Arsenal Show Signs Of Improvement With A 1-1 Draw at Sunderland

There were lots of talking points surrounding the Arsenal-Sunderland match last Sunday:

The decision by referee Phil Dowd to play on past the allotted four-minute minimum of injury time and the subsequent last-gasp equaliser from Darren Bent.

The decision to send off Alex Song for two innocuous-looking yellow cards.

The penalty awarded to Arsenal and Tomas Rosicky’s lack of composure from 12 yards.

These are but the main talking points and much will be said of Arsenal’s failure to take three points from the match leaving them four adrift of Chelsea already after just five games.

Imagine however that Phil Dowd had blown his whistle when Marouane Chamakh cleared Sunderland’s 95th minute corner.

Imagine if you will that the ball had not fallen kindly at the feet of Darren Bent allowing the Sunderland man to snatch a point at the death for his team. What would have been the hot topic of discussion then?

I would suggest that Arsenal, as serious title challengers, would be given a little more press coverage, but unfortunately for Arsenal, Darren Bent did pop up with a last-minute equaliser and Arsenal’s hard work up until that point went to waste.

No resilience and an inability to win when not playing well is a criticism often labeled at Arsene Wenger’s side.

Certainly last year results would suggest that part of their inability to challenge for the title was due to their slip-ups away at places like Sunderland where they lost 1-0.

A last-minute equaliser conceded to Birmingham, drawing at Upton Park having been 2-0 up, and a 1-1 draw away at Burnley after taking the lead shows that Arsenal were lacking a grit, stability, and determination to eke out a result away from home.

Again this was their downfall on Sunday, however this time Arsenal played out almost the whole second half with just 10 men.

They weathered the storm, taking every hit Sunderland could throw at them and lest we forget this is a Sunderland side that have only lost two of their last 13 home league matches.

The new defensive pairing of Laurent Koscielny and Sebastien Squillaci comfortably dealt with everything that came their way.

In midfield young Jack Wilshere stood up to be counted and in fact when a change needed to be made it was Andrey Arshavin who made way for Denilson.

Upfront Marouane Chamakh showed why Wenger patiently waited over a year to get his man for everything that was lumped the Moroccan’s way was brought down, be it by chest, head, or thigh, held up and played on.

Arsenal finally has a big man who can provide an outlet for them when needed. This was an Arsenal performance that deserves some merit despite the final score line.

Yes you can argue that Arsenal got lucky themselves with a fluke of the highest order for their opening goal and that in actual fact they didn’t hold out for the win.

However in years gone by, when Alex Song saw red with 40 minutes still remaining, one would have expected Arsenal to crumble under such pressure and lose this game.

Wenger has shown enormous faith in his squad over the last few years building up their experience slowly but surely and on Sunday they very nearly did come away with a result that in years gone by they certainly wouldn’t have.

We have this year already seen numerous examples of the beautiful game at the Emirates.

Sunday was an example that to all intents and purposes Arsenal are nearly there, that they do have it in them to win ugly, and if they can find a way to win a few games of this nature then it may just be, come the end of the season, they will be picking up some silverware.