Arsenal Draw 1-1 Amid Late Drama at Sunderland

In my preview of yesterday's game I thought that the boss would keep with the side that performed so well against Braga on Wednesday night, and that's exactly what he did. In stark contrast to the Braga game, though, Arsenal just didn't get going and were treated to a fairly drab affair where the outcome was down to slices of luck which were both good and bad.

In the first half, Arsenal's play was truly awful and we didn't look like a team who were in second place in the league and had just won our midweek Champions league game, 6-0.

From what I heard, Sunderland didn't water the pitch before the game and kept the grass as long as they could get away with in an attempt to slow down our passing game. That can't have been the reason why so many Arsenal passes went astray though or why Arsenal players were continually caught in possession in that first half.

With the game less than 15 minutes old we got our big slice of luck as Cesc closed down an attempted clearance from Ferdinand. He was 40 yards from the Sunderland goal but when he blocked the ball it flew goalward and looped over the keeper for a fluky goal to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead.

However, Lady Luck is never that kind to Arsenal and Cesc could be seen holding the back of his leg as he celebrated. He was substituted soon afterwards with what appears to be a hamstring injury although there are reports that he merely came off as a precaution and he won't be out for too long.

With a lead to defend I hoped that Arsenal would try to hit Sunderland on the break and I also wondered just how long Sunderland could keep up their very high tempo and their pressing of Arsenal.

At least we had Rosicky to replace Cesc and although he's not as good as Cesc (who is?), he had played very well in his other games so far this season. As it turned out though Arsenal didn't get into their stride at all for the remainder of the first half and Sunderland retained the initiate despite trailing 1-0.

I was happy to see half time arrive and I hoped that the boss would have a few well chosen words with the team and get them to up their performance to the required level. The second half started better for Arsenal as Arshavin had a couple of chances and Chamakh had one too but then the game took another turn for the worse from an Arsenal perspective.

Song had committed a few fouls in the first half and when he was eventually booked it was no surprise at all although I thought the incident where he received the booking was definitely not a foul. It would seem Song agreed with me and his show of dissent didn't help matters.

The referee indicated that he booked him for persistent fouling but I think the hand flailing and feet stamping had an influence on him too. That meant that Song was walking a little bit of a tightrope and had to choose his tackles carefully but it would seem that everybody but the player himself was aware of that fact.

When he was nutmegged by Marlbranque early in the second half, he instinctively stepped across him to halt his progress and the referee had little choice but to issue him with a second yellow card and send him for an early bath.

Song should have known better but he is still young and relatively inexperienced at this level and hopefully he can learn from his mistake. I'm not going to criticise him too much for it as I thought we actually played better after he was sent off and the other players put more into their game.

It would appear that the boss agrees with the majority of fans as the first thing he did when Song was sent off was replace Arshavin with Denilson. At this stage the majority of fans are of the opinion that Arshavin doesn't give everything he has when he's out there. It's well and good for him to say that he's carrying a few pounds extra and a bit short of fitness but it's about time he did something about it.

He was as in and out of the game as usual yesterday, and although he looked a little more dangerous in the second half nobody could argue that he should have stayed on when we went down to 10 men.

As Sunderland tired both Nasri and Rosicky got more of a hold in midfield and they were ably assisted by Wilshere who was far better in the second half. Chamakh worked tirelessly for the team as always although he looked like he didn't know what to do when he had his one on one with the keeper.

With roughly 15 minutes to go Arsenal got the chance to wrap things up when Nasri was taken down in the box and the referee correctly awarded us a penalty. With Cesc and Arshavin both off the pitch nobody was sure who would step up to take it, but personally I hoped Nasri would be the man.

However, it would seem that the tradition of the player who is fouled not taking the penalty continues as Rosicky was the man given the responsibility from 12 yards.

Unfortunately, his effort was blazed over the bar and the score stayed at 2-1 to Arsenal which gave Sunderland renewed hope that might get something out of the game. Arsenal continued to do what was required but you got the feeling that there was another twist to come at some stage. When the 90 minutes were up the board showed four added minutes to be played and nerves were getting a little frayed in the supporters club.

As time was almost up Sunderland won a corner and Arsenal managed to clear it so we all expected to hear the final whistle. Three Arsenal players chased down Zenden as the ball came to him, but he managed to hoof it to just outside the box where a Sunderland player rose unchallenged to head it into the danger area.

As the ball dropped Squillaci tried to clear it but it hit a Sunderland player, before falling to Clichy. As he attempted to clear it with his right foot he was fouled by Gyan and it meant he didn't get enough behind the ball. It also hit Koscielny before falling to Bent who blasted it home.

The boss was furious but the referee had only played 15 seconds over the allotted four minutes and he should have saved his ire for the Arsenal players who switched off when the corner was cleared. Clearly, like the rest of us, a few of them thought the referee would blow for full-time, but he didn't and we were outnumbered in our own box when that last ball came in.

It felt like two points dropped rather than a point gained from a ground where we have struggled in the past but it means that we are still in second place and whatever happens next week we will still be behind Chelsea before we play them the week after.

There's a few other points from the game that I want to go into but I'll leave them until tomorrow when I will also give my rundown of the weekend's results and the fantasy football standings.

See You Tomorrow.