Sunderland 1, Arsenal 0

Nov 23 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

SUNDERLAND will not win the Premier League title this season, but they are proving to be a major problem for the teams who harbour a realistic chance of walking off with the big prize.

In four games against the top flight’s Big Four, the quartet of Champions League-spoiled teams who have dominated English football for the best part of a decade and have established a virtual monopoly on our silverware, the Black Cats have taken seven points.

Had it not been for an injury-time own goal at the home of the reigning champions Manchester United last month, that tally would have been nine and nobody who has seen their games would argue they did not deserve it.

On this evidence, the title is Chelsea’s for the taking. Carlo Ancelotti’s side fell behind on Wearside before producing a fantastic second-half performance which, for perhaps the only time this season, out-classed the Black Cats.

It is a remarkable record made all the more impressive by the fact this is a new-look team under a new manager who took over a club which had only avoided relegation by the skin of Newcastle United’s inadequacy.

Sunderland are a formidable foe at the Stadium of Light, Arsenal dispatched in precisely the same manner as Liverpool, although this time the scintillating Darren Bent did not need a deflection off a beach ball to score the winner.

Stung by the criticism of his performance for England against Brazil in that ludicrous friendly in the sand and heat of Qatar and a missed penalty against his former club Tottenham Hotspur, Bent has not been his usual self around the Sunderland training ground.

But he was back in the swing of things against Arsenal. Playing as a lone striker he was a constant menace to the Gunners defence. If he failed to connect properly with Andy Reid’s corner with a header having got in front of Thomas Vermaelen, he reacted sharply when the ball came back into his path via the shin of Fraizer Campbell and scooped the ball into the roof of the net from six yards. If Bent deserved that slice of good fortune, so too did Sunderland.

In the first-half they managed to contain and frustrate Arsenal, clinging on to half-time thanks to some wayward finishing from the visitors. But in the second, they out-played Arsene Wenger’s side, pushing and moving in the same sort of style which has made Arsenal one of the most exciting teams to watch in European football. The midfield was superb, Kieran Richardson, Lorik Cana and the effervescent Jordan Henderson all had games to cherish. Henderson, in particular, was a joy to behold. At 19 years of age he is already looking comfortable in this sort of company and he proved it is not only Wenger who can spot precocious young talent and mould it into something special.

Wenger left Wearside in a bad mood, but he had no real complaints about the defeat. Although the game may have followed a very different path had Tomas Rosicky not fired straight at Márton Fülöp after five minutes, Arsenal were disappointing. They played the better football and enjoyed plenty of possession, but without Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner they lacked punch up front and Eduardo missed his only clear-cut chance, lifting the ball over Fülöp but wide of the goal after a super run by Alexandre Song.

Sunderland had chances of their own before the break and Steed Malbranque will feel he should have taken one of them.

He was left unmarked twice on the far post as the Arsenal defence concentrated on Bent, but he lifted one shot from George McCartney’s cross over the bar and then sliced another from almost the exact same position from a Reid centre.

Sunderland came out with all guns blazing in the second-half, snarling and snapping around Arsenal’s flustered stars to the extent the Gunners failed to muster a meaningful attack until after Bent’s 72nd minute opener.

Sunderland did not create much either, but once they took the lead they defended it well, depriving Arsenal of a goal for the first time this season, even if Campbell was a tad fortunate not to concede a penalty in stoppage time for a messy tackle on Carlos Vela.