Theo Walcott was getting slated following a dragged thirty-yard effort. The kid is only 19, we can’t expect him to be Superman every game; we can’t expect a Croatia-esque hat-trick every time he steps onto the pitch

Match Review – Sunderland 1 Arsenal 1 – Premier League

Reading the headline, you might think it is sensationalist. “From the brink?” – I hear you ask. Well, yes. They say you can’t win the league in the first ten games, but you can certainly lose it. And defeat here against Sunderland would have been a very early – yet hugely resounding – nail in the coffin. Three defeats from seven games is not the form becoming of champions. Thankfully that situation did not arise here, but despite salvaging something, the signs are not looking good.

Following the Porto victory that went halfway to purging the hellish memory of Hull, we made one change: Song for Nasri. In hindsight it was a disappointing one to make as we lacked Samir’s creativity from the wide positions, but at the time I’m sure Arsene thought it was the correct decision to make. The only problem with was that our in-form striker Robin van Persie was shunted out to the left. Mean Lean has said it countless times that RvP is half the player coming from that position, and he’s spot on. I’d rather see him in behind Ade and linking the play between midfield and attack, or, failing that, cutting from the right onto his favoured left peg. But from the left-wing and given his lack of raw speed, he is unable to zoom past his man on the outside so more often than not the play tends to slow down when it goes through him.

We didn’t start on fire, but it seemed like the players were relatively up for it and were not going to put in an abject performance like against Fulham. The defence was tested early on when Whitehead ran through on goal but Kolo timed his tackle to perfection. Claims for a penalty were correctly waved away by the ref. It’s not surprise that all this happened when Gallas was off the pitch changing his shoes. This is not the first time something like this has occurred: against Blackburn he went off the pitch briefly (not sure why) and we nearly conceded, and I think he had the same footwear problem against Porto on Wednesday. Sort it out before the game please, skipper.

Three things struck me early on during the game: Denilson had given the ball away cheaply on a few occasions, Sagna was getting forward a lot and putting in many crosses but there was little conviction from the striker(s) to attack them, and Theo was looking quiet. The third of those observations was nearly horribly changed on the quarter-hour however. Having done well to get back into the defensive third, Walcott managed to turn out of trouble before sending a suicidal backpass to the defence. Djibril Cisse pounced but Almunia saved his low shot with an outstretched leg. No less than a minute later Cisse threatened again – this time a fierce twenty-yard effort tipped over the bar by our Spanglish keeper.

The half seemed to pass by with little of note. Song was looking solid, if unspectacular, in midfield. His defensive game seems to be a mixture of Flamini and Gilberto: able to harry opponents whilst also having that “Invisible Wall” quality to cut off angles.

As I was streaming the game I simultaneously followed the banter on BBC Sport, and was pretty dismayed to read that Theo Walcott was getting slated following a dragged thirty-yard effort. The kid is only 19, we can’t expect him to be Superman every game; we can’t expect a Croatia-esque hat-trick every time he steps onto the pitch. And while he was not at his best, he was clearly a threat and provided us with our best moment of the half on 38 minutes. Having manufactured some space, he sent in a dangerous low cross that Craig Gordon parried. Had the keeper missed it, Robin was on hand to knock it home. Denilson rather scuffed an effort wide in first-half injury time, and that was that.

As the rain continued to teem down, it was again Theo who picked up the baton at the beginning of the second-half as he sent in another dangerous cross. This time nobody was there to meet it – a clear disadvantage of playing with only one striker, especially when he tends to get involved quite a bit in the build-up. This was a feature of the match as too often we’d get in a cross but have too few bodies in the box to pose a threat.

That said, we had started the second-half a lot brighter and really bossed proceeding for the first fifteen minutes. Such spells in games away from home are a rarity and we need to make the most of them, just like we did at Bolton and came away with two goals. We (maybe) should have had one here. Theo got the better of his man and wrapped his foot around the ball to send a dangerous ball into the centre, where Robin pounced to arrow it into the back of the net. But the linesman had already flagged to insinuate that the ball had gone out before Theo crossed it. Initial replays proved inconclusive, although I am led to believe that the goal should have stood. Bollocks.

Ade had a speculative volley minutes later that Gordon spilled but again no strikers were close enough to take advantage. And then after the hour Sunderland came back into the game, beginning with a long-range Kieran Richardson effort that tested Manuel’s handling and an Andy Reid free-kick that the keeper caught well.

With little happening in the final third for us, Le Boss sent on Bendtner for Walcott and then Nasri for Denilson. Both subs had an impact: Nasri got into the box but his right-footed poke was weak – a left-footed lash might have been a better bet; whilst Bendtner smartly created space for himself 25-yards out but his shot was wild.

Bendtner is massively underrated, I feel. Last season I (partly tongue-in-cheek) mentioned that he was akin to the great Dennis Bergkamp in the way he could drop off the front and feed balls through. He has proved this during pre-season and in the early parts of this campaign, especially with Carlos Vela. He has also forged a decent understanding with his best mate Adebayor, and the two combined well on 82 minutes to send RvP racing through on goal, but his right-footed effort was straight at Craig Gordon. Had it been on his good foot then the finish would have been much more measured, but a player of his class should being converting such chances regardless of what side it is on. The best move of the match, it was deserving of a goal.

Said goal, however, did come a few minutes later. Unfortunately for us it fell to the home side. Last week I remarked how we only conceded screamers and from set-pieces. Having dealt with the latter pretty comfortably all game, we fell prey to the former. Local lad Leadbitter, a substitute for the tireless and timeless Dwight Yorke, received the ball after sloppy play in the Arsenal midfield and unleashed an unsavable strike that cannoned off the underside of the bar and into the goal. His name was very appropriate: Sunderland took the lead and I was bitter. It was obviously a big moment for the lad: the emotion on his face when he celebrated was almost Fabregas-esque.

You may have noticed that this is the first time I have mentioned Cesc Fabregas during this match report, and that is largely because he had an off-day by his standards. But when in desperate need, he came up with the goods.

Sunderland’s goal had belatedly stirred us into life. Time was against us, however. With three of the four added minutes having already elapsed, we won a corner. As you know, we are not exactly hotshots from set-pieces. But this time we delivered, and it was from the most unlikely of sources.

A van Persie corner was actually neither overhit nor underhit, and of all people to leap like a salmon and meet it was the smallest man on the pitch. Cesc powered it home (Ade, Kolo and Gallas, take note) to salvage a deserved point for the Arse. I say deserved because, although we did not show enough guile in the final third to merit all three points, we did have a seemingly legitimate goal ruled out and the defence was pretty solid, only falling foul of a wonder goal.

A defeat would have been an unmitigated disaster – all the moreso because it would have been undeserved. Like I’ve already mentioned, we were decent defensively and had a goal disallowed during our only purple patch. Had that goal stood and we’d gone on to win the game one-nil, the victory would have been lauded as one of those classic “champion” performances where a team comes away with all three points despite being far from their best. As it was, we only managed a point. Whilst not many of you would have accepted that before kick-off, as the old saying goes: beggars can’t be choosers. And at the death we were certainly begging for an equaliser.

Whether or not we should have reduced ourselves to such a begging position is another matter. People might bemoan Arsene’s tactics and say that we didn’t need to play Song AND Denilson, whilst others will say that the players on the pitch didn’t perform to the best of their abilities. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between. Yes, the continued deployment of v.Persie on the left seems to stifle our most spontaneous player, whilst the omission of Nasri meant that too much of a creative burden fell on Cesc’s shoulders. But on the other hand, the inclusion of Song meant that the defence looked more steady, whilst Sunderland carried out their gameplan perfectly and stifled our boys. Unlike Fulham and Hull, this was not a game where we were defeated by complacency, but instead we came up against a well-drilled side on their own patch.

That doesn’t take away from the fact that title-winning seasons are built upon victories at such places. Currently Liverpool lie ahead of us in the table – and the points difference can be partly attributed to them coming to the Stadium of Light and grabbing a barely-deserved win. Right now I feel that we lack the consistent spark that we had early last season. In 2007/08, that early spark somewhat dissolved in December but our points accumulation and winning momentum carried us through the following months. This season, the spark seems to be there in some matches (Blackburn, Bolton, Porto) but missing in others (Fulham, Hull, Kiev and here against Sunderland).

Such a lack of consistency will most definitely see us fail to win the league. The crazy thing is that we have comfortably won our most difficult matches (on paper) whilst the ‘bankers’ have seen us fall short. While this kind of form is not conducive to a title-winning campaign, the ability to raise our game on the big occasion could stand us in good stead in the cup competitions. Because right now that’s where our most realistic chances of silverware lie. In the past such mixed form early on may have been surmountable with a stunning second-half of the season, but nowadays the competition is so fierce at the top that slip-ups are seen as daggers to the heart rather than mere blips.

Normally I hate the international break because it ruins our rhythm. But for once, I am glad it is upon us. I wish for the players to come back mentally refreshed – and, god willing, physically fit – for the battles that lie ahead. Hopefully by the time Everton visit us on October 18th the likes of Diaby and Silvestre are pushing for first-team spots. Because lord knows that we need all our resources available to go on one hell of a run to get the momentum and confidence flowing 100% again.