The best part of the game was our 3rd goal scored by our bouncy haired Czech. He let all the creative players around him borrow it for a second before taking it on and dinking over the advancing keeper. Wilshere into Rosicky to Cazorla back to Wilshere who laid it back first time on his weaker foot into Rosicky who was striding forward, then it was one more one-two with Giroud before lifting it over the keeper, a little like he managed to do against Tottenham this season. A beautiful team goal and a goal that Rosicky fully deserved on the day. He wasn’t flashy (goal aside) but he was subtly perfect. Every pass was sharp, his movements into space to receive passes, his tireless running. He may not always get all the credit but Tomas Rosicky makes those around him play better

I really enjoyed what Arsenal served up in that first half today. If I was to be brutally honest with you I would admit that due to our results I have kept a lid on it but for the most part I haven’t been very entertained this season. There are the obvious exceptions of course. Napoli, Liverpool, Norwich, Tottenham at home, Cardiff, Fulham and a few others away but I have been spoilt on Wengerball over the years, so while the wins have continued, I have turned a blind eye while thumbing up our league position.

I am sure I have muttered the words ‘it’s just about the three points’ during various times this season but that really isn’t very true at all. The possession and organised behind the ball football was a little like a bowl of cornflakes without the sugar. I needed it to keep me going and I love cornflakes but, you know? I kinda need it to be a little more sweeter, a little more enjoyable.

Arsène Wenger rang in the changes today after a grueling 10 man chasing at the hands of the team who have the highest ball possession in the Champions League this season. Mass changes have often been met with worry or concern but this season it has served us well.

Only at home to Chelsea in the Capital One Cup has a lot of changes lead to defeat. I have deleted many an Arsenal match from my Sky + box to save space because I can access them online on Arsenal Player but the one game I find it difficult to delete is the Tottenham game on January 4th. Serge Gnabry, Lukasz Fabianski, Thomas Vermaelen and Theo Walcott as a centre forward all started the game which caused the usual Twitter pre game frenzy but that was one of our best displays of the season. We played some of our best attacking football that day.

Fast forward to the game today and we saw Yaya Sanogo, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mathieu Flamini, Kieran Gibbs and of course Mesut Özil replaced by Oliver Giroud, Lukas Podolski, Mikel Arteta, Nacho Monreal and Tomas Rosicky. The fear with that many changes is that the team may lose a little bit of team chemistry but not this team.

I thought we started the game very positively. Pressed them high up the pitch, a feature we seem to miss when Tomas Rosicky is not starting as the number 10, I don’t know if that is linked or not. We passed the ball sharply and did all we could to win the ball back early. I love when we play like that, it makes me feel confident that we will win regardless of who we are playing.

4 minutes had barely registered on the clock before Rosicky flicked a pass into Wilshere’s path, the ball didn’t run for him but fell kindly to Giroud to slot in from close range. Did Wilshere try to get a shot away that was blocked, or did he mean the cut back to Giroud?

At the time it didn’t feel like we had scored that early, the game gets you in a strange trance where all your senses around you get screwed, or maybe it is just me.

Sunderland may have been distracted by upcoming cup fixtures but it is not always easy to know how poor the opposition were or how good Arsenal were on any given day. A good way to gauge how good Arsenal are is by the speed of the passing and the intensity in the defending off the ball. I was very happy with both throughout the match.

Giroud was gifted a second after a very poor back pass. Credit to Rosicky who shut down the passing angles before the pass back. It is not the first time we have benefited from pressing the opposition into mistakes. Like I said, I like that!

The best part of the game was our 3rd goal scored by our bouncy haired Czech. He let all the creative players around him borrow the ball for a second before taking it on and dinking over the advancing keeper. Wilshere into Rosicky to Cazorla back to Wilshere who laid it back first time on his weaker foot into Rosicky who was striding forward, then it was one more one-two with Giroud before lifting it over the keeper, a little like he managed to do against Tottenham this season.

A beautiful, beautiful team goal and a goal that Rosicky fully deserved on the day. He wasn’t flashy (goal aside) but he was subtly perfect. Every pass was sharp, his movements into space to receive passes, his tireless running. He may not always get all the credit but Tomas Rosicky makes those around him play better. It is no coincidence that most of our best displays are when he is in the team.

Jack Wilshere was another who I thought was magnificent. He kept skating past Sunderland players which gave us spaces in the final third that wouldn’t have been there without those driving runs. He played a major part in two of the goals and it is great to see him shaking off earlier rust from a few weeks back.

Koscielny headed in the 4th from a Santi corner. The marking on him was pretty damn awful to be honest. Emanuele Giaccherini smashed in a late consolation goal for the visitors which is a bit of a shame. We were looking unbreachable at home until recently. Now we have conceded in our last three home matches. There were some injury scares as both Koscielny and Monreal had to be replaced due to injury. With Vermaelen out, that would leave us very short but according to ze boss, those two will be back for the next game.

So all in all it was a good and much needed three points. We will face stronger challenges in the coming weeks for sure so restoring some belief as well as playing some good attacking football on Dennis Bergkamp day will make us all feel a little better going into a new week.

Have a read of this weeks Sunderland Q&A

’till the next time.