All eyes were on Eduardo da Silva following Robin Van Persie’s lay off but unfortunately he was rather subdued during the game. Physically Eduardo doesn’t have the same presence as Van Persie and he is not the type of player to create chances for himself

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 0 – Premier League

Thank god the internationals are over with for a while. This is no coincidence that yet again we struggle away from home off the back of international football. How a team so in control of a game of football can come away without any points is beyond me.

I was very excited about the team sheet when I finally managed to get hold of the information. Ramsey starting in his favourite attacking midfield role and the fresh duo of Samir Nasri and Tomas Rosicky started ahead of Andrey Arshavin.

A very technical and creative if not physical team I thought to myself as the boys in blue trotted out onto the Sunderland turf. I was wrong with my assumption that Bacary Sagna would be rested for the more attack minded Emmanuel Eboue but Arsene continued with the trend of playing Sagna for away matches. I also thought that the experience of Mikel Silvestre would have been preferred at left full back but Arsene bravely plumped for Armand Traore who has just returned from injury, other than that my predicted team was correct.

I have been worried about the Sunderland game for a while now, more so than the Chelsea game which I have a strong belief that we will win but I feared Sunderland would take the game to us given the lack of preparation from our team due to many pointless trips from many of our squad members. The game started not as I imagined to be honest. I thought we may well see a bit of the Wolves treatment a few weeks ago, peg us back and bombard us with crosses from Reid, Richardson and Malbranque. Instead it was pretty much all Arsenal. We started moving the ball better than we have after many internationals where we have looked disjointed and rusty but the midfield kept the ball very well, the trouble was that the team did not show enough intensity in the final third of the pitch, not enough desire to get into the box and have attempts on the Sunderland goal.

All eyes were on Eduardo da Silva following Robin Van Persie’s lay off but unfortunately he was rather subdued during the game. Physically Eduardo doesn’t have the same presence as Van Persie and he is not the type of player to create chances for himself.

It could have been so different only five minutes into the game when Rosicky blasted at Fulop from close range following a flowing Arsenal move. I seem to remember Rosicky doing that a few times when instinctively striking the ball from inside the penalty area.

Steed Malbranque had a few far post volleys that he couldn’t control but apart from that they couldn’t get near our goal. They resorted to playing long balls over the top to try and find Bent but every pass was well dealt with from either Gallas or Vermaelen.

Eduardo had his first and pretty much only sight on goal just after the half hour mark. Song powered forward, driving through Sunderland which opened up space for Eduardo. Song and Eduardo exchanged passes and Eduardo ended up sidestepping an opponent and poking his shot wide when slightly off balanced. The chance was made from Song’s run through Sunderland and it was this which made me realise that we missed Abou Diaby. Defensively Diaby wasn’t missed as we pretty much handled everything that Sunderland had to offer but the team was full of tidy short passers, they lacked a different alternative, lacked a driving force in the center of midfield. It is often underestimated how many chances a player like that creates by making space for others. Abou Diaby does this often from attacking or even defensive positions where he breaks out and starts attacks.

His replacement, young Aaron Ramsey had an up and down game, giving possession away a little cheaply at times and not really adding enough cutting edge to our attacks but was also involved in some nice moves from the side, especially in the first half. The 18 year old has huge potential but at his age we will expect inconsistency.

I was hoping that Sunderland would tire during the second half which is usually the case when teams who work so hard on pressing Arsenal but instead they seemed to improve in the second half. Ramsey was replaced for Arshavin so Nasri who looked off the pace dropped back into central midfield.

Alex Song who was a booking away from missing the Chelsea game on Sunday had a storming match in midfield. His upper body strength on the ball is just amazing. He has a knack of getting himself wedged in between the player and the ball.

Chances were few and far between due to a mixture of a plucky Sunderland performance and an Arsenal attack that didn’t give enough.

Sunderland hadn’t had an attempt on our goal until Darren Bent headed a corner onto the chin of Fraizer Campbell and back to Bent who slid the ball over Almunia. Unfortunate, undeserved but yet again from a corner kick.

Walcott and Vela joined the attack to add some pace and directness to a static frontline and we looked more dangerous, although the ball didn’t always stick to Walcott.

Carlos Vela looked to be hacked down late on inside the penalty area, Campbell clearly missing the ball but surprise surprise nothing was given. Watching back on Football First on Sky Sports, it was not even mentioned afterwards, no hint of a replay or anything. Apparently penalties do not exist for Arsenal anymore. Since the Eduardo overreaction against Celtic, Arsenal are yet to gain a penalty after many clear calls.

So the team who have found goals so easy to come by struggled to trouble Fulop. The line up should have been strong enough to dismantle Sunderland, in fact strong enough to carve through most teams but something was missing. That something will have to be found against a rampant Chelsea who are the team in form right now.

Chelsea will not be treated the same at the Emirates, the team will be much more committed in their attacking play, The Chelsea game will not decide the season but it will be important with the west London club opening up an advantage at the top of the table.