Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland – 21/02/09 – (Premier League) 22 February, 2009

It seems like I’ve done this too many times. Here I am on my journey back to Bournemouth contemplating how it all went wrong. Today I’m talking to you from the cramped coach back down to Bournemouth from London. Well, I’m going to actually publish this later when I get home but you know what I mean. Coming up for the weekend to see Arsenal from down south hasn’t held fond memories for me this season. I’ve come up to see the Spurs game (the 4-4 and came up to watch the away match in a pub) and seen us lose to Villa and Hull – those are the ones that stand out. I’ve seen a load of crap draws and a lot of last gasp efforts. I did us beat Everton, but that seems a long time ago now.

I can’t understand why is it though. Just five days previous to the Sunderland game we put in a great performance against Cardiff, finally scoring goals and proving how an early goal can really improve our game. I honestly thought that was a new beginning for this side, off the back of that with players coming back I thought this was when we finally kicked into gear.

Yesterday we proved just how unpredictable and hopeless we can be. Did we put all our efforts into the cup game? Have we got an eye on the Roma game? Or, have we just lost all appetite for playing teams such as Sunderland in league matches. I’m thinking the latter.

We started with a similar side to that that started against Cardiff. Clichy came in for Gibbs, Almunia was back in goal, van Persie replaced the injured Eduardo and Andrey Arshavin made his debut on the right wing in place of Vela.

Walking down the steps to my seat yesterday I saw Arshavin straight away as the team warms up right in front of me. He is a very short lad, fair enough he was chatting to lanky Bendtner at the time but even still you could tell he was absolutely tiny. Running around he takes little short steps and sharp turns and looks quite funny together with his stocky body. He does look very good though, he’s quick and has great ball control; to me he looked uncomfortable on the ball and always a second away from tripping over but this looked like just his style. He packs a shot too.

This was shown just four minutes into the game when he picked up the ball in the final third with no Sunderland player making an effort to close him down. He drove forward and with encouragement from the crowd he shot low towards the bottom right corner. It went inches wide of the post, nearly the perfect start for the Russian.

A few minutes later van Persie probably had the best chance of the game to open the scoring. Denilson put a clever ball through the middle that looked to be heading nowhere but Robin got onto it and was one-on-one. He drifted to the left making his job more difficult and the ‘keeper had come out. He attempted to chip it over towards the far post but it went just wide. A great chance, unlucky there.

After quarter of an hour Arshavin had another great effort, this time cutting in from the right he placed a powerful bending shot heading indie the far post however Sunderland ‘keeper, Marton Fulop made a great save to deny him his first goal.

The visiting goalie was in inspired form; he was making some great saves and cutting out the danger. This is always the case when goalkeepers come to Arsenal, we had to find a way to beat him.

Sunderland hadn’t just come to defend and they had a decent spell of attacks. Almunia having to make a couple of good saves. They were good on the break and the defence did well to get back.

We were back on the attack by the half hour mark, Arshavin again involved – he put a great cross in for Bendtner who headed inside the post but another great dive by Fulop put it round the post.

It looked like it was heading for 0-0 at the break but both teams came close in the dying minutes. First Toure’s header from a corner was cleared off the line then on the break Kenwyne Jones was in the clear but Bacary Sagna did really well to get back and make the interception.

So 0-0 at half time and both sides had missed chances. I think we will have been more disappointed not to be leading though. Those headers from Bendtner and Toure, the two shots from Arshavin and van Persie’s one-on-one were all great chances and all could’ve/should’ve gone in.

I wasn’t too worried at this point. I was happy with the chances made in the first half and confident enough we would find a way in the second half.

We didn’t come out with any ambition in the second half. I don’t know what was said at half time but it can’t have been very inspiring. This season, we’ve come out with a bang for the second half. This can be seen by the percentage of goals scored between 45th and 55th minutes. There was none of that this time around.

Arshavin was very quiet. He spent most of his time over on the wing where I sit and I was able to keep an eye on him. Whether he was tired, unfit or lost in the game – he looked lazy. A lot of walking about just watching the game. When the ball came to him he sprang into life but off the ball he didn’t look great. This was probably down to fitness and he was replaced by Carlos Vela after 63 minutes.

Vela did have some impact on the game but we were still struggling. We were well on top and bombarding Sunderland but it just didn’t seem enough. Van Persie had a shot from a free kick out wide punched away before two great chances fell to Vela. The first, a cross coming over the top missing everyone and falling at his feet and his shot went wide. The second came from a similar position and he went for the first time shot and he sliced it wide.

Eboue came on for Song after 78 minutes and Clichy had to go off with five minutes to go, Gibbs replacing him.

Our final efforts came in the four minutes of injury time. Gallas fashioned a shot from inside the area in a crowed box but it went wide; a decent chance and Billy looked pretty fucked off his with effort. Then right at the end Eboue’s flick sent van Persie though but he hit is straight at the ‘keeper.

So 0-0 it finished and disappointment rang round the Grove.

So what does this result mean for us? Well with Villa losing earlier in the day it was a big opportunity to close the gap and put the pressure on. We didn’t manage to do that though, even though we knew that points had been dropped and a win for us was vital.

It means that we’re still 6 points behind the chase. I know, not too bad but with the way we have been playing and they way they have been playing that gap looks more likely to increase than get closed.

I’m starting to think, ‘What if we don’t make 4th?’. It would be awful, that’s what. Not only would we miss an exciting season of Champions League football, it would be bad financially and some of our better players may believe they have to make a future elsewhere.

Also, once you’ve had a year out of the Champions League, it’s going to be harder to get back into it. Villa (if they got it) would grow stronger and be better equipped to defend the spot the following season. I’m not confident to say that we would be stronger in a years time to fight our way back.

This is all really stuff to talk about in the summer once our fate is confirmed, but results like yesterday’s make you think about this sort of stuff.

Fabregas, Adebayor, Eduardo and Rosicky were all watching from the bench yesterday and I can’t imagine they were impressed with what they saw. They will be thinking one of two things: Either a.) I can’t wait to get back in the side and help the team. Or, b.) What the fuck is load of shit, I need to get out of here.

Sorry for the depressing end to the blog but yesterday was just not good enough. We play Roma on Tuesday and I’m hoping we pull our finger out. They wont stand for a poor performance and will want goals.

I’m going to wrap this up now because it’s really uncomfortable trying to type in such a small space and I’m gonna stick a film on!* I’ll be home in a couple of hours and then I need to pack for Amsterdam as I’m off in the morning. I’m gone until Thursday night and I’m not sure whether or not I’ll get the internet out there. If I do I’ll bring you the reaction to all things Roma on here and on my Twitter (add me up if you haven’t done so already).

I’m off at 4am tomorrow so I’m going to have to write an early Roma preview this evening. I won’t publish it until the morning so tune in then for that.

Thanks for reading.

* Ended up watching the DVD of Arsenal 7-0 Everton. How things have changed in four years.