Arsenal Stumble Against Sunderland: Luck, Dismissal, Injury, Dubious Decisions

Arsenal’s travel to the unwelcoming Stadium of Light must have been filled with hope, and yet, with determination to come home with all the three points. They must have known a difficult fight was ahead of them. What they probably did not know was that they would have to do it without their captain Cesc Fabregas for the bigger part of the game, and with a player less than the opposition.

First whistle blown, Lady Luck smiled on the Gunners.

After an attempted clearance by Anton Ferdinand, the ball bounced off the foot of Cesc Fabregas, travelled about 40 yards, and landed in the net behind Sunderland keeper Simon Mignolet.

What a curious way to open the scoring, indeed. But what is strange about luck is that it comes and goes at the most unexpected moments.

Twenty minutes after the goal, Cesc signalled for a substitution. Tomas Rosicky came in to replace the captain who had received some type of injury in the deflection-caused goal.

The huge blow changed the game of the Gunners and they gave the initiative to their opponents.

Smelling blood, Sunderland immediately reacted and launched themselves forward like mad. Facing the oncoming pressure, the Gunners did not fold, managing to keep the defence organised and minimizing the mistakes to a minimum. Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia had to make some crucial interventions and he did his job without a flinch.

But the wheel had started turning.

Alex Song stole a ball from a Sunderland player in the midfield, but then referee Phil Dowd blew his whistle after the player went down. Song reacted angrily enough to spur Dowd into booking him.

Song’s reaction was partly justified by the replays which showed there was no contact between Song and the fouled player, but Dowd’s mind was in another dimension.

After the half-time talks, Arsenal came out a transformed team with one thing in mind: to finish the game off.

Ten minutes deep into the second half, Sunderland repelled another Gunner attack and started to organize a counter-attack. The already-booked Alex Song had little time to move out of the way of speeding Steed Malbranque and a foul was awarded. What was strange was that Phil Dowd decided the action of Song was worthy of being showed a second yellow card. Considering the easy first yellow card, many would find Dowd decision doubtful.

Arsenal was left to deal with hyper-active opposition with ten men until the end of the match. Sunderland mounted pressure, and on several occasions came very close to scoring.

The hostile atmosphere, though, turned out to be the perfect environment for the new figures in the Arsenal defence to show what they can do. Laurent Koscielny, Bakary Sagna, Manuel Almunia, and Sebastien Squillaci all battled well to protect the fragile lead of their team. Gael Clichy made a few mistakes, but nothing that could not be repaired by his well-performing team-mates.

With 20 minutes left, the referee was close enough to see Samir Nasri getting tripped inside the Sunderland box and awarded a penalty to Arsenal.

The weight of the task fell on the substituting captain’s shoulders—Tomas Rosicky. However, it was too much for him and he squandered the perfect opportunity to end the argument.

Stress continued to mount and all hell broke loose seconds after the decided injury time ran out. In a huge melee in the Arsenal end, the ball found its way to Darren Bent after shaky clearance by Gael Clichy, 1-1.

A point to each side.

Arsenal may regret missing the golden chances to finish the game off. That, along with some dubious decisions by the referee, leaves them one point behind league leaders Chelsea who have a game in hand.

Arsenal: Four Things We Learned From the Gunners' Visit To Anfield

he first brick of Arsenal's newest Premier League campaign was laid yesterday in front of a uncomfortable crowd of Liverpool fans jam-packing the mythical Anfield. The match was going to be tough and all the players and managerial staff knew it.

As the game progressed, an image, differing from the one pundits and fans had in their minds, began to form.

With a pretty evenly distributed arms between the two teams, the skirmish finished in justified stalemate, 1-1. The boredom of the result was dispersed by the affairs that unfolded in front of the- content-to-see-the-beginning-of-the-new-season football fans.

Four events, especially, pointed the direction of a truth-seeking gaze – truths that may just well lead to repairing the past mistakes or foretelling the outcome for the teams and new season.



An Average Arsenal without Captain Cesc Fabregas

After Wenger's statements in early preseason preparation, it was hardly surprising to see that two of the most important players for Arsenal were not going to take part in the season opening game at Anfield. Leaving Robin van Persie on the bench, and team captain Cesc Fabregas completely out of the squad, Arsene Wenger stayed true to his intentions to give them a good rest after a tiring World Cup.

That inevitably affected Arsenal.

At times, despite the creative flair of Samir Nasri, and Andrey Arshavin, the Gunners looked unimaginative and dull. Simple short passes and persistence through the centre, especially in the first half, painted the picture of a team trying to keep possession but lacking sharpness to capitalize from it at the same time.

The final touch was missing. The distributions to the lone striker upfront were predictable and easy to deal with for the experienced Liverpool backs.

Someone with vision was missing to wreak havoc in the Liverpool defense with a well executed through or high balls. Someone exactly like Fabregas.

The team needs him, for his absence was once again felt on the field. Despite grabbing a valuable point in a difficult encounter, the staff must work throughout the season to ensure that the team will not fall into the void of relying on a single player.



New Signings Ready for the Premier League Challenge

Arsene Wenger is known for his accurate assessment of talent and right qualities when looking for possible team-upgrading players. Maybe he has succeeded in doing that yet again.

Maroune Chamakh looked like exactly the type of weapon Arsenal needs for its attack. His energy and fearless commitments to clashes provided another dimension for the Gunners's game. And in one such case, it proved to be crucial for the final result.

Maroune lurched forward to meet Pepe Reina for a 50-50 ball, won it, and following Reina's mistake, evened the result near the end of the game.

The other signing, Lauren Koscielny, also put up a good official debut. His performance was tainted only by the second yellow card he received in injury time.

Near the end of the first half, he felt what was like to play in the Premier League when new Liverpool addition Joe Cole made a committed tackle that missed the ball, landing on the French defender's right leg.

If it hadn't been the protecting pads, Koscielny's career at Arsenal could have been brought to an abrupt setback. But he found strength to go back and finished the game with a resolute facial expression.

While it's too early to conclude whether the new signings are a success, they must be credited for their good start. “A piece of English football; we are not afraid to taste it.”

Once again, well done, Mr. Wenger.


The Gunners Face a Familiar Season of Pain Yet Again

The excessive use of force to disrupt the technical game of the men clad in red and white has turned into something of a trade mark for the opposing teams. And how can you blame them? It has worked miracles so far with its efficiency.

The tactics look bound to stay the same this season. A single game has passed, and we already see the signs of concern.

Joe Cole's tackle on Lauren Koscielny and Steven Gerrard's sweep on Maroune Chamakh are just the beginning. The Arsenal players have to toughen up in order to deal with this problem. But that is not the only solution.

The referees must be more strict and able to differentiate between commitment and just pure ill-intended aggression. Something they have failed to do on numerous occasions in the previous years.

One thing is certain: the Gunners will have to test their pain threshold once again, and hopefully, this time, they'll come out on top with no major casualties.



Scoring Goals Out of the Blue Can Make the Difference

We all know that the difference between a good team and the champion is that the champion will score important goals even when they do not deserved to. How many times have we seen Manchester United or Chelsea play bad and be victorious?

This is exactly what happened with Arsenal on Saturday.

That's not to say they didn't deserve the draw, but they were certainly heading for a defeat had it not been the lucky Chamakh intervention that lead to the mistake of Pepe Reina.

If Arsenal can sustain the spirit they showed against Liverpool, luck just might turn the tide this season.

One game – a tough one – one point. It's not what someone would call a disappointment.

Arsenal’s Britannia Stadium Battle: A Catalyst for Reinstating Self-Belief

I am not going to talk about Aaron Ramsey’s injury—all kinds of opinions have flown around the web so far. I am not going to talk about the result and the three points that Arsenal managed to snatch from that battle—and I mean the literal meaning of the word battle—on the Britannia Stadium either.

I am going to talk about team spirit, change, experience, motivation, and mentality.

Just before the game with Stoke, it was believed Arsenal had a chance for the title. And why wouldn’t it? They had the easiest match program of all their title-rivals with only one potentially harm-causing game—the one against fierce rivals Tottenham Hotspur on their own stadium.

While it was expected the match against Stoke to be a hard one, no one really believed that it would be much harder than what their first initials impressions were.

Arsenal was, literally, in for a battle.

It did not come as a surprise to see Stoke fighting in all areas of the field, causing all kinds of troubles to Arsenal. Then something happened, something familiarly—if I may call it this way—horrific.

Another terrible leg-break—this time to youngster Aaron Ramsey.

It was an event that revealed the real growth of maturity of the Arsenal players.

Facing yet another shocking sight, it was normal to see scared, distraught, and filled with ghastliness faces. The reactions were expected, but how the players responded was a completely different thing.

Nicklas Bedntner, still visibly shocked, stayed with Ramsey along with Stoke’s Glenn Whelan, and tried to comfort him. Emmanuel Eboue joined him only seconds later. Thomas Vermaelen was holding his face trying to make sense of the horror he had just witnessed. Later in an interview, he said: “I heard a strange noise and after that I saw his [Aaron Ramsey’s] leg.”

The shock was everywhere. Cesc Fabregas, the team captain, was angry at first, then confused, and then worried. Almost all players were holding their heads.

As the commotion of the initial shock started to fade, the players on the field were left with questions. What were they to do now? It is then when signs of maturity and mental strength began to spring up in the Arsenal team.

Gael Clichy, calmness returned, started to rally the troops up. He patted Vermaelen on the stomach saying, “Come on, come on!”

As Ramsey was still being tendered the Arsenal physios, Vermaelen was trying to regain control of himself. What I saw seconds later startled me. Still covering his mouth with his hands, thoughts visibly flying in the Belgian defender’s head, he frowned, picked his head up, and all was gone except determination.

There was not a trace of emotion left on his face. He was once again the Verminator.
The match resumed and there was work to do.

Wenger’s men knew that they had to overcome the shock. Memories from the match against Birmingham two years ago when Eduardo da Silva’s leg was almost split in two still haunted them. They weren’t able to recover from the shock then, played with lack of desire caused by the fear that the sight of an open fracture instilled in them.

This time it was different. They put their fears aside and finished the game off.
Close to the end of the game, Cesc Fabregas demonstrated why he is captain of this team.

He took the penalty that was given by referee Peter Walton with composure that a stone would have been proud of. Later, he even dared to demonstrate just how Tony Pulis’s tactics worked, which earned him a few colorful phrases from the Stoke city manager—an action that might as well have earned him a yellow card.

Thomas Vermaelen capitalized on his determination by scoring a goal. You could see just how much this game meant to the Gunners as they celebrated the goal in a fashion much similar to the celebrations of goals scored in the final minutes of the Champions League final.

It meant a lot. And how couldn’t it?

It wasn’t just goal. The meaning was much deeper.

It was a triumph of their characters over the most difficult of obstacles—the fight with oneself; it was a reinstatement of their self-belief.

The goal was the climax of a test of mentality. Arsene Wenger was right: His team is much more mentally tough than one year ago. The unity is unbelievable.

The smiles were for all to see. Team captain Cesc Fabregas went on to congratulate his team-mates on a job well-done, and then he and Clichy called everyone over and had a group hug.

Britannia Stadium was a battle ground. Arsenal left casualties there, but they came out of the skirmish stronger. Aaron Ramsey is a cause now. And the Premier League title still waits for its next engraved name.

It might just be Arsenal FC.