Hello everyone.
So, we took the much needed three points on Saturday. Coupled with everyone else dropping points, we now sit fifth, nine behind Chelsea and five behind Southampton. Which is not that bad, considering our start of the season. Back to the game, however.
Arsene made just one change (Arteta for Wilshere), but, to the displeasure of many, left the defense untouched. He also didn't omit Flamini from the starting lineup, which, I guess, was down to Ramsey not being fit enough.
It was obvious from the start Sunderland set out not to concede. Understandable, given the spanking they received last week. We got hold of the ball, however, didn't do much with it. Our only half-moment was when Welbeck curled the ball over the bar at 20 minutes.
Suddenly, out of the blue, we scored. Mertesacker hoofed the ball towards no one in particular, Wes Brown lost it under pressure from Sanchez, the Chilean ran half the field and dinked the ball over Mannone.
This didn't bring any kind of response from Sunderland. The Cats continued to sit deep through the remainder of the first half, though they stepped it up a bit in the second.
This allowed us to exploit some space behind their erratic defending, but, unfortunately, Santi didn't have his shooting boots on. He spurned two glorious chances to put the game to bed, leaving all the fans in a rather nervous state until very late.
Till 92nd minute, if you are interested in the definition of "very late". It looked like our attack broke down near Sunderland's box, only for some defender or another to play a back pass to Mannone. The Italian failed to clear and Sanchez was on hand to poke the ball home. 2-0 and game over.
In the cold light of day, our performance looks only marginally better than the one in midweek. However, we got the three points and that's what really matters. We played two away games inside three days and won both. Did we produce good displays? No. But we got the job done, while everyone else didn't. I've written how I'd take an ugly win over a beautiful draw any day and I stand by what I said. Once we get the result, it doesn't really matter how.
What genuinely worries me right now is lack of fit defenders. We had five before the game (Bellerin included), but Gibbs limped off, holding his hip. If we lose the Englishman for any period of time, we're down to four defenders, two of them 19 years of age. Scary.
We can, once again, say how rash it was not to have bought another defender, with just six seniors, one of them with a chronic condition, but you also have to admit that any team will struggle with three injures in one line.
Look at United and their makeshift defense that costs them points in every game. Chelsea can consider themselves incredibly lucky, as they also have just six senior defenders. If the injury crisis hits them, they'll start losing games.
Let's hope there is nothing serious with Gibbs. Then we don't have long till Debuchy and Koscielny are back. Just a month to go. Before we furiously search the market in January.
That's it for now. Back in a couple of days with either fresh news or a preview. Or both.
Until later
Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)
So, we took the much needed three points on Saturday. Coupled with everyone else dropping points, we now sit fifth, nine behind Chelsea and five behind Southampton. Which is not that bad, considering our start of the season. Back to the game, however.
Arsene made just one change (Arteta for Wilshere), but, to the displeasure of many, left the defense untouched. He also didn't omit Flamini from the starting lineup, which, I guess, was down to Ramsey not being fit enough.
It was obvious from the start Sunderland set out not to concede. Understandable, given the spanking they received last week. We got hold of the ball, however, didn't do much with it. Our only half-moment was when Welbeck curled the ball over the bar at 20 minutes.
Suddenly, out of the blue, we scored. Mertesacker hoofed the ball towards no one in particular, Wes Brown lost it under pressure from Sanchez, the Chilean ran half the field and dinked the ball over Mannone.
This didn't bring any kind of response from Sunderland. The Cats continued to sit deep through the remainder of the first half, though they stepped it up a bit in the second.
This allowed us to exploit some space behind their erratic defending, but, unfortunately, Santi didn't have his shooting boots on. He spurned two glorious chances to put the game to bed, leaving all the fans in a rather nervous state until very late.
Till 92nd minute, if you are interested in the definition of "very late". It looked like our attack broke down near Sunderland's box, only for some defender or another to play a back pass to Mannone. The Italian failed to clear and Sanchez was on hand to poke the ball home. 2-0 and game over.
In the cold light of day, our performance looks only marginally better than the one in midweek. However, we got the three points and that's what really matters. We played two away games inside three days and won both. Did we produce good displays? No. But we got the job done, while everyone else didn't. I've written how I'd take an ugly win over a beautiful draw any day and I stand by what I said. Once we get the result, it doesn't really matter how.
What genuinely worries me right now is lack of fit defenders. We had five before the game (Bellerin included), but Gibbs limped off, holding his hip. If we lose the Englishman for any period of time, we're down to four defenders, two of them 19 years of age. Scary.
We can, once again, say how rash it was not to have bought another defender, with just six seniors, one of them with a chronic condition, but you also have to admit that any team will struggle with three injures in one line.
Look at United and their makeshift defense that costs them points in every game. Chelsea can consider themselves incredibly lucky, as they also have just six senior defenders. If the injury crisis hits them, they'll start losing games.
Let's hope there is nothing serious with Gibbs. Then we don't have long till Debuchy and Koscielny are back. Just a month to go. Before we furiously search the market in January.
That's it for now. Back in a couple of days with either fresh news or a preview. Or both.
Until later
Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)