Sunderland. The Positives and the Negatives!

Man Utd slipped up horribly earlier in the day so this win today puts us in position in which we have a great chance of getting close again. Rivals slipping up and Points aside, it was hard not to be affected our performance. Against Sunderland, Arsenal's performance was quite impressive but similarly quite alarming.

After the calamities of mid-week it was a good sign to see a high level of commitment in our play. We pressed and worked the ball well. The presence of Ramsey in the absence of Denilson was telling. Baring the odd poor pass, Ramsey was aggressive and assertive. Quite the opposite of the young Brazilian.

Song as always did a splendid job guarding the back four and Clichy seemed more confident than in recent outings. Over the ninety minutes our movement was impressive and we got into dangerous areas time and time again. Typical of course and all positive signs.

There were some rather depressing negatives however. The most apparent of all. Theo Walcott. He produced a dire performance. So much pace. So much space. So many misses. So many wrong decisions. So many times. His confidence is low and fan's confidence in him is also low. 

Today's match doesn't necessarily spell the end for him. He still has plenty of potential. But the notion of him being a 'key' Arsenal player is swiftly eroding. He is just an average young player at present. Nothing more. He still remains a successful blend of dire and wonderful. Such inconsistency has no place at this point in the season. Something which we also don't need is the awful Mikel Silvestre.

It's worrying that he can still remain anywhere near the first team. For someone who supposedly carries experience with him, he is a nervous wreck who greatly unsettles the team. He is always trying to play offside, he misses tackles, he mis-reads passes and he is being repeatedly caught for pace. He could have been the man who gifted Sunderland a point today. He was careless and nowhere near the assured aggression of Vermaelen. Oh, how we could do with another one of him.

The other concern which came out of today's performance was the same as always. How the goals will exactly come about. Against tougher defences, will we really be able to test the keeper and score? Bendtner was crucial today, but he never really seemed to get in many goal scoring positions which was disconcerting.

As Arsenal held on desperately during the closing stages, lacking the second goal, thoughts drifted to Porto. Arsenal need to score in the home match. Porto know that, and they are also aware that Arsenal are lacking in firepower, and they also know how vulnerable Arsenal are on the counter. Can Porto exploit our flaws like so many teams have done this season or can Arsene solve the problems?

Let's hope so. And let's also hope Silvestre never performs ever again.