Full-time: Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland
Sunderland’s manager, players and fans go doolally as they celebrate the point that preserves their Premier League status! It was a defensive masterclass by the visitors, and one that will be copied by many more visitors to the Emirates as, for the third time in a row, Arsenal have failed to infiltrate diligent defenders at home.
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90+2 min: Arsenal try to choreograph the ball into the net again. Sunderland hold firm before nicking it off them and tonking it downfield.
90 min: Sunderland have to survive just three more minutes to be sure of staying in the Premier League!
89 min: Coates, for the umpteenth time, clears a cross, from Bellerin again. Then Cazorla tries to work space for a shot on the edge of the area but Sunderland players rush out to him and Larsson lashes the ball to safety.
87 min: Walcott opens fire again from distance, and Pantilimon acts as the bullet-proof vest once more to save Sunderland!
86 min: Having been pushed back for many minutes, Sunderland get a chance to relieve the pressure a little as Buckley romps down the left. He then knocks it back to Defoe, who tries to pick out Fletcher, but the Scot had wandered offside.
84 min: Walcott fires low and hard from the left. Pantilimon parries, Sunderland players trip over themselves as they try to clear ... but eventually Cattermole hammers it away!
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83 min: Lovely ball with the outside of his foot by Rosicky into Walcott, who offers a fitting return pass: Rosicky has a free shot from eight yards! But totally miscues it and shanks it wide!
81 min: Arsenal substitution: Rosicky on, Ozil off.
79 min: Larsson hobbles off the pitch, pats the physio on the back and then sprints back on. All kneel and praise Sunderland’s physio messiah!
77 min: Larsson is on the ground, banging it in apparent pain. If he has to come off, Sunderland will be forced to play on with 10 men. “Where is Giroud?” demands Imad Sabi. “Is he playing at all? You are not mentioning him at all Paul!” I think he is playing a sort of decoy role, showing that he, to use the phrase that Egil Olsen once used of Oyvind Leohardsen,”does his best work without the ball”.
75 min: Sunderland substitution: Johnson off, Buckley on.
74 min: Sunderland have been afflicted by a slapstick streak all season ... and it nearly surfaced to very costly effect again jsut now: Ramsey curled in a cross from the right; Coates didn’t cut it out; and Jones was so taken by surprise than he deflected it on to his own post!
72 min: Coates underlines an excellent personal performance by clearing off the line after Walcott raced on to a through-ball and clipped it over the out-rushing Pantilimon.
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71 min: Nine Sunderland players in their own box as Arsenal play Jenga around them. Bellerin’s wayward cross eventually brings all their work tumbling down.
69 min: What a chance! Van Aanholt lets fly from the left ... his shot is misdirected but goes towards Fletcher, who sticks out a leg and tries to poke it into the net from eight yards ... but he jams it over the bar!
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68 min: Larsson flings himself in front of a Ramsey shot at the edge of the area. It’s as if Sunderland have been training with presidential body guards all week.
67 min: Arsenal substitution: Wilshere off, Walcott on.
66 min: Ozil clips a cross in from the left. Van Aanholt gets a foot to it but only half-clears, inviting Sanchez to try a header from 10 yards. Weak and wide.
64 min: Theo Walcott takes off his tracksuit top in preparation at coming on. “Theo, Theo!” chant the home fans, just to prove they can read.
62 min: Cattermole becomes the latest Sunderland player to make a vital last-ditch clearance in his box. It’s terrific defending by the visitors, whose fans must be gnawing their fists with nerves, while Arsenal’s holler in frustration.
59 min: Ozil eschews a shot and instead fizzes a pass over to Sanchez, 10 yards from goal. The Chilean skips past two before finally shooting, but Coates makes a tremendous block. Then Sunderland are suddenly on the attack down the other end thanks to an excellent pass from Defoe. Fletcher tries to dink it over Ospinna but the keeper gets a crucial touch to divert it out for a corner!
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58 min: Another Bellerin cross - the lad is surely on for a fantasy bonus point at this rate - finds its way to Arsenal’s other full-back, Gibbs arriving at the back post to power a header goalwards. Cue another good save from Pantilimon, who’s definitely due bonus points.
55 min: Great save by Pantilimon! After another Arsenal appeared hellbent on banging their heads against the Sunderland wall again, they had the bright idea of flipping the ball wide to the overlapping Bellerin, who pinged in a cross first-time. Giround did well to get to it before the defender and flick it goalward, forcing the keeper to make a save quicksmart at the near post!
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53 min: Ramsey to Giroud to Cazorla to Wilshere, who tries to squeeze between three defenders at the edge of the area and fails. There is an over-confidence to Arsenal’s under-achievement. “Contemplating Danny Graham truly makes me uneasy, like thinking about infinity, or solipsism,” tootlees Dean Potter. “He is the Bartleby the Scrivener of football. There are plenty of unproductive forwards, but he has an existential weariness that threatens all other endeavours.”
50 min: The best chance of the game is created by ... Sunderland! Johnson slips a cute pass through to Fletcher, whose first-time shot is blocked well by Ospinna. Moments later Van Aanholt was presented with a shooting opportunity after roaring in from the left, and the keeper has to bat his 18-yard shot behind for a corner. And from that corner Coates should have threatened the keeper again but instead bungled a close-range header.
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49 min: It’s all very slow and podnerous from Arsenal, as Sunderland sit coiled even tighter and. “Jack Rodwell on? Arsenal won’t know what didn’t hit them,” quips Matt Dony.
47 min: Corner to Arsenal. Sanchez takes. IT’s flicked on at the near post - by a Sunderland player - and reaches Wilshere on the penalty spot. But as he tries to size up a shot, O’Shea descends on him and boot it clear.
46 min: Sunderland make two substitutions during the break: Wikcham and Graham off, Fletcher and Rodwell on. Suspect that’s because Wickham was tiring because of all the defensive work he was doing and Graham was, well, not very effective.
Half-time team talk:
“You see this pattern every time Barcelona play a defensively-minded team at the Camp Nou,” trumpets Charles Antaki. “Then Messi does something. Time for Arsène to act. Bring on, er, Theo Walcott. Hmm.”
Half-time: Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland
It’s mission half-accomplished by Sunderland, and mission half-arsed by the home side. Are Arsenal really going to fail to score at home for the third time in a row?
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45+2 min: Billy Jones attempts to do a Bellerin down the right, but was so fast that the ball couldn’t keep up with him, which is a nice way of saying his control was non-existent. Which is a pity, because he has generally been playing so well that I was about to write that he is the best BJ I’ve seen since ... actually, maybe it’s not such a pity.
43 min: Bellerin, getting forward for the severalth time down the right, collects a pass from Wilshere. But this time Van[]Aanholt blocks his attempted cross.
42 min: Sunderland break, with Defoe leading the charge. The striker over-hits his pass to Graham, who is forced to go wide to regain the ball. He then pulls it back for Johnson, who wellies it into the stands from 20 yards. People would not necessarily expect better.
40 min: A bit of toing and froing from Arsenal, then a shot by Sanchez from 20 yards. A low trickler that was nothing more than a token of Arsenal’s dwindling ideas but, on the other hand, a welcome deviation from their over-elaborate noodling.
38 min: Ozil receives the ball on the left-hand corner of the box. He tries to cross to Giroud but only finds O’Shea. People would expect better.
36 min: Ozil blems another attempted shot into the stands. “People would expect better,” reckons Alan Smith on Sky, putting it kindly.
33 min: Bellerin goes on the charge again but this time Cattermole halts his run. But Sunderland are finding it increasingly difficult to get out of their half now. “Oi!” interjects Sam Abrahams. “You said that ‘: Johnson, Wickham, Van Aanholt, Koscielny, Doh!’ is five words but it’s not, it’s six!” Wrong. Van Aanholt is a single word, the space between the n and the a effectively being an invisible letter.
32 min: Another dainty lofted pass by Wilshere, this time into the path of Giroud, who drags a volley wide under pressure from O’Shea. “Arsene Wenger never accepts a draw when playing at home,” insists Simon H. “Look at Swansea. Even in the CL when Arsenal scored in the last minute against Moncao to get back into the tie, the team were still charging up the pitch after that and conceded a 3rd goal. So my bet is, if it’s level with 5 minutes to go, place your bets on Sunderland to win it. Or at least get a great chance to win it.” On the other hand, Sunderland are the draw specialists ...
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31 min: Wilshere lifts dinky pass over the Sunderland defence and Ozil sprints on to it as Wickham flounders. But the German is wasteful in front of goal, whacking way of target from 10 yards.
30 min: Sanchez wriggles past three opponents and into the Sunderland box, but Van Aanholt then nicks the ball off him.
28 min: Arsenal continue to make like that ostentatious swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Can Sunderland play the Indiana Jones role and fell them with one uncomplicated shot? “All this talk of Fantasy Team ramifications and no mention of Sunderland’s surprising defender Patrick Van Aanholt?” tut-tuts Robert Nease. “He’s been an ace up my sleeve a few gameweeks, and seems primed to deliver yet again this time.” Yes, he’s a handy acquisition and no mistake, I have him too: a great man for the bonus points thanks to all those crosses and his high standing in the oft-overlooked CBI index (that’s clearance, blocks and interceptions, fellow nerds). I also have Pantilimon: it’s a bumper game for me.
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25 min: Sunderland venture forward. Their move can be summed up in five words: Johnson, Wickham, Van Aanholt, Koscielny, Doh!
23 min: A shot on target by Arsenal! Coates diverted a cross to the edge of the area, where Cazorla arrived and blemmed a decent low effort towards goal. But it would have taken rank goalkeeping for it to find the net, and Pantilimon isn’t rank.
22 min: Arsenal get robbed while trying to weave another intricate move around the Sunderland box. Van Aanholt tears forward but misdirects his attempted pass towards Graham.
20 min: Ozil picks out Ramsey at the edge of the area as a Sunderland attack unravels. The Welshman lays the ball back into the path of Wilshere, who steams on to it .... and then bogs it miles over the bar.
19 min: Ramsey booked for a late tackle on Larsson. Deserved, especially after his trip on Jones earlier in the game, and also because my closest fantasy rival has him in his team.
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18 min: Giroud is rather lucky to have kept his starting place tonight, no? He’s been plod lately and has done nothing so far tonight, other than tonk a cross wide just now.
16 min: Ospinna has to rush off his line again, this time to nab the ball before Defoe. There’s a lurking menace there from Sunderland, to be sure.
14 min: That’s more like it from Arsenal! Quick pinged passes prised Sunderland apart, but Pantilimon charged off his line to dispossess Wilshere, who dawdled a little as he tried to get the ball of his right foot and on to his left for a shot. The keeper was lucky he got the ball because it was an awkward type of challenge that would certainly have been worthy of a red card if mis-timed.
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13 min: All swell so far for Sunderland, with Arsenal yet to muster a shot. “’Be realistic, demand the impossible!’ might be a better piece of 1968-type sloganeering, as far as Sunderland are concerned,” hollers Justin Kavanahg. “Time to man the barricades, Black Cats (or should that be Panthers?).”
10 min: Sunderland have not quite parked the bus: they’ve certainly defending en masse when Arsenal are in possession, but they are also attacking with real intent when they get the ball back. Arsenal better not get too carried away with their attacking or they could be caught on the counter.
8 min: Wilshere flips the ball wide to Bellerin, who races past the backtracking Defoe and bangs in another threatening cross. But actually, the fullback was too fast even for his team-mates, who couldn’t keep up sufficiently to reach the cross. Dock him fantasy points for that, I’m saying.
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7 min: Jones, showing the enterprise alluded to earlier, joins in an attack down the right before being tripped by Ramsey. Larsson wastes the freekick.
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5 min: Coates steps in to put an end to ominous conniving between Wilshere and Sanchez. The Uruguayan has made an impressive start to the game. Just 85 more minutes for Sunderland to hold out...
4 min: Coates stretches out a leg to stab the ball to safety after a wicked low cross by Bellerin.
3 min: After several attempts to pick a way through the middle are thwarted, Arsenal try an alternative route, something they failed to do when losing to Swansea in their last home outing. But Ramsey’s cross is easily cleared.
2 min: Hello, Sunderland almost take Arsenal by surprise by attacking from the off. But Ospinna was alert and scampered out of his box to boot the ball away before Graham could collect the through-pass. Arsenal retrieve it and begin probing at the other end ...
1 min: Of we go then, Sunderland setting the game in motion with a textbook kick-off.
The teams march out on to the pitch. Arsenal have red on their torso and white on their sleeves, while Sunderland are all in Tardis-blue
“Three Gooners in my fantasy team this week with them playing twice, but now worrying about a 0-0 tonight,” frets Andrew Vickers. “Offer any reassurances?” I also have three Gooners in my team, but as one of them is Koscileny, I wouldn’t be too distraught by a 0-0, especially if Bellerin gets sent off, since my main rivals have him. As for reassurances with regard to it not being 0-0, how about a centreback pairing of O’Shea and Coates?
Was reader Peter Goldstein lobbing rocks around the streets of Paris in 1968? I only ask because he seems to be suggesting that EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG. Here, check him out: “Everyone thinks Gibbs is better than Monreal in attack but worse in defence. In fact, it’s the opposite. Gibbs gets forward all the time, but there’s very little end product. Monreal doesn’t get forward much, but good things tend to happen. Monreal is ordinary in defence, although he’s getting better. Gibbs’ pace makes a big difference there.”
“Coquelin breaks up play but doesn’t help Arsenal break teams down against a parked bus,” parks Peter Nelson, suggesting Wenger doesn’t expect Sunderland to go crazy attacking when a point will suffice. “Jack Wilshere should help,” reasons Peter.
On my way to my work station tonight, I a horde of Sunderland fans spilling out of a London pub and into the May sunshine with pints in their hands and fun on their mind It was a beautiful sight, vibrant English cultural heritage in full bloom. And if those Sunderland fans decide to savour it a little longer than most, then who could blame them? Their team, after all, have scored only once in the opening 15 minutes of Premier League games this season, less than any other side. So have another drink, brothers and sisters, and cherish these days.
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As you can see from the line-ups below, Arsenal will not be fielding an unchanged side for the seventh time in a row: Gibbs and Wilshere are starting instead of Monreal and Coquelin. Gibbs is better than Monreal in my book, at least going forward, but it’ll be interesting to see how effective Wilshere is in place of Coquelin, especially as Cattermole is likely to set about him with gusto. I’m also looking forward to see Sunderland’s full-backs, as I’ve not watched them regularly but have the sense that Jones and Van Aanholt are a rollicking good pairing when in the mood. Not sure about that O’Shea/Coates axis in the middle, though: If giroud can shake himself out of the fug that he’s been in for the last few weeks, he could get back on the scoring trail.
Preamble:
Hello and welcome to coverage of this meeting of extremes: Arsenal need a point to all but ensure participation in the group stages of next season’s Champions League, while Sunderland need a point to avoid having to go into the last weekend of this season fretting about being relegated instead of Newcastle or Hull. If Sunderland were to go down, it would be the fourth time they’ll have suffered that pain since Arsene Wenger arrived to preside over a period of unprecedented consistency at Arsenal. The Londoners have become a kind of ambient presence in the upper echelons of football while Sunderland have rocked entertainingly twixt highs and lows, with 11 managers, including Roy Keane (POW!), Paolo Di Canio (BAM!) and Gus Poyet (SIGH) hinting at greatness before imploding or petering out. Dick Advocaat seems to have hammered some sense into the latest horde of candystriped funsters, so can they put on a show tonight at the Emirates? Can that defence really make Arsenal endure a third consecutive home shut out? We’ll find out shortly.
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Teams:
Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud
Subs: To follow
Sunderland: Pantilimon, Jones, van Aanholt, O’Shea, Coates, Cattermole, Larsson, Johnson, Graham, Defoe, Wickham.
Subs: To follow
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