10-man Arsenal squeak to narrow win over Sunderland

Arsenal held on to a slender first half lead, in spite of going down to 10 men an hour into the game, to keep within range of Chelsea and Tottenham in the race for Champions League qualification. In spite of some spirited efforts from both sides, it was the ‘keepers who were on top throughout the game with some brilliant saves; making Santi Cazorla’s lone goal the decisive one in this entertaining fixture.

The game began in the typical fashion when these two teams meet, with tough tackling from both sides of the pitch testing Anthony Taylor’s patience quite often in the opening few minutes. The home side, however, were content on sitting back in their half when Arsenal had the ball, although they did venture forward often enough. There was little goalmouth action in the opening quarter of an hour, with most of the game being played in midfield, although Stephane Sessegnon seemed to cause all sorts of problems for Nacho Monreal in the opening few minutes.

Steven Fletcher had a decent header at goal denied fairly easily by Szczesny, who had his height to thank, while in the very next move, Olivier Giroud managed to pounce on a loose ball but sent his shot wide across the face of goal. The game continued as it had begun, with neither side managing to create a solid chance but resorting to midfield skirmishes instead. It was Aaron Ramsey who drew the first big save of the game from Mignolet with a curling effort that emerged from in-between a pair of defenders, towards the left corner. Jack Wilshere deserved a fair bit of credit for creating the chance as well, having made a good run before laying it off for the Welshman.

The young star was involved in yet another attack just a couple of minutes later, which would bring the first goal of the game through Santi Cazorla. Yet another good run from midfield saw Wilshere pass the ball to Theo Walcott, who simply moved it along for Cazorla to roll into the back of the net, under the diving Mignolet’s reach. 1 – 0 to the visitors in the 35^th minute.

There were few clear cut chances for either side in spite of the obviously growing Arsenal influence, and half chances for Giroud and Fletcher were the closest that the game came to seeing another goal till the 45 minute mark. In the added minute at the end though, Aaron Ramsey had yet another golden opportunity, finding himself at the end of a loose ball, but Mignolet pulled off a great save to deny him from close range. Both teams would thus have no real complaints going into the tunnel at the halfway mark with the score at 1 – 0.

The second half began on a bright note with Sessegnon getting the better of Monreal yet again, before being brought down in the box, but the referee waved away all appeals for a penalty to the home side. Five minutes into the half, Jack Wilshere had to be substituted after sustaining a knock, more as a precaution than anything else, and Abou Diaby came on in his place. Sunderland had a great opportunity to equalize a few minutes later when Ramsey was caught in possession by Sessegnon who put Fletcher in a good position to score from the left, but the striker had a rare poor effort, letting Arsenal off the hook.

Just past the hour mark though, the game got a whole lot tougher for the visitors as Jenkinson was sent off for a second yellow card for a foul on Sessegnon, having already been booked early in the game. This numerical advantage counted for little over the next spell of play though, as Arsenal continued to hold firm and even built a few attacks of their own, with Mignolet having to step in on a couple of occasions. In fact, Arsenal almost doubled their lead as the duo from the original goal combined yet again, with Cazorla providing a lovely through ball for Walcott this time. The English attacker did almost everything right by managing to get the ball past the advancing Mignolet, but the angle was such that the ball went on to hit the post and came back into play at the feet of a Sunderland defender.

Sunderland finally managed to make their pressure count when Fletcher was put through on goal after some great play, but Szczesny was off his line in a flash to maintain his clean sheet with a good save. The duo were at it again five minutes from time when Szczesny pulled off a great save off a header, from much closer this time, before being brilliant at the corner that followed. How Titus Bramble managed to miss from that corner, having been afforded the full goal to aim at, not even he knew, but he was left holding his head in his hands at the end.

There were a couple of chances at either end in the final few minutes, with Mignolet also joining in attack in the final seconds of the game, but none would come any closer to scoring than they already had. A narrow win then, for Arsene Wenger’s side.

Result: Sunderland 0 – 1 Arsenal (Santiago Cazorla 35’)