Sunderland vs Arsenal 0-1

Today's game was such an emotional roller coaster that i am drained before i even start this post. This was a huge win for us, mainly because we showed some big balls, and got a hard fought result. In all honesty, we should have won this game by at least 3 goals difference! We missed so many chances that deep down i was thinking: "no way we win this game after missing so many opportunities to put it away". Luckily we did win, and i feel that this win will be very important in showing our players that they can grind out a result in tough circumstances.

From the kick off, it was evident that Sunderland are going to try to be very physical with us. In the first five minutes there were at least four hard fouls. The referee Anthony Taylor was a prick and didn't seem to care much, if we get kicked around all day. We still took control of the game and dominated the whole first half. Our midfield was straight up unplayable. Everyone was getting on the ball and our passing was unstoppable at times. Even though sometimes we overdid the one-touch passing and tried ta walk the ball into their goal, we created three 100% chances to score a goal. Giroud, Wallcott and Ramsey all missed very good chances to score. Ramsey's miss at the end of the half is inexcusable!!! He shot the ball right at the keeper from a foot away. Unreal! Sunderland tried to play long balls for most of the half but we restricted them to a few headers that Szczesny easily saved.

In the second half Sunderland started with a purpose. They tried to keep the ball better and put us under pressure as much as they could. Fletcher missed a few good chances to equalize and then Jenkinson got sent off. At that point i thought we will never keep it at 0-1. Surprisingly right after Carl got sent off, Diaby missed a sitter. Until the rest of the game, there was constant Sunderland pressure, desperate defending and quick counters by us. They missed some good chances to score, but we also missed chances to score at least three more goals.

For the most part the defense today was very good. We were bending at times but we never broke. With Koscielny pulling out at the warm up, Sagna was put in at centre back next to Mertesacker and i thought he handled that brilliantly! Even though he is not tall, he was very physical and did great at stopping Fletcher and co. Mertesacker had a second solid game in a row. He didn't make many mistakes and tried to be physical (something that is pretty foreign to him). Jenkinson played well for the most part. He did struggle at times and both of his yellow cards were deserved but Wenger had not started him in more than 10 games. You can't expect him to come in and play as if he hasn't miss any time. That's why i have been repeating that Wenger has to rotate the squad more and give Jenkinson some games, so when he has to come in and play, he feels more comfortable out there. That's still not an excuse. He should have never made the tackle for the second yellow. He got beat, he should have just tried to keep running and put Sessegnon under pressure as much as he could. Both Diaby and Sagna were behind him so they would have helped as well. Monreal had an up and down game today. He definitely had a tougher time than he did against Stoke. In the 15th minute he got beat by Sessegnon on the wing, and in the beginning of the second half got beat again by Sessegnon, who tried to get a penalty but i don't think there was enough contact. The rest of the game Nacho was solid and in the 58th min did well to stop Johnson after a great run in the box.

As i said earlier, our midfield was great today. Wilshere and Cazorla were everywhere in the first half. Jack was very dangerous going forward and took a lot of abuse from the Sunderland defenders. At times he passed the ball too many times, but his one touch passing was always a threat. I hope he wasn't really injured and was taken out as a precaution by Wenger. Cazorla was unstoppable the whole game. He was linking up with everyone and was controlling the midfield. Scored a great goal and created some great chances that Theo and Giroud missed. Ramsey is going to give me gray hair before i am in my forties. For most of the first half, he played really well and was involved in all of our attacks together with Wilshere, Arteta and Cazorla. He had a great shot saved by Mignolet. And then, first he misses an unbelievable chance in the 45th min; then in the 48th and 57th minute gave away the ball in the sloppiest ways possible and how Fletcher didn't score on the counter is beyond me. At that point i was ready to choke him, because he has a habit of being sloppy and lazy and that drives me nuts! But then Jenkinson gets sent off and Aaron slotted in at right back and played very, very well. To sum it up, he has so much upside but he is also so careless with the ball at times, which could be very costly to the team. Arteta played solid the whole game. He helped going forward and then was one of the first to get back. Diaby started slow when he came in, but he got better as the game progressed.

Theo and Giroud were disappointing to me. Especially Giroud! He had a poor game and to top it off, was super selfish at the end of the game (92min), when he should have given the ball back to Cazorla, so we can score a second goal. Instead he shot it himself and missed for the 100th time in the game. I understand he wants to score, but when you have a shitty game and you have a chance to pass the ball for your teammate to score, you pass it! I realize that Olivier needs time to keep improving and hopefully he will start converting his chances, but he also has to be a team player first. Theo was very active and was involved in almost every attack we had. But he, just like Giroud was wasteful with the chances he had. He got an amazing pass by Cazorla in the 74th minute and hit the post when that should have been a goal for sure. However, he did give a great assist to Santi for his goal and was trying to create for his teammates so i give him more credit than Giroud.

The last thing i want to mention is our positioning when we got down to ten men and were under constant pressure from Sunderland. I realize that we are a man down, but if you look at the following pictures you can see that we were giving Sunderland wayyyy too much space and time to keep sending crosses in our penalty area:  

Here, Theo is not covering anyone, but he is still not trying to stop that cross from coming into our penalty area. All he has to do is close the guy down and make it hard for him to cross....

...Similar situation: Arteta should close the guy down earlier (he did try to get close but way too late), instead we are allowing Sunderland to keep creating chances...

People will say that we were tired and so on, and i agree, but all that work throughout the game would have been useless if we had conceded a goal. So we have to do a better job at pressing people even when we are tired and down to 10 man.

Last but not least: Szczesny was outstanding today! He had one or two hesitant moves throughout the game, but he single-handedly prevented Sunderland from scoring in the second half. Good to see that he played a great game after some shaky performances recently. Great win for us and we have to keep them coming if we want to be close to 4th place at the end of the season!