Sunderland 0 - 2 Arsenal: We've won two games in a row!

Hardly the most inspiring of wins, but the fact that Arsenal have won a Premier League game is reason enough to be happy.

The team selection today raised a few eyebrows as Arteta returned in place of Ramsey instead of Flamini, while Chamberlain got a game in place of the suspended Wilshere. From that alone you would probably anticipate that the performance wasn't going to be amazing, but on paper it should have seen us return to the more familiar 4-2-3-1 and be a bit more solid at the back.

Which, perhaps, is what Arsenal needed more than anything. With a make-shift backline, the least you can do is tighten up the whole team by having better midfield protection and not leaving them alone in their own chaos. So you're not going to get much excitement from a pivot of Arteta and Flamini, but we did get better protection from them.

Arteta's return to the side improved our ball retention, too. He's a player who can use the ball well and play the ball forward to the more advanced players, while Flamini seems incapable of doing so. Arsenal didn't do an awful lot with that possession, but the fact that we were keeping the ball on the edge of the Sunderland penalty area should be seen as an improvement as against Anderlecht and Hull we couldn't do that at all.

Sunderland were more determined to defend well, having come off an 8-0 thrashing last week, while Cazorla and Chamberlain aren't in form at all, so it's little wonder we didn't create much in the way of chances.

It was thanks to a bad mistake from Wes Brown that we took the lead. Alexis was alert enough to pounce on the loose ball, and kept his composure as he dinked the ball over Mannone. To Sunderland's credit, they didn't crumble and kept fighting and making it difficult for us.

That lead to a cagey second half, where Sunderland came forward a lot but lacked the quality to stretch our backline, while Arsenal's counters fizzled out due to a poor final ball or shot. Santi Cazorla had two great chances on the edge of the box, but fired both of them into row z in a way that is strangely typical of him. Arsenal really should have had the game wrapped up, but at 1-0 Sunderland were still in it.

I thought we defended well, though. It wasn't like we were making several last-ditch tackles or Szczesny had to make a number of saves. In fact, Szczesny didn't need to make a save. Perhaps Arsenal could have done better to keep the ball, but it's understandable that a team that hasn't been winning lately would be nervous when defending a lead.

The points were finally wrapped up when Mannone – poor Mannone – miscontrolled a backpass and allow Alexis a chance to score his second.

So three points and a clean sheet from an okay performance. Not a bad thing at all, really. If the team is low on confidence then it's not going to turn up and suddenly start playing brilliantly, and people shouldn't expect it too. This is a team that's not keeping the goals out, not scoring many goals and not winning, so of course it's not going to perform in the best way.

Arsenal needed a result like that. The cleansheet should give the defence confidence that it can see games out. The two goals won't do much for the attack, but it got us a win – just our third in the league in nine games. It's our second win in a row in all comps. That's not that impressive but you take what you get.

Hopefully, that's another step, albeit a small one, on the path to consistency. Burnley at home next week is another chance to win and score some more goals, likewise the home game against Anderlecht after that. As long as we don't lose too many players to injury, we should accomplish that.

Awful again today, saved by Sanchez, one man Army.



Sanchez scored the goal number 1500 of Arsenal in the Premier League.

Awful performance against an awful team. Not one good player out there today bar Sanchez. Welbeck movement upfront is Sunday League, not good enough. Gibbs now injured, Per hobbling. Arteta & Flamini offer nothing & are defensive liabilities. Defence is in bits with no options left. Shame we didn't have a clue that any of this would happen when the transfer window was open. Oh wait, we did...

I can just feel the happiness radiating off you two.

Still far from our best but at least there was some fluidity and cohesiveness today. We had the majority of the ball but we didn't create enough chances which is disappointing especially with the time and space Sunderland allowed us to have when we had the ball. We should have been at least two goals up by half time, Ramsey and Ozil definitely missed today. We would have created and scored more today with them two but we have to take the positives today. Two goals, 3 points and a clean sheet now let build on this.

We played much better in comparison to our pervious games. It was by no mean an awful performance. Our first cleansheet in like 11 matches or something alone should be taken as a positive step.

Thought Arteta improved us a lot in midfield. Started the attacks and kept the midfield organisation. They had like 1 shot on target all match. Oxlade disappointed again. Could just be in a bad form and Arsene trying to get him back on track but couldn't help think that Joel could have done better. Or Podolski even.

But doesn't matter as we won. Think back to back wins will give the team confidence. We have burnley at home next so that should really be 3 wins and then Anderlecht at home which could make it 4. A good solid run will do wonders.

We are only 3 points behind City. Chelsea might be out of reach but surely we can challenge City for the 2nd spot? And who knows maybe Chelsea might suffer a bad patch later on. Obviously they are favourites and will 95% win the title but one can hope

In any case, I am sure Arsene will play Arteta-Ramsey-Wilshere next match. In what formation? no idea. But let's hope it works better than before.

another pretty poor performance which has been the norm this season.. and Arsenal means only Alexis like it has been for the last month..

nothing changed today.. again trying to play 1-2 passes through the centre.. i have been sick of seeing this style of play ever since last December.. still Wenger is so obssessed with it, that he is forcing players to play this style..
Podolski was played as CF and asked to holdup and play 1-2 passes.. Alexis also was tried.. now he is converting Welbeck into another Giroud.. his movement has decreased and now he is more happy to cut back and pass than surging forward..
and i have no idea why Poldi, Rosicky and Campbell are not getting chances when your team is playing 3 games in 7 days and guys like Cazorla are consistently playing crap for 2 years now..
and to make things worse Gibbs picked another injury.. while Metskr ended the match limping..

i cant pick any positives except that we won the last 2 games playing crap.. but this was against a team that shipped in 8 goals last week and gifted us 2 goals today, without which it was clear that we were not going to win..

Arsenal's lack of form and ability to score coinsidently has something to do with Giroud not being on the pitch? Without him , our attack is war too predictable. Atleast he was able to peel off the defenders allowing smaller attackers to attack ...what do yall think?

I posted this on the shoutbox. I think its pretty  relevant  though dont you guys think? the last few weeks have prooved to us how important of a player Giroud is to us. It shows that a striker CAN provide more to the team other than goals and assist while contributing to the overall attack.

You guys though Ox did bad? I thought he was one of the few good performers today. Pressed the issue, tried to get at his man and looked dangerous whenever on the ball. Highlight was when he skinned Clattermole and Clattermole tried to karate chop him down, blatantly, to try and stop him breezing by

I've only got one thing to say:

WHEN YOU GET TO THE EDGE OF THE BOX OR IN THE BOX, DON'T PASS, SHOOT THE F****** BALL!!!!!

Cazorla tried that. Hit God in the nuts both times.

Can't believe Cazorla hasn't scored since January

I'm re-watching the game, as always.

First Half

No where near as bad as made out to be. We didn't make many chances but controlled the ball extremely well in Sunderland's half and had barely any defensive worries. Alexis scores via Brown's mistake and we're well in control of the game.

The problem was that Sunderland defended with ten men on the edge of their penalty area while we only attacked with six: Welbeck, Alexis, Cazorla, Chamberlain, Gibbs and Chambers.

To further complicate things, Alexis was playing as the 10 while Cazorla was on the left. This makes a big difference as it means Alexis is deeper and has less chances to run at players, while Cazorla has a tendency to drop deep to get the ball from the midfield and defence (which he doesn't have to do) and come inside. Although Gibbs would come up to support on the left hand side, he was often on his own.

The right hand was better in this regard as Chamberlain tended to stay on that side, so when Chambers came up they could combine with each other. A few of our better periods of play came from that side.

Second Half:

Sunderland push higher up the pitch and get closer to us and our passing becomes sloppier. The number of times we control the ball in their third are fewer than in the first half. At the same time, Sunderland aren't creating many chances. I thought we defended the centre of the pitch really well by pressing well and not going too gung-ho when we countered. Whatever threat Sunderland had came from wide positions and direct balls into the box, which we dealt with well.

Often, our counter attacks only consisted of Welbeck, Alexis, Cazorla and Chamberlain. Arteta and Flamini stayed back all half, while our fullbacks were also more reserved about their forward runs. We did this a lot last season, the only difference being Ramsey's engine enabling him to join counter attacks and get back from them.

As Sunderland threw more men forward, we got more chances on the counter. Problem was that our final decision or pass was often not good enough, so we didn't punish Sunderland as we should have done. It's not an exaggeration to say that we could have 3-0 or 4-0 if we had a better final pass. The times we did make a chance, it was wasted - Cazorla being the main culprit.

All the attention will be on how we're not at our best going forward, but I feel that not enough is being said about how much better our defending was today. We had a much better shape, much better midfield protection and our back four coped well with balls into the box. We definitely deserved that clean sheet.

Missed this game. Heard Chamberlain had another shocker, he keeps wasting his chances, very disappointed with him tbh. Heard he likes to spend all night clubbing as well.

Lex wrote:Cazorla tried that. Hit God in the nuts both times.

He was so rusty from passing all the time, he forgot how to shoot.

Pretty certain he could shoot on target when he first arrived.

DuringTheWar wrote:Missed this game. Heard Chamberlain had another shocker, he keeps wasting his chances, very disappointed with him tbh. Heard he likes to spend all night clubbing as well.

I didnot even know he was on, anonymous for large part of the game and your are right not taking is chances. We have to do something about the players attitude and playing the same lethargic way game after game.
Players are too comfortable with Wengers favoritism, and that for them not caring. A real manager would put fear in to every player and show them the door. Not just Oxe, we have so many players who look like have a huge hangover no spark, and no heart.

Joel and Podolski must be really annoyed how they are not playing. look at Sanchez plays his heart out every single game while the rest just watch. I swear I dont think Wenger motivates our players.

I know we won but any decent team could easily stop us and embarrass us. We have a great team and Wenger must get them ready for every game. No more over playing players to the point where they will pick an injury and be out for months. We have the players in midfield Wenger should use them.

DuringTheWar wrote:Missed this game. Heard Chamberlain had another shocker, he keeps wasting his chances, very disappointed with him tbh. Heard he likes to spend all night clubbing as well.

Chambo did okay, he was not good but not that horrible. He didnt have any clear chance in the game so i dont know where you heared that. Cazorla on the other hand was kinda horrible, missed some easy chances. Where did you hear about that clubbing part?

Raptorgunner wrote:

DuringTheWar wrote:Missed this game. Heard Chamberlain had another shocker, he keeps wasting his chances, very disappointed with him tbh. Heard he likes to spend all night clubbing as well.

I didnot even know he was on, anonymous for large part of the game and your are right not taking is chances. We have to do something about the players attitude and playing the same lethargic way game after game.
Players are too comfortable with Wengers favoritism, and that for them not caring. A real manager would put fear in to every player and show them the door. Not just Oxe, we have so many players who look like have a huge hangover no spark, and no heart.

Joel and Podolski must be really annoyed how they are not playing. look at Sanchez plays his heart out every single game while the rest just watch. I swear I dont think Wenger motivates our players.

I know we won but any decent team could easily stop us and embarrass us. We have a great team and Wenger must get them ready for every game. No more over playing players to the point where they will pick an injury and be out for months. We have the players in midfield Wenger should use them.

Man you are so negative. The OX wasnt that bad. The whole team except Sanchez were playing average.

Good win. Got the job done at the very least.

We need to improve though. Not just for results sake. But holy shit we are just a chore to watch. There was a time where no matter how bad my hangover was I had to get up to see the games. But now I'm just half asleep during these games. Its a struggle. I don't really even so much care about the results anymore. I just want us to play better and be fun to watch again. Because this sucks right now.

We went into this week knowing we had to win both games. It was vital we picked up three points on Wednesday and Saturday, and that's all that counts at the moment.

Performance comes second. Confidence isn't as high as it could be at the minute, but when that improves, the performances should increase too, naturally.

Alexis continues his outstanding form (8 goals in 15 games), Welbeck was lively and Arteta put in a steady display.

I do want to see Cazorla and Chamberlain improve their form whilst I think Chambers is being overplayed and it's showing. He's 19, gone from playing 2 games a month perhaps to every 3 days, and in the champions league AND in different positions.

We really could do with the likes of Debuchy, Koscielny & Giroud back - that's for sure. And now it seems Gibbs will be out for a while. The injuries just continue. Good to see Ramsey, Arteta and Walcott back, though.

4 of our next 5 games are at the Emirates, with the international break split in the middle of those.

You take what you get and we did that yesterday!
Agree with what Jay said, with our current form you can't just expect to play brilliantly out of the blue.

Also feeling RG, if we can just get on a solid consistent run now, at least until the end of the year then who knows where we might be in terms of league position and points off the top. Chelsea can't just run over teams each week, nah, it just doesn't work like that. So yeah. On to Burnley and hopefully only better days will come.

Nothing we could do in defense but we should rotate more in offense consider we have depth there now, I want to see Podolski and Joel used more as sub to rest Alexis and Danny. I feel these two will be played to the ground come Xmas, Danny has Giroud back but Alexis is too valuable.

Twoism wrote:Nothing we could do in defense but we should rotate more in offense consider we have depth there now, I want to see Podolski and Joel used more as sub to rest Alexis and Danny. I feel these two will be played to the ground come Xmas, Danny has Giroud back but Alexis is too valuable.

We don't have the luxury to rotate at the moment, we are off form and we are trying to bed in a few players. The last thing we need is more changes in the starting line up, also Poldi and Joel are better off the bench at the moment. They got their chance against Southampton earlier this month and did little to suggest they should be starting.

Not saying they start but a 20-15 minute remaining to sub would be nice

I guess a fresh Campbell or Podolski would do worse than a tired misfiring Oxe or Santi. A tired player cannot give you much, we have stubborn manager who's afraid to make subs.