Arsenal 2 - 1 Sunderland: Van Persie saves Arsenal after frustrating performance

The Game
There's never a dull moment supporting Arsenal.

The feeling before kick-off today was that this game was must-win, and what better opponents then a Sunderland side with only one win so far and no recognised striker? They were there for the taking, but Arsenal still found a way to make the game more difficult than it should've been.

I'm sure none of us anticipated scoring just 29 seconds in. Rosicky played a clever pass over the top to Gervinho and the Ivorian found van Persie. The Dutchman had plenty of room and he took full advantage of it by stroking the ball past Mignolet. It was all so easy and the absolute perfect start.

Arsenal looked in the mood after that, passing the ball around with confidence and looking threatening. Van Persie, in particular, terrorised the Sunderland defence with classy touches and turns and was unfortunate not to have scored a brilliant second when his lobbed effort struck the inside of the post. It was certainly the best we had seen from Arsenal in quite a while.

That was the time to finish Sunderland off. The thing with Arsenal is, regardless of how well they are playing at the time, you always get the feeling that they'll slip up somewhere. Arteta conceded a free-kick and, lo and behold, Seb Larsson scored. The free-kick itself was superb and there was nothing that could've been done about it. However, Arsenal, at that point, should have been out of sight.

That goal really put a damper on proceedings. Sunderland grew in confidence and started to close down the space with a lot more energy and purpose than before. Their midfield got tighter to ours and the spoiler tactics they deployed from the very beginning started to make more of an impact on the game. Because of this, the first half ended on something of a dull note.

Of course, it's not an Arsenal game without some form of defensive mishap. We failed to play Sessgnon offside and he managed to pull the ball right on a plate for Cattermole, who would've put Sunderland 2-1 ahead if not for Szczesny throwing his body in the way and somehow pull off a world class save. That's the value of having a top quality goalkeeper.

The second half played out in similar fashion, except Sunderland's spoiler tactics were focused more on the dangerous van Persie than anyone else. Arsenal seemed to go forward okay; Tomas Rosicky, in particular, was a real driving force in midfield. However, Sunderland managed to defend well by cutting out van Perise, who had been drifting all over the place causing all sorts of problems. Without that link, many of our attacks were snuffed out. Furthermore, our final ball in the second half was often disappointing, as was our delivery from free-kicks and corners. It was shaping up to be another disappointing result.

Thank god for Robin van Persie.

After winning the upteenth free-kick, van Persie decided he'd try his luck this time and he put the ball beautifully into the near corner. It's been a long time since van Persie has scored a free-kick and he picked the perfect time to do so.

It was a bit scrappy in the last few minutes, but we managed to see it out and claim a priceless victory.

We won!
Winning has become something of a foreign feeling. When it does happen, it feels great.

With a result like this, it's pointless to sit here and nitpick and over-analyse things. The objective was to win by any means necessary and get some much needed points on the board. We've accomplished that, so there's little else to say on the performance.

The goal now is to find some consistency. We've won five games on the bounce at home now, and with Stoke coming next week we can be confident of a win.

Before that, of course, is a fun trip to the south of France.

Player Ratings
Wojceich Szczesny - 7. Had one hairy moment when he decided to come rushing out of his goal, but made up for it with a world class save to keep the score at 1-1.

Laurent Koscielny - 7. Made some very good tackles and interceptions. Typical Koscielny.

Per Mertesacker - 7. Improving game by game. Was more agressive today and won more headers. In particular, he won a vital header right at the end from Mignolet's free-kick. Will be vital against Stoke next week.

Kieran Gibbs - 6. Had an okay game before going off injured. Has inflamed stomach muscles.

Carl Jenkinson - 7. An energetic display, but not without mistakes. Was caught on the ball one too many times in the first half, but in the second half he was constantly going forward and put in some good crosses. Promising stuff.

Alex Song - 6. Decent defensively, but inconsistent as an attacking force.

Mikel Arteta - 6. Was a bit anonymous today. Not his best game.

Tomas Rosicky - 7. A classy display, remeniscent of the Rosicky of old. Was positive in everything he did and provided that thrusting force that the midfield was crying out for. Shame he couldn't last the whole game.

Gervinho - 6. Started off brightly but faded.

Theo Walcott - 5. Pretty poor all game. Didn't see much of the ball in the first half and failed to do much with it in the second.

Robin van Persie - 9. Terrific performance. We'd be so boned without him.

HELLZ YEAAAAAAAA

Finally we're in the top half of the EPL table. Although it wasn't by comfortable means, we triumphed over Sunderland. Thanks to the certain MOtM Robin Van Persie's brace, a right footed shot from just inside the penalty box within the opening 28 seconds. Later, Sebastian Larsson let rip a sublime free kick that was beyond Szczesny's reach and equalized. However, Robin Van Persie proved his immense worth with a free kick of his own 83 minutes in, to which he received a standing ovation.

I think Rosicky played pretty well and Arshavin delivered some much needed potency to the offense. Defense was a lot more comfortable and confident with Song anchoring the midfield and making vital tackles, as was the rest of the team.


Thoughts?

Why do we have two post-match threads?

A win is a win is a win is a win is a win is a win....................................... I can't remember the last time we got 3 points from a match.. :/

imagine if plays every game for 90 minutes like he did today.




edit: i meant to put arshavin in there lol

coz wins are pretty rare these days....

The Verminator wrote:coz wins are pretty rare these days....

Dancing at the moment!

Top half of the table. With the big boys now.

Arshivan changed the game wished he scored.

Here we come 4th place.

A lot of today's win was down to players who most of us probably didn't expect to do well. Rosicky, Arshavin, Jenkinson, Benayoun, and Santos were all great I thought despite not being regular starters (maybe that last part could change soon for some of them!). Mertesacker was also much more aggressive than usual.

But yeah, RvP deserves some champagne.

So sad. Years ago we would have considered 4th place a failure with us calling for Wengers head. But i guess we just gotta look at the positives.

And a trophy!!!!

yeaa quadruple still on !!!


merged btw

haha no wonder my posts look a little weird now

Yeah my bad about the two post-match threads. But dang Rosicky and Arshavin were fire today.

The relief is huge, but the reality is that the team around Van Persie is not good enough.

Ratings:

Szczesny 7.5 (vital save in first half)
Jenkinson 6.5 (terrible first half, good second half)
Mertesacker 6 (Wasn't really involved that much)
Koscielny 7 (Some vital tackles)
Gibbs 6.5 (Injured again)
Arteta 5.5 (Well below-par)
Song 6.5 (Mixed game, poor passing, but vital tackles)
Rosicky 7.5 (Excellent overall, the old Rosicky)
Walcott 4 (Very very poor)
Van Persie 8.5 (Quite brilliant, 2 goals)
Gervinho 7 (Excellent first half but faded)

Shava almost pulled a Nasri today




.....And i don't mean by asking for money he don't deserve

Rosicky was very good today!!!

A win over Stoke next Sunday and we will be back in the top 6-ish area. Onwards and upwards.

huffed and puffed today but 3 points are more important

Wenger: 'Commitment is giving absolutely 100 per cent until the last day of your contract... Robin knows we are ready to talk' #ArsenalLive