OF all the criticisms that have been levelled against Steve Bruce this season, surely now it cannot be said his team are not playing for him.
Sunderland, though, need points more than plaudits after being dragged closer to the relegation zone yesterday.
For the second game running they gave their opponents a headstart. When they finally got a foothold in the game, the Wearsiders played on Arsenal’s nerves and held their own. But for all the fragility on show yesterday, Arsenal’s class held out. It was an honourable defeat, but a defeat nonetheless.
It took the hosts until the 82nd minute to lift the mounting tension at their plush home, but in Robin van Persie they have a striker whose standards are rising as his club’s slip.
There was a tetchiness about van Persie’s programme notes, the captain using his column to criticise those in the media who questioned his commitment to Arsenal (nobody actually did, they just expect him to join the calibre of club he deserves) and spinning the positives of their start to the season. “We won three games in a week here,” was his Comical Ali-style opening gambit.
If the Dutchman was defensive on paper, he was anything but on grass. It took all of 29 seconds for him to put the Gunners in front. Tomas Rosicky released Gervinho, who squared to van Persie across the edge of the area. The striker’s left-footed touch moved him further away from Wes Brown, and he netted with his right before Kieran Richardson could close down.
Suddenly the visitors’ defensive set-up, reuniting ball-winners Jack Colback and Lee Cattermole for the first time since the Black Cats’ winless start to the campaign, did not look too clever. Both spurned great chances to give their side an improbable first-half lead.
The reinforced midfield could not stop the one-way traffic which followed van Persie’s goal, and he might have had a hat-trick within 14 minutes. A beautiful turn beat Richardson on the left, but his dink rebounded off the inside of the post. When Colback’s challenge fell to him in the middle he made space around Michael Turner, but shot wide.
It seemed a question of how many Arsenal would settle for with Wednesday’s match in Marseille to consider. Laurent Koscielny released Gervinho with a long ball and Newcastle United’s summer target ghosted inside John O’Shea but shot over.
