Written by George Sezer Sunday, 19 September 2010 00:19

GunnerTalk Blog

Sunderland 1 - Arsenal 1

By George Sezer

It was one of those post Champions league away games, looked like we had the CL Blues. Nothing clicked; the team looked disjointed and tired in the first half.

It had all started well when a very fortunate goal put us ahead, thanks to Fabregas’s persistence of chasing a lost cause. Ferdinand’s clearance bounced of our captain’s foot from all of 25 metres and looped over their goalkeeper in the 13^th minute. This was after Arshavin missed a good chance when Song put him through within minutes of the start.

Rest of the first half we were strangely subdued, what even more incredible was that Sunderland were having more position of the ball. We had a lucky escape when their defender Onouha missed a free header from closed range.

Although they were dominating the game we were creating the more clear chances. A Song header at the far post saved by their goalkeeper and Arshavin wasted another chance after Song put him through yet again.

In the 28^th minute we lost our Captain to an injury, presumably happened when he blocked the ball for our goal. Apparently he was taken off for Rocisky as a precautionary measure for a tweaked hamstring, but you never know, with our luck with injuries he might be out for 6 weeks or so, I hope not!

Sunderland had couple of decent chances before the break but thanks to our two centre halves we stood firm to their attacking.

Better start to second half by Arsenal and couple of chances wasted by Arhavin – again, was an indication that we were over the slackness we had in the first half. In the 52^nd minute, at last a typical Arsenal move; Arshavin found Nasri at the edge of their box, his lovely first time pass released Chamkh but the Moroccan international who looked sluggish but still worked very hard all evening took too much time shaping up for a shot which allowed their goalkeeper to rush out and make a save.

Phil Dowd, the match referee who seemed to have got affected by all the palaver went on last week about Arsene Wenger’s comments about tackling in the EPL, sent off Song for a second bookable offence in the 55^th minute. It was him making a point in his little mind that he did not get pressurised by our manager’s comments as some of Premiership teams managers suggested. Guess who those managers were:  The Ugly Walrus face Sam Allardyce, Roy Keane (not even a Premiership manager but he had to put his snoot into it) and of course Steve Bruce! And this dimwit ref fell for it.

Unfortunately for the anti-Arsenal/Anti-Football posse of the EPL, it didn’t work; on the contrary we started playing even better. But he still had a say later, much later on the game.

Soon after Song’s sending off, for a terrible foul on Wilshere at the edge of their box he did not produce a yellow card. From resulting free kick Nasri shot narrowly high and wide.

Rocisky missed a golden opportunity to wrap up the points when he blasted the ball over the bar from the penalty spot. It was a stone ball penalty when their right back tripped impressive Nasri in the box at the second attempt.

Darren Bent missed a good chance when he tamely headed into Almunia’s hands then they threw everything at us for the last 10 minutes but excellent Koscielny and his partner Squillaci dealt with all until that referee had the final say for the outcome of the game.

There were 4 minutes of injury time to be played; they had a corner when the match time showed exactly 94 minutes. We cleared the corner; he should have blown his whistle as there was nothing to suggest in that 4 extra minutes that there would be more time added on top of the 4 minutes (substitutions, stoppages etc...) But no, Sunderland had the ball; no way was he going to blow the whistle before giving them another chance. They put the ball back deep into our box, Clichy who had a shaky game panicked, Bent tapped in their equaliser in the 94 minutes and 22 seconds. Two points lost, thank you Phil!