This season, Sunderland love a late goal and Brian Brobbey’s 94th-minute finish on Saturday was just the latest in a catalogue dating back to the playoffs in May. This one was special because it helped
us come from behind against one of the best teams in the country to get a point that we never stopped battling for.
The 2-2 draw with Arsenal came two weeks after our last-gasp win at Chelsea, meaning we’ve taken four points from games against the traditional top six teams.
Burnley lost 0-2 at home to Arsenal and Leeds got battered 5-0 at the Emirates, but we had the best defensive side in the league with nine men behind the ball in injury time — and they still couldn’t keep us out.
Arsenal had conceded three goals in ten games before coming to the Stadium of Light, and we put two past them. Other teams, after going 2-1 down with fifteen minutes to go, would probably hunker down and avoid conceding any more, yet at 1-1, we brought on three forwards before adding a second striker late on, in Eliezer Mayenda.
At the end of the day, Arsenal were individually better than us.
That’s a given, but there’s no denying that we battled harder as a unit than the league leaders at times. This Sunderland team just doesn’t give up, and the old expression of ‘Til The End continues to be far more than a marketing slogan — it’s a mantra that everyone connected with Sunderland can get behind.
We head into the latest international break in a Champions League place, with nineteen points from a possible thirty three. We’ve also got the second-best home record in the Premier League, and even our away form is perhaps better than we could’ve anticipated.
Things are brilliant at Sunderland at the moment.
We’ve kept our good start going until at least mid-November and after both of our defeats, we won our next game. You can wax lyrical about Sunderland for hours, and many of us will be checking the Premier League table over the next two weeks to make sure that what we’re experiencing isn’t a dream.
Sunderland are flying in the Premier League and it isn’t a fluke.
We’ve had some luck, but which football club goes through a season without that? We’re in the top four because we’re a hardworking team and we’ve taken enough chances when they’ve come our way. Most importantly, we’ve not looked out of place or been completely dominated this season so far — something that we perhaps thought would change when we played Chelsea and Arsenal.
Leeds and Burnley fans have talked about our “easier start’ and said ”Wait until we play someone decent”.
Last weekend, Leeds lost to Nottingham Forest and Burnley went down 3-2 at West Ham — two teams Sunderland have already beaten. We have harder games to come, but fans of those clubs and probably a few others down there wish they had this many points on the board, as well as wishing they could give teams at the top of the league a tough game.
We all need to drink this moment in and grab it with both hands. We don’t know how long this will go on for, so let’s just enjoy it, but also…let’s get carried away, man!
