunderland had blocked the mid field, the long ball route to Ade was not tried at all. There was no intelligence in the game, very little creativity and the full backs did not provide the additional option of width. This should count as points dropped by Arsenal, for the second week in a row. This team tends to blow hot and cold and certainly doesn’t look like challenging for the Premiership at this rate.