Was it a routine victory or is there underlying issues to address?

Arsenal had a brilliant response to the defeat against Manchester United. They won their next three fixtures. Three different competitions, three different performances and three different scoreline’s. The important factor was the final results were a win and that would give them a huge boost as they head into that bit before the final stretch. February and March can make or break an entire season, Arsenal need to take each game as it comes and do what they can. There’s no Champions League football until mid March, which will also see the conclusion of the EFL Cup. By time the Champions League rolls around, we’d have eight Premier League games left in the season. As I mentioned earlier, we need to take each game as it comes and first up is Sunderland at home.

First Half

Arsenal started straight out the blocks with Kai Havertz sending a header wide of the post. It looked like it was going to set the tone for the match, but Brian Brobbey had an excellent chance to put Sunderland 1-0 up inside 10 minutes. David Raya fumbled a cross into the box and the ball landed at Brobbey’s feet. With no Raya in goal, the striker just needed to avoid a red shirt, but Havertz provided a crucial block and lines were cleared. The game opened up somewhat after that point with both sides enjoying possession. Sunderland pressed high, whereas the Gunners didn’t. I think Regis Le Bris was quite surprised how much his team saw the ball, Arsenal seemed content to allow the away side possession. But, the visitors couldn’t do much with it beyond a couple of half chances. The home side struggled to settle into a rhythm, but were afforded a few attempts from outside the box. Declan Rice curled one that flashed just wide of the post and then Gabriel Jesus rolled one into the keeper’s arms. The next opportunity fell to Martin Zubimendi who rifled a deadly shot towards goal. Robin Roefs couldn’t reach it and the ball smacked the post and fortunately deflected into the goal. A very clean strike, 1-0 Arsenal. The Black Cats tried to respond straight away, but Habib Diarra could only sting Raya’s hands. Following the save, Havertz had an opportunity to break away. He had Jesus up for support with Trossard, but opted for a strike from outside the box that almost bent into the top corner. Roefs was thankful it floated wide.

Second Half

Despite going a goal down just before half time, this seemed to rejuvenate Sunderland. They came out strong in the second half and really took the game to Arsenal. They had the first real chance of the half when Chemsdine Talbi struck a fierce effort on target. Raya had to get down low very quickly to make the stop. Thankfully there was a defender on hand to clear the lines. Sunderland maintained a quiet dominance on the ball, but they would only have one more shot in the game. This would lead me to believe that Arsenal almost allowed Sunderland to have the possession to force them out of the low block. It eventually worked as Viktor Gyokeres doubled Arsenal’s advantage in the 66th minute. The Gunners were probing for a good a few minutes, trying to work the space, but were repelled. However, Havertz was picked out, unmarked, in the box and he was able to slot the ball into Gyokeres’ stride. The striker got the ball out of his feet, but seemed to lose control at the crucial moment. However, he was able to latch his foot onto the ball and power an effort beyond the keeper. 2-0 Arsenal. The North London side kept finding more and space to attack into, but the away side did what they could to carve out an opportunity. Nothing fell their way, but they still forced the Arsenal defence into some last ditch tackles. It was Arteta’s men, though, that kept finding opportunities to score. Declan Rice spotted Eberechi Eze moving silently into the box and he was able to find him with a cute pass, Eze struck it first time, but it glided past the far post. The Gunners eventually found another way through the sturdy defence, but this time it was a long ball over the top that Gabriel Martinelli managed to retrieve. His strength and pace was key as he was able to break free from the defender. It seemed like perhaps the chance was getting away from him as the keeper closed down the angle and the defender was just starting to creep around the side. Martinelli knew Gyokeres was in a far better position to score, so the ball landed at the striker’s feet and he provided the finishing touch. 3-0 Arsenal. The Brazilian had one more chance, but his effort was easily saved. That was it, Arsenal were victorious.

Statistics

The statistics perhaps tell a different story to what we saw, but it underlines the fact that Arsenal never truly let the game get away from them. The Gunners had 16 shots with 5 on target. This generated an xG of 1.49 and 1 big chance created. Sunderland had just 5 shots with 3 on target. This generated them an xG of 0.19 with 1 big chance created.

Player Ratings

Starting XI

Raya – 6 – He made a very good save in the 2nd half, but was quite shaky for a few moments. One moment almost cost Arsenal a goal, but he was bailed out by Havertz.

Timber – 7 – He battled well down the right, like he always does. He was also decent going forward, but nothing spectacular. He linked up well with Madueke.

Saliba – 6 – He had some good moments, but similar to Raya, he was shaky. Brian Brobbey fought with him and Saliba struggled with it. Saliba doesn’t often get bullied, but there was a number of times he was in this one. He picked up a yellow card too.

Gabriel – 8 – I don’t think the Arsenal defence had a particularly good game, most of Sunderland’s chances came from mistakes from the defence. But, Gabriel was the best out of them. He made one crucial challenge to deny a clear chance. He also battled with Brobbey, but didn’t allow himself to get bullied. A real captain’s performance.

Calafiori – 5 – His worst game in an Arsenal shirt. He was decent going forward, but was a disaster in defence. For some reason he really struggled to handle Habib Diarra. His mistakes were almost costly, unusually shaky.

Zubimendi – 8 – He opened the scoring with a sweet strike and that’s enough for me. What I will say is that he seemed more progressive in his passing and it felt like he wanted to receive the ball. Much improved on his performance against Chelsea.

Rice – 7 – His engine is incredible and every game we see the best of it. He was constantly breaking up play in the middle and he seemed more determined to make things happen in attack. He almost grabbed an assist, but Eze dragged his shot wide.

Havertz – 7 – I really like the way he glides between the lines. He often finds spaces that hardly anyone else does. This is the reason we scored our second goal. His movement in the box allowed himself to be unmarked and he provided the pass for Gyokeres’ goal. He just gets involved in all phases of play and we’ve missed that.

Madueke – 6 – He’s all for trying to make things happen, but he was regularly doubled up on by the Sunderland defence. When he was able to break free, the final ball lacked conviction.

Jesus – 5 – Considering his goal against Leeds, he clearly offers something that not a lot of others can provide. We didn’t see it here and was found to be offside a majority of the time. He wasn’t able to provide the hold up play required to progress the team forward.

Trossard – 8 – It’s a shame that he had to be taken off with injury in the end, because he had a good game. He had more success up against the Sunderland than Madueke did. He was instrumental for Gyokeres’ first goal and Zubimendi’s goal. His delay to slot the pass into the Spaniard was the reason he had enough space to get the shot off. Coming back to his best, hopefully the injury is just a dead leg.

Substitutes

Gyokeres – 9 (MOTM) – Outside of his goals, his hold up play was excellent. He’s winning his duels and providing a solid outlet. Then you add in his goals and you had an almost complete striker performance that helped alleviate the nerves around the Emirates. Feed him the ball and he will score.

Martinelli – 8 – There’s not many players that are better off the bench than Martinelli. He’s so relentless in attack, it must be horrible being a defender and knowing you’ve got Martinelli closing you down, especially after a tough afternoon already. He’s strong, fast and can provide technical qualities. The third goal only happens because of the Brazilians tenacity.

Eze – 7 – He was the final piece of quality we needed to take the game away from Sunderland. He should’ve had an assist, but Martinelli couldn’t provide the finish.

Hincapie – 7 – He steadied the defence and helped get the clean sheet over the line. He was tenacious enough to remove the threat of Nilson Angulo, Sunderland’s new winger.

Norgaard – N/A –

Summary

While it wasn’t a vintage performance, we did what we had to do and come away with a convincing result. We also never really looked like conceding, outside of that Brobbey chance in the first half. I do feel if we attempted to dominate the entire game then we wouldn’t have won 3-0, I feel as though allowing Sunderland possession forced them out of any low block. What I also enjoyed was the players shooting from range. Too often we try to walk the ball into the net and this time we benefitted from it. Zubimendi unleashed an awesome strike to put us 1-0 up. Rice and Havertz both teased some excellent chances, but were inches off target. The win has temporarily put us nine points clear at the top which throws the pressure back on Manchester City, who haven’t played Liverpool at the time of writing this. Clearly a loss for City will strengthen our position, but if they win tonight and against Fulham on Wednesday night, they’ll only be three points behind us. We also face Brentford away, who are in scintillating form. The league is far from over, but we need to keep putting ourselves in the best possible positions, winning will allow that. Here’s how I’d lineup for Brentford away.

Arsenal Predicted Lineup

As much as rotation is key, we actually have a nice gap before we play Brentford. It’s almost a week before we play again and we can afford to stick our strongest team out there due to facing Wigan at home in FA Cup on Sunday 15th. We can heavily rotate for that Wigan fixture and still come away with a convincing win. The likes of Jesus, Norgaard, Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera can feature. We can also put some academy lads in there to bolster out the starting XI. Brentford are in excellent form and we need our best out there, we can’t really afford to rotate. This will also give the core of the squad a week off before we face Wolves on Wednesday 18th. It’ll be an away fixture. Hopefully we can welcome back Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard in that period of time. We should also see Max Dowman return to training in that time too. Of course we have to wait for Leandro Trossard’s diagnosis, but fingers crossed it isn’t serious. Let’s get it!