Grady's Post-Arsenal Talk

SAFC World was blitzed, and I took in every press conference and all pre-Emirates craic in general. Facts and figures were demolished and my guess at a starting XI was made.

After the morning routine of the traditional s**t, shower, shave I donned my mighty, might Sunderland shirt and entered my zone of mental preparation. On days like these, where there is a distinct possibility of a drumming, I become very superstitious and methodical. As I'm away at Uni, we don't have Setanta, but my mate does. So, I went about gathering my flatmates; a Forrest, Leeds and Arsenal fan in tow, and even managed to persuade the Forrest fan to also shrine himself in the Red and White for the match.

Walking to my mates house for the match at 11am seemed surreal. Why the Premier League bigwigs thought that it was a good idea for thousands of Mackems to drive six hours leaving at 5am is ridiculous. If it was Arsenal travelling up to Sunderland, that would never happen. Anyway, upon arrival at the House of Setanta, the nerves really kicked in. I had forgot to put my bet on that Sunderland would sneak a draw, I panicked. However, those fears were put to rest in the opening fifteen minutes.

There is no doubting Robin Van Persie's (RVP) free-kick was out of the top drawer, but the defending that led up to the goal was shocking at least. It didn't get much better either, after another period of Arsenal domination, Senderos popped up and somehow managed to poke the ball past a hapless Sunderland defence.

Even then, the home side didn't let up. A piece of incisive passing down the right and a tremendous cross led to another Arsenal goal, only for a linesman, who I'm sure had a brown paper envelope sticking out of his pocket, to rule out a perfectly good goal.

For some reason, the unjustly disallowed goal was the spark to our comeback and Arsenal's demise. We started to get a foot in the game and began to pass the ball around nicely. With Jones upfront by himself and seemingly having no luck against Toure and Senderos, Clichy was singled out for the full-blown Kenwyne treatment. Long balls were hoofed up to the big man and time after time caused the little Frenchman no end of bother. One of these long balls and a cracking knock down landed for Wallace; he delightfully sold Toure with a deft chest down and finished expertly past Almunia. 2-1.

We went in at half time feeling that we could come back, if Arsenal didn't start the second half as they did the first. Low and behold it was Keano's Red and White army that came out all guns blazing and three minutes into the second period a Ross Wallace cross landed on Jones' head and evaded the Arsenal goalkeeper. 2-2. Magical.

Confidence was high now, though nerves were also. Kolo Toure hit a shot that crashed off the post that a centre back shouldn't be able to hit. Full credit to the lad, it was pure class. And that was the difference when push came to shove. No matter how much we chased the game, how hard we worked or how fast we closed down, Arsene Wenger's side ooze class. A tricky bit of play down the right flank by Theo 'I'm growing bum fluff so I look 16 instead o 12' Walcott, and a good cross found an unmarked RVP how tapped home from six yards out. Gutting.

Paul McShane, uncompromising and slightly over-zealous at times, was, in my opinion, rightly sent off, but for an accidental challenge. He went in for the ball, and unfortunately caught Hleb in the place where no man wants to get caught, and as his studs caught the turf, his knee went and landed on Aleksander's face. The referee was too quick to send him off, but you can perfectly understand why he did it. The question is why didn't Flamini even get booked when he stood all over Danny Collins? Evidently our luck had run out.

It was a spirited performance by the lads with Gordon making some good saves. However, I'm still not convinced by McShane and Collins as full backs. McShane has been one of our best players at centre-half. His work rate is outstanding and commitment is second to none, but at full back, as with Collins, lacks real penetration. Danny showed some good touches today and seems to be getting forward a bit more and linking up with Wallace nicely, but we really could have done with Leighton Baines. The Nos looked his normal flamboyant self in the centre of defence, a few worrying moments but nothing too heart stopping. Higginbotham was left wanting a couple of times today and I'm still not sure he's good enough to be first team. Bring back Jonny! Wallace was mint down the left and Miller and Leadbitter once again looked solid in the middle. Yorke made some good little touches, but his tackling is somewhat to be desired. Chopra was stuck out on the right and found himself helping out the defence in is own box rather than banging them in the oppositions area. Jones had a terrible start and his "clearance" can possibly be classed as an assist for Senderos' goal, but he really did start to worry the Arsenal defence. He used his strength and height extremely well, but it is hard to look good when you're up there on your own.

All in all, it was a spirited comeback from two goals down, but we really have to start cutting these mistakes out and making our chances count more often. With Fulham, West Ham and Man City coming up, hopefully we can get a few points on the board.