What a difference a goal makes. What a difference a late goal makes. Sound familiar? Good.

After a week in which my stick of Sunderland Rock enjoyed a good Sunday afternoon in the Station, being tapped on the head of as many mags as I could reach, and a dull, dull reserves game, we showed incredible restraint and set off at the usual time of noon. What do you do in Sunderland for four and a half hours before a game? Well, we watched West Ham and Stoke – Jones scoring again – then watched a bit of the skunks, then waited for the kick-off. The pitch was cut in the same fashion as when we won last season, and I managed to get 9-1 on us to win 1-0, which seemed too good to miss.

Mignolet

Onouah Bramble Ferdy Rico

Almo Riveros Hendo Steed

Wellbeck Bent

To be honest, Wellbeck played deeper to make up a five man midfield, which today actually made a bit of sense as we tried to crowd them off the ball. Unlike Braga in midweek, we actually put in a a few tackles, but it was very much Arsenal who were the physical side, making a mockery of Wenger’s recent claims that other teams are rough beyond the rules. If he makes any complaints about today’s game, he’ll go right down in my estimation. They can play beautiful football, make no mistake (copyright S. Bruce), but today they showed that they can kick people as well – and get away with it. As well as kicking the ball away. Steed showed that he can make the ball stick to his boots as he burrowed away in the midfield, Hendo did well as he won a corner, and Chamakh gave us all a laugh by falling over on the touchline then falling over again as he tried to get up. With us arguably playing the better football, Ferdy was thirty or forty yard upfield when he attempted a routine hoof forward. The ball stotted off Fabregas and looped into the net for the freakiest goals you’ll ever see on twelve minutes. Bollocks – they didn’t deserve that, and neither did we. Arshavin put in a decent cross, and Mignolet was alert enough to save comfortably.

We put them under lots of pressure without creating too many clear-cut chances, and racked up an impressive corner count, with a couple of good penalty shouts. Fabregas, probably hurt by that bloody rebound, was replaced by Rosicky on 28, and for the next ten minutes we puzzled them. An equalizer and a second would have been no more that we deserved at that stage, and Arsenal, in particular Song, continued to kick us up in the air. If we’d played that way, we’d have been down to eight men in half an hour, but the ref showed remarkable restraint, even when they kicked the ball away after a foul. One rule for them, another for us. Riveros got on the end of a right wing cross, but his header went into the turf and bounced high and safe. It was probably, nay definitely our best 45 minutes of the season so far, and we were more than a bit unlucky to be behind at the break.

No changes for us, and we attacked from the off. Wellbeck blazed over, then Arsenal copied him at the other end, but from only a couple of yards. They repeated their errors a minute later when they missed the target completely after another bounce had gone their way on the edge of the box. Henderson put in a great cross which was put wide by a combination of Bent and Wellbeck, then Arsenal broke to leave a one on one which Ming did really well to win. Song was sent off for yet another foul ten minutes in, and Wenger should have no complaints about that, but he will. Song had been niggling away for the whole game, and backed this up with a few full-blooded fouls, so he deserved what he got, and was lucky to stay on the field as long as he did. Bruce took off the impressive Riveros on 63, with Gyan coming on, but it was Arsenal who took the upper hand as they made a nonsense of their numerical disadvantage. Our lighter midfield allowed them to play the way they like to, but we still managed to create a bit, with Steed’s cross producing a header which was cleared off the line for a corner – and when it came in, Titus blasted the clearance over the top. Saving his goal for the end of next month, I reckon. With Arsenal’s next attack, there didn’t seem that much wrong with our challenge just in the box and they got a penalty. I’d like to see that again, just as I’d like to see the penalty again, as it hit a Gooner in the face, and he was in the back row. Justice.

With fifteen to go, Zenden replaced Onouah and Almo dropped deep to cover, and Steed was extremely unlucky to be booked for what looked like a nothing challenge, but then found the head of Gyan with a cracking cross. Unfortunately, the header was straight to Almunia. As with us at Wigan, they were better with a man less, but we kept plugging away and took off Steed for Reid with five to go. Chamakh went down holding his head, but limped off the field. Bloody time-waster. Almo broke down t he right, and Hendo’s low shot from the clearance was saved. Four minutes of added time was announced, and there were four gone when a goalmouth scramble – not the first of the day – ended with Bent doing what he does best and banging it home. Arsenal kicked off, the whistle went, and we felt like we’d won. Anything less than a point would have been an injustice, to be honest, and there were good performances all over the pitch from our lads. Ming was sound again, and Bramble showed again that he’s probably the bargain of the close season. Up front, Bent kept running even when things weren’t going his way, and got his reward in the end. Riveros showed that he will be a good player for us, Henderson was energetic and effective with Almo showing that he can be a real force in the prem. Steed gets my vote for Man of the Match for another persistent display. Nice one Lads.

Man of the Match: STEEEEED

Keep the faith

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