Arsenal may have left the Stadium of Light with a 2-0 victory, but Saturday evening’s contest was far less comfortable than the scoreline suggests.
The Gunners had opportunities during the first half without taking them, before Sunderland came flying out after the interval and threatened to turn the match on its head.
Two moments within little more than two minutes ultimately changed everything. David Raya saved Sunderland’s penalty and, just 121 seconds later, Bruno Guimarães produced a superb strike for his first Arsenal goal.
Bukayo Saka’s stoppage-time penalty eventually made the points safe, but the BBC’s post-match player ratings reflect just how important Raya and Bruno were to Arsenal getting the job done.
Raya Clear Player of the Match
BBC Sport journalist Alex Brotherton, reporting from the Stadium of Light, awarded Raya an 8/10, the highest mark of any Arsenal player.
That assessment was even stronger among BBC readers, who gave the Spaniard an outstanding average score of 8.91, comfortably making him their Arsenal Player of the Match.
It is difficult to argue with them.
Raya had relatively little to do during much of the opening half, but Arsenal needed him desperately after the restart. His penalty save arrived with Sunderland firmly on top and prevented the hosts from taking a deserved lead.
He was then called upon again during the frantic closing stages, producing further important stops as Sunderland continued to throw bodies forward.
Sometimes a goalkeeper can have a quiet game and still be decisive. Raya certainly was here.
Bruno Makes a Huge Impact
Bruno Guimarães was the BBC journalist’s second-highest-rated Arsenal player with 7/10, while supporters were considerably more enthusiastic, awarding him 8.05.
Considering he only entered the contest at half-time, that is some impact.
Mikel Arteta introduced Bruno for Myles Lewis-Skelly with Arsenal struggling for control, and his thunderous opening goal could hardly have arrived at a better time.
Only moments after Raya’s penalty save, Declan Rice helped create the opportunity and Bruno produced a finish worthy of his first goal in Arsenal colours.
From potentially going 1-0 behind to leading 1-0 within 121 seconds summed up just how quickly Premier League matches can turn.
BBC Readers Much Kinder to Several Gunners
There were some interesting differences between Brotherton’s scores and those submitted by BBC readers.
Declan Rice received only a 6 from the BBC journalist but was Arsenal’s third-highest-rated player among supporters on 7.36. Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Magalhães were also awarded 6s by Brotherton but received 7.33 and 7.30 respectively from readers.
Perhaps the biggest disagreement concerned Ezri Konsa.
The defender was given just 4/10 by the BBC journalist after struggling against Brian Brobbey and conceding the Sunderland penalty. Readers were significantly more forgiving, rating him 6.95.
Myles Lewis-Skelly was another to receive a 4 from Brotherton, compared with a reader score of 6.25, while Ben White’s journalist rating of 5 became 6.38 among supporters.
Bukayo Saka received a 6 from the journalist after passing up opportunities during the game, but his late penalty helped lift his reader score to 7.04.
Did the BBC Get Arsenal’s Ratings Right?
There probably will not be much disagreement over the top two.
Without Raya’s penalty save, Arsenal could easily have found themselves chasing the match. Without Bruno’s spectacular response moments later, Sunderland might have continued building momentum.
That decisive two-minute sequence changed the entire evening.
The more interesting debate is further down the list. Were Rice, Odegaard and Gabriel really only six-out-of-ten performers? Were the BBC readers too generous towards Konsa and Lewis-Skelly?
And after scoring another important penalty, should Saka have been rated higher than six?
What do you make of the BBC ratings, Gooners? Who was your Arsenal Player of the Match, and which player do you think has been rated too highly or too harshly? Let us know in the comments below.
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I thought Brotherton was a bit unkind to Lewis-Skelly and Konsa, both of whom had quite poor games but probably deserved no less than 5.5.
Raya deserved the top score and TNT’s POTM.
Jax, imo Konsa had a very good game. He battled Brobbey, the human refrigerator, all day and while Brobbey had some amazing holdup play, he was kept under control for the most part. Konsa left it all on the pitch against those Stoke City wannabees. Raya was amazing and I’d swear he’s getting even better by the day.
Bruised Banana
Ha! Perhaps I’m also being unkind to Konsa😏
I don’t know why defenders have to get tangled up with the opponents in these long throw and corner situations. Why don’t they just…defend?. It must be a lot simpler and safer. What happened to zonal marking?
Jax, I believe the offensive players want to create controlled contact and to be disruptive to the defensive setup and keeper. When you think about it, if a call is made against the attacking team a kick going the other way is given to the defense whereas if a call is made against the defender (as with Konsa) it results in a penalty. A big cost/benefit difference. I believe zonal marking has just fallen out of favor as more clubs focus much more effort on effective corners.
👍 I think people underestimate how difficult it is to stop brobbey holding the ball up. Konsa didn’t really get turned and couldn’t have done much more without fouling imo. I’ve been impressed by him, and tend to agree with arteta about the penalty on rewatching – it wasn’t Konsa losing his head, it was Ballard dragging him down by the arm in a clever way designed to fool the referee. I thought it was a penalty last night but think differently now. I don’t think Konsa is stupid enough to pull someone down in the box so blatantly as that.
I totally agree with BBC ratings. Raya kept us in the game and Guimaraes made us win it
Konsa struggled against Brobbey’s hold-up play and his foul made Sunderland awarded a penalty. If Saliba returns, I think Konsa will compete with Timber for the RB role
Konsa was outstanding, even better than Gabriel against Brobbey, he’s been class in every game!
Everything like this is subjective, ask 10 JA commenters their scores and possibly get 10 different ratings. As for Konsa not being able to handle Brobbey, big Gabriel had problems with him too and most defenders would as he’s a huge lump of a player good at holding up play but nothing more than that really. I think even without the penalty save, Raya would have been my man of the match as he was under pressure on every cross, corner and long throw, but handled (no pun intended) everything thrown at home by Stoke, sorry I meant Sunderland. Just my two pennorth.
I find his hold up play very impressive tbh – much more controlled than most target men I’ve seen. Makes it look easy and really Impossible for defenders behind him to nick the ball. It’s a bit different from havertz or even someone like giroud who plays/played more flicks. I could see that being extremely valuable in a team like ours tbh.
Brobby was the only Sunderland player playing football yesterday the rest of their squad were playing rugby. Brutes the lot of them but cried when arsenal replied with the same energy and intensity . This was what arsenal Wenger had to put up with in his time as coach but he lacked the personnel to handle these thuggish tactics decorated and packaged as “physical game”. Then there’s the ref and pgmol who looks at us and make up rules for us that they don’t apply to any other team.
We didn’t start this pushing and shoving in the box thing but somehow we are the ones that have to be punished for it while other teams can hide in the “physical football” mantra. I truly want to see what he does if anyother epl team takes 18 seconds in a throw-in as he was quick to use calafiori as experiment for their so called new rule , meanwhile a stat circulating on twitter showed that Sunderland player took an average of 22 seconds before a throw in but we’re never punished.
Good win.
Raya man of the match.
Every one played exceptionally well even odegaard and saka who I thought were going to struggle but as the game went on they became more dogged and resilient.
COYG.
You didn’t notice Granit Xhaka, one of the best players on the pitch? You didn’t see our players grabbing and grappling at corners and long throws? Don’t you know that referees allow extra time at long throw-ins so that both teams can set their players?
I don’t think so, the rules were broken and Stoke, sorry Sunderland, took 20+seconds on one of their throws and others were over 10 seconds. The ref allows extra time at long throws? Of course they don’t! 🫨
They do! Long throws are considered set-piece routines, and countdowns begin once the players are in position. So time is allowed for setting up.
Technically, there’s no such thing as a long throw in, and it’s not mentioned in the rules; it’s just another throw that takes place following the allowed set-up routine has been completed. It’s this that takes up all the time that people here have been complaining about. Arsenal gets the same allowances at our long throws, which is obviously overlooked by those same complainers.