Sunderland v. Arsenal 1-1 4/Oct/08

Again the London side struggled, in its tradition, to give a very late tie against an extremely dangerous home side. The Black Cats showed resilence against a permissive young Arsenal side. Roy Keane's boys managed to strain the visiting squad and for five minutes nearly win. Cesc again showed his power to bring the team from the "deep tract of hell." The previously mentioned dichotomy between "Fake Arsenal" against the "True Arsenal" become more and more apparent throughout the matches. It is evident that any away match is a tough callenge but there are ways of loosing and ways of leveling.





Cesc position was strangely forwarded and as some have noticed it, the difference between 4-5-1 and the current 4-4-2 to 3-3 is of a huge importance. Wenger had tried several times to forward Cesc in order to bring his old attacking abilities from the grave. The point that Mr. Wenger has not noticed is that he converted the young attacking midfielder into a creative CENTRAL midfielder. Trying to reconvert a cemented personality will dissapear him from the pitch. Thus Denilson and Song occupied central midfield with Cesc behind the striker and van Persie and Walcott wide on the sides. After some mistakes by the defense Cissé managed to scare the visiting side with two shots, especially one saved by Almunia at 17'. The Arsenal had a few shots, one with Cesc and another with Walcott, but the action for the Gunners in the first forty five minutes was null. The lack of possession by the visiting squad was a remembrance of the games against Hull and Fulham. The first half finished with a lack of depth and attack by the Gunners.





At 56' in the second half, a goal was disallowed by the line referee. Apparently Theo's cross was on the pitch but the narrowness of the play gave the benefit of the doubt to the ref. The deperation began to arise for the visiting side with the first fifteen minutes of game on. With the desperation arising, at 73' Nasri was brought in and "Robosaur" Bendtner was playing as a right winger, provoding balls that Cesc cannot give. In 81' a Bendtner flicked pass found van Persie inside the box, but Gordon's deviation evitated the equalizer. The stunner came at 84' with a tremendous goal by Sunderland. Song was the artifice of that mistake and the Gunners suffered for ten minutes to get a glorious equalizer through Cesc Fabregas. The terrible exit by the Scottish keeper permited Cesc's header to get in. Apparently Cesc is the only one that can save the wretched guns far from Gallas objective. Thus in this way the painful leveler came with Nasri revolutionizing the midfield.


Finally a renowned voice has risen against the monopoly of opinions for the Gunners. Martin Keown has told the problem in the Arsenal defense; Gallas. Although this remark is more than obvious (and the clear attacks made here in more than one post) the point is that a well known figure has stand against the common utterances madde by ex-Arsenal players. This stances can be as Ian Wright's: "The young side will achieve something this year." Or Henry's "Major Silverware will be at Emirates next year." Keown softened his opinions later in order to not being caught later with the board. The point is that he made his voice and that is more than a step forward.