Arsenal: Positive and Negative Points from 2-1 Victory over Sunderland

As "Seb" Larsson smashed a beautiful free kick past the stretched hands of Wojciech Szczesny to tie the match at 1-1, bad thoughts crept into the minds of many Arsenal supporters.

These thoughts started developing as Sunderland began to dominate possession, while the Gunners looked shaky for a few minutes.

It looked quite even after halftime, even though Arsenal were controlling most of the possession—it's not uncommon to see Arsene Wenger's men keep the ball for great stretches of time, but end up losing the match.

Then, after Robin van Persie struck a very nice free kick home, the Gunners managed to hold on in the last few minutes to jump up into the top half of the English Premier League.

From the match, there were several talking points that emerged about the Gunners, both positive and negative.

Let's start from the back.

Goalkeeper

After his blunder against Tottenham, Wojciech Szczesny again showed everyone that he is developing into a world-class goalkeeper.

Towards the beginning of the match when Sunderland striker Stephane Sessegnon broke away, he seemed to be one-on-one with Szczesny, who was at the near post of the goal, while Sessegnon was coming from an angle.

However, Sessegnon did not shoot, but he chipped it across the face of goal to a teammate who had an easy tap in header. But Szczesny lunged across the face of the goal in a split second and somehow managed to keep the ball out of the net with his outstretched arms.

It was one of the best saves he has ever made.

Not only that, but he seemed like he was coming out and staying back just when he needed to.

Overall, a great performance.

Defenders

Sunderland is not one of the best teams in the league. Also, they were missing their best striker, Nicklas Bendtner, who was not allowed to play against Arsenal, his parent club (he is on loan at the Stadium of Light).

The defense allowed an unnecessary amount of attacking from the Black Cats, which at some points seemed like they were going to score.

First of all, Laurent Koscielny was not good at all. Although he was coming back from injury, he made too many blunders, which very luckily for the Gunners, did not cost them big time.

It was he who twice allowed Sessegnon to creep through the defense by keeping the Benin international onside. He also made a needless amount of fouls and looked slow for a while. This kind of performance can't go on for Koscielny, so hopefully for Arsenal, he will get fit quickly.

Per Mertesacker, the new signing, was solid. He didn't make any mistakes, and he did win many headers at the back for the Gunners.

However, there is one thing that would be good from the German. At 6'6", he towered over everybody on the pitch. But for some reason, on the nine corner kicks that Arsenal had, he did not get one of them with his head.

This should be something to work on in the future.

Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson looked perfectly fine, and they didn't make any mistakes, which is a relief for fans (especially about Jenkinson). Though the Finnish captain did provide a few useless crosses, both fullbacks seemed all right for the Gunners.

(Andre Santos came in late in the game, so there isn't much to conclude from his performance.)

Midfielders

Alex Song was one of Arsenal's best players today, if not the best. The holding midfielder from Cameroon was making great tackles left, right and center, and although he picked up a yellow card, something that is inevitable when you play at his position.

If he can maintain this level throughout the season, the defense, which is shaky right now, will be helped a great deal.

Tomas Rosicky was not bad.

The Czech international made a few nice runs, including one where he covered thirty or forty yards and blew by a few players (he was fouled at the end of it). 

Since he has been getting a ton of criticism, it's good to see him perform like this and try to prove his critics wrong. 

Though Mikel Arteta has been good for the Gunners since he moved in the summer transfer window, today wasn't one of his best performances; he didn't do a whole lot.

That, however, shouldn't be something to worry about for Gooners, considering he has been good otherwise.

Wenger made the decision to bench Aaron Ramsey and start Rosicky. Ramsey was undoubtedly tired after Wales' mid-week match, and "le Professeur" is probably resting the youngster for the Champions League match against Marseille midweek.

Also, Yossi Benayoun did not play for long enough to have a real impact on the game.

Forwards

A negative point, however, is on the topic of Theo Walcott.

For a long time now, the young Englishman has been getting loads of criticism due to his inability to use his speed to an advantage. 

Today was no different.

Walcott had one of his worst games of the season, as he was absent for some of the time. When he did get the ball, it wasn't much improvement. Walcott didn't know what to do or where to go and the runs he made off the ball were quite disappointing.

He must get better if he wants to improve his stature.

Of course, the most prominent positive point was Robin van Persie. The man sporting Arsenal's captain armband and had a fantastic game. Many people consider him today's man of the match. 

Van Persie's first goal was a good finish with his right foot and his second was a well-struck free kick, which ended up in the top corner.

The fact that he scored off a free kick is excellent, given that in the last few years, most of his free kicks have ended up missing by very little, but that's missing anyhow.

In my opinion, however, the moment of the match came within the first 10 minutes, when van Persie, who was about 15 yards out at a tough angle, floated a magical right-footed chip, which struck the crossbar.

In the past, he has called his right foot his "chocolate leg", and he has gotten much criticism for being "one-footed."

Hopefully for Arsenal, today's fantastic performance helps his confidence.

Like Arteta, Gervinho has been fantastic this season, but today he didn't do too much. He did make the assist to van Persie's first goal, but otherwise, not a lot.

Again, it's not a huge deal for the Gunners, because he will perform later on.

Substitute Andrei Arshavin was excellent, and showed that he might be a good impact sub for Wenger. He brought real fire to the team and had one run where his quick feet evaded three players, almost scoring.

He should be a consistent substitute.

Conclusion

One thing Arsenal did well yesterday is not something they do well normally.

After van Persie scored his second goal in the 82' minute, the Gunners held on to their lead and their goal was not bombarded constantly in the last few minutes.

Normally, the pressure is on them in the last few minutes and they get scored on after taking the lead.

Yesterday, they possessed well with Arshavin, Walcott and others at the end.

Of course, it wasn't a totally convincing win, given that the team faced a bad team without its best striker, but as they say, a win is a win.