Well I must say this was a very strange first half. How on Earth Arsenal didn’t score is totally beyong me, but although the Gunners had all the possession and were throwing everything at the Sunderland goal, there was absolutely no way the ball was going in. Sunderland were defending dourly but Arsenal never seemed to get properly into top gear and Sanchez was well off his game. The only time we got the ball in the net was when the ball came off Giroud’s arm!
The second half started even stranger, with the Black Cats all over us for the first 15 minutes, and they were by far the better team, with Defoe as usual looking very dangerous. We also knew by then that Man City were already 2-0 up and our Top Four hopes were slipping even further away…
There were a few signs of frustration when Monreal ballsed up a back pass and Sunderland were given a free kick in the box, which just contributed to the sense we were watching a farce! After an hour though we had had 20 attempts to Sunderland’s 2, but both theirs were on target while we had only 7 on target. Then we went back on top, but again every time we got a shot a leg or body would somehow get in the way. This Pickford geezer is playing like Buffon tonight…
Giroud has scored 7 out of 7 games against these opponents and with 25 mins to go it looked like he had a great chance with a header, but surprisingly he missed by a mile and the game continues ambling along with no clear cut goalscoring chances. It looks like only half the supporters turned up, and the ones that did were probably regretting it by then…
Approaching 70 minutes and we are still waiting for a goal, but surely we are expecting Wenger to make some subs, or at least change something, and so it proves with Welbeck and Iwobi taking the place of Ramsey and Gibbs to go all out attack. Maybe we should have started like that because just 3 minutes later we finally, FINALLY, took the lead through that man Alexis Sanchez. We can all breathe a sigh of relief but it still feels like an anticlimax given that City have now gone 3-0 up…
This Jordan Pickford must surely be the Man Of The Match as he is either a genius in goal or very very lucky, but after Sanchez calls for a penalty without success, he pops up again with a header and we finally put the game to bed. Alexis is knackered but he is obviously very keen on the Golden Boot and I bet he wants a hat-trick and he has another 10 mins to get it…
With 5 mins to go, Walcott finally gets a run out in place of Giroud, but it’s Mustafi who suddenly nearly scores with his head but Pickford yet again denies him. Arsenal have had 33 attempts now to Sunderland’s 3. Incredible it has not been a cricket score!
The game peters out, but we still have one last chance of seeing Liverpool slip up at the weekend, while we will be watching the battle of the Golden Boot between Sanchez and Lukaku!