Gav says…
The effort was there — and that should count
I don’t believe for one second that there wasn’t a single Sunderland player out there that wasn’t trying their hardest from the first minute.
What we saw was our absolute best effort. And if that’s not
good enough, well…it is what it is. Unlike against West Ham and Brentford, I think we really gave it our all but we came up against the best team walking the planet right now.
Nobody likes losing, but you have to be a big enough man to admit that we were just beaten by the better side, and that was the case here.
Arsenal are short odds to win the quadruple this season, and you can see why — they’re a relentless winning machine who can turn over even a very good side giving in their best effort, and we need to just take that as a fact and on the chin.
Brobbey is a menace!
I can bet that Gabriel and William Saliba haven’t faced anything as difficult as Brian Brobbey this season. I thought he was brilliant, and single-handedly gave them their biggest physical test of the campaign.
We got a taste of in the game at the Stadium of Light earlier in the season when Brobbey got in ahead of Gabriel for our equaliser, but yesterday they faced a fitter and stronger Brobbey, and I was really impressed with the way he played.
He’s getting better and better, and the only real criticism you could have is that he maybe could’ve done better with his chance early in the game, but that would be nit-picking. He was my pick for man of the match and I bet the Arsenal defenders will be glad they’re not playing against him again for a while.
Costly Sunderland mistakes
I don’t even think the three ‘mistakes’ that occurred leading to the Arsenal goals were particularly brutal, but against a team as good as Arsenal, you can’t even get away with the slightest of discrepancies.
That’s just a lesson we have to learn — you need to be perfect to get anything from a game away at the Emirates!
The referee…oh dear
Yet another absolute clown officiated the game.
Samuel Barrott was terrible, and really needs to look at the way he performed. Saliba should have been sent off for persistent fouling, he should have given a penalty after a foul from Martin Zubimendi on Dan Ballard, and Riccardo Calafiori got away with murder time after time, too.
I’m getting sick of whingeing about the officials but it would be neglect if I didn’t continue to raise the issue of officials treating Brobbey and Ballard differently to other players simply because they’re physical and give as good as they get.
Ciaran McKenna says…
A decent Sunderland performance
Overall, I think we actually played quite well.
The scoreline flattered them really as I thought we stayed in the game for a good long while. We didn’t create many clear cut chances but we had more of the ball than expected and used it well at times. I got the impression that they were relieved to get the second goal and even after that, I think it was only the third goal that really killed us off.
Of course, we still lost the game, but we’ve definitely played worse than that this season. Arsenal are one of the best teams in the world so there’s no shame in getting beat — especially if we actually put in a solid performance.
Nilson Angulo’s first appearance
I was glad Angulo got on.
He made the right decision each time he got the ball and he was sharp and exciting to watch. He wasn’t on the pitch long but he gave a good first impression of himself and hopefully he can continue to integrate well with the squad and make an even bigger and better impact on the team for the remainder of the season.
Our poor away record continues
I was surprised to hear on the radio that our last away win was that terrific victory at Stamford Bridge in October. Since then, we’ve picked up some good points on the road against the likes of Tottenham, Liverpool and Brighton, but we haven’t been able to get all three.
Our home form has been able to generate us a lot of points, meaning that poorer performances away from home haven’t left us struggling, but it would be great for our away form to improve soon.
The man in the middle
I thought the referee was really poor.
Brian Brobbey and Dan Ballard hardly ever get anything from referees, but this was especially bad. Brobbey’s whole game plan is to pin and spin the defender but every time he did that, William Saliba almost had the shirt off his back and the referee gave nothing — and it’s the same with Ballard.
Every time he’s in the opposition box for a free kick or corner, there are multiple defenders surrounding him. They know how much of a threat he is and he always ends up getting dragged to the floor. If he got the treatment he gets in the box anywhere else on the pitch, it would definitely be given as a free kick.
I’m aware that these interactions are hard to referee as Ballard and Brobbey are tussling with their opponent too, but it is getting more and more frustrating to see. It’s also become a recurring theme for referees to rule in favour of the “Big Six” teams and that was painfully obvious.
They’re clearly terrified of facing Mikel Arteta’s “wrath” — which is more like pathetic whinging.
Joseph Tulip says…
Some confident passages of play
We looked confident in possession and played some lovely football at times.
Perhaps too much of this was deeper than the final third, but when we did progress forward, there were some intricate moves involving our creative players.
As a team, we’re growing in confidence and although we lost, we can take heart from how we took the game to Arsenal at times.
Brobbey and Diarra make a difference
It’s been said that we don’t score enough goals, but it’s a work in progress and now we have Brian Brobbey up to full fitness and Habib Diarra back in the side, we have more of a physical and athletic threat going forward.
This is giving Enzo Le Fée and Chemsdine Talbi more options on the ball, and we’ll score plenty more goals between now and the end of the season.
Unforced errors from one of our best
Omar Alderete has been superb this season but he did something I’ve been wary of for some time — made a few unforced errors.
Sometimes he’ll give the ball away cheaply or do something completely unexpected, such as kicking a misplaced long pass out of play.
Thankfully, the pros far outweigh the cons, but I’m sure he’ll be working hard to iron out those occasional flaws.
The need for rest and rotation is highlighted
We have another big game coming up midweek and with very little room for rotation, our players will need to dust themselves down ready to go again in just a few days against Liverpool.
Fortunately they’ll be back at home with the red and white army in full voice to roar them on. There should be no pressure on the Lads against he current champions and I hope they have enough in the tank for another big game.
Malc Dugdale says…
A respectable performance
The West Ham game was pretty poor but while this was a similar score it wasn’t a similar performance at all. The Lads gave it a good go and if the early chance for Brian Brobbey had gone in, it could’ve been a very interesting game.
It was a good battle but we lost to a better team and that’s OK.
We have to remember we came up via the playoffs and we just competed better than many sides at the home of the champions-in-waiting. That can’t be written off as anything less than good progress.
Arsenal perfection required for Sunderland to lose
The first goal needed a perfect shot masked by defenders and in off the inside of the post to give them the lead, and that was the theme of the game.
Throughout the game, they had to come up with real quality to get past us and that’s a compliment to our lads.
Time and again, the commentators said that wasn’t a 3-0-type loss, and the boys can take a lot from that.
An injury concern for Noah Sadiki?
The potential injury to Sadiki is a worry as the man is a total football athlete.
Hopefully it was precautionary and he can be back very soon.
Standing off costs us dearly
The first goal came about due to us not closing players down, and we need to learn from this.
We may be able to trust Robin Roefs against many sides from range but at home (with the Leandro Trossard goal) and away, we gave top quality players too much space.
A lesson to learn, and we will.
