Sunderland 1-0 Arsenal – 21/11/09 – (Premier League) 22 November, 2009

Fuck Internationals.

If it weren’t for that bloody break we would’ve won yesterday. Not just because we were missing Gibbs and van Persie and everyone was tired (especially Gallas and Sagna). But also our good run was broken and we lost our focus. The players hardly had one day to get back into the Arsenal state of mind and focus on a tough Premier League game.

We weren’t at our best yesterday but we didn’t play all that badly. I think we badly missed van Persie and the front line of Rosicky, Eduardo and Nasri wasn’t lethal enough – Yesterday was the first game this season we haven’t scored; some achievement for Sunderland seeing as how free-scoring we’ve been of late.

You have to give credit to the home side, the result wasn’t just because we didn’t turn up. They played their football right from the start, they didn’t care that they were playing the team in second place – they have confidence that they can beat anyone if they try and they proved it again yesterday. Their goal was very lucky was due to our awful defending from a corner, the ball was loose in the area and Darren Bent was allowed to get to it first.

Arshavin, Vela and Walcott all came on in the second half but it wasn’t enough to score. To be fair once they went a goal down we really put the pressure on and Sunderland did well to keep the clean sheet. Our best chances were two low crosses across the face of the goal but no one could just reach a leg out far enough to stick it in.

Last year Fabregas scored in the 94th minute to make it 1-1 and I had this thought in the back of my mind right up until the final whistle but yesterday just wasn’t our day.

The players will be upset about the loss but we’ve got to get over it quickly. We’ve got an important Champions League fixture on Tuesday and then Chelsea on Sunday. We should really concentrate on Europe instead of looking ahead to Chelsea but yesterday’s loss has put us in an awkward position in the league.

We’ve dropped into third, three points behind United and eight behind Chelsea now. A win against the leaders would be massive for us but that game is more important simply not to lose now. An eleven point gap this early would be very difficult to close down, even with the game in hand we have. Avoid defeat on Sunday and we’re very much still in it, lose and then we’ve really got some work to do.

Wenger won’t be thinking about any of this yet, we’ve got Standard Liege on Tuesday and a draw is enough to take us through to the next round. We’ll be going for the win though and we’ll want to win well to boost confidence. More build up to come in the week. Thanks for reading.