Too much time on my hands. Pic via Dailiy Mail.
Sunderland 1: Bent 90+5
Arsenal 1: Fabregas 13
We here at Hipster Gooner enjoy nothing more than celebratory singing and chanting at the bar during the course of an Arsenal win. But, we also understand that there are right times to celebrate and there are wrong times to celebrate. The dying minutes of a nervy match with a 1-0 lead is a wrong time.
I love the back-and-forth chanting of "Arsene Wenger's red and white army" at the end of a win; it's always an incredible experience to hear so many Gooners singing, in full voice, for a victory. However, if you chant it at the wrong time, it can be a bit of a jinx. It should only be sung while winning comfortably (by at least two goals) and only during second half injury time; never before the 90:00 mark and never while up by one. The regulars couldn't reel in those who sang the chant yesterday and the jinx, of course, came into play. We're sorry. We tried.
There were no injuries and no returns from injury between Wednesday's Champions League match with Braga and Saturday's match, so Arsenal's starting XI remained unchanged. It was obvious, however, that Arsenal appeared more lethargic at the start, playing a road fixture after a midweek match while Sunderland were the more well-rested side.
The Black Cats dominated the first half of play, but it was through a strange series of events that Arsenal held a 1-0 halftime lead. In the 13th minute, Sunderland defender Anton Ferdinand held onto possession for a little too long without clearing, allowing Cesc Fabregas to close him down. When Ferdinand finally attempted to clear, it hit the charging Fabregas in the ankle and flew back toward the goal. Sunderland's goalkeeper Simon Mignolet was too far forward off his line, the ball was well over his head, and then it was in the net. As stunning of a fluke goal as any you'll ever see. The major downer of the first half was that Cesc Fabregas mysteriously left with an injuy; it's a hamstring and he will have a scan on Monday. There are rumors that he might miss a month. He was replaced by Tomas Rosicky, who also took over the captain's armband. That's relevant later.
The wisdom of halftime was that Sunderland could not keep up the pace and the pressure for another 45 minutes and that seemed about correct from the restart. Arsenal looked refreshed after the break and pressured for a second goal. Then, the turning point: Alex Song was sent off for a second yellow card (his first was a harsh call for dissent after a foul was called, the second was for obstruction.) Suddenly, the thought that Arsenal would coast past a tiring Sunderland squad in the second half held no water; the Gunners would be on ten men for the last half hour.
To compensate, Arsenal substituted Denilson into the midfield to replace the ineffective Andrei Arshavin. Arsenal managed to control possession better, even on ten men, with the Brazilian in the midfield, but the team would miss countless opportunities to score a security goal.
There was no better chance than a penalty kick in the 75th when Samir Nasri was hacked down in the box. Arsenal was without their usual penalty takers (Van Persie, Fabregas, Arshavin, Bendtner) for various reasons on the pitch so Rosicky, wearing the captain's armband in the place of the injured Fabregas, chose that he would take the kick himself. Rosicky did not look comfortable taking the kick and I wondered why someone like Marouane Chamakh or Nasri didn't take it. Rosicky made Mignolet guess wrong on the kick but fired high and over the bar. Opportunity wasted.
Even with the miss, it looked like Arsenal was going to steal three points from this fixture, right until the death. A match filled with questionable officiating from Phil Dowd was to end with four minutes of added time. Arsenal had cleared out from a corner kick at about 94:10. Sunderland was given one last chance. Gael Clichy had a poor clearance that deflected off Laurent Koscielny, into the path of Darren Bent, who fired home an equalizer past Manuel Almunia at 94:16.
Let's be honest, "four minutes of added time" does mean four minutes as a minimum, but you don't usually see four minutes of added time turn into four minutes and thirty seconds unless there's an injury. In this case, there was not. Arsene Wenger was livid about the extra amount of added time and there are claims that he "shoved" fourth official Martin Atkinson (I haven't seen a video, I assume he touched his shoulder, at worst, to get his attention.) In any case, Arsenal was about negative 15 seconds away from stealing three points when Sunderland was given one last chance to draw level. That's why this draw felt so much like a loss.
But let's be honest some more, Arsenal had no business winning this match. It would have been nice to take all three points from this fixture, but one point is more than the Gunners earned at the Stadium of Light last year, and that was after a two week break. There are, of course, still so many major concerns. The play of Gael Clichy this season has worried me, he seems to be the weak link on the back line. Cesc Fabregas's injury has come at a bad time; it would be nice to have him in top form at Stamford Bridge on October 3, so let's all pray his scan goes over well tomorrow. Andrei Arshavin is as mercurial as anyone on the team; there are matches like yesterday where he just doesn't seem to be bothered. Though I have to say in closing, that this was another solid and comforting performance from Manuel Almunia, who has not made a major blunder yet this season.
