IT says much for the way in which Sunderland have successfully reestablished themselves in the Premier League that in a week in which his side kicked off their Champions League campaign with a trip to Napoli, Mikel Arteta always felt Arsenal’s toughest examination of the last seven days would come at the Stadium of Light.
Last season, Arteta’s title winners experienced one of their most uncomfortable nights of the campaign on Wearside, dropping points in a 2-2 draw. This time around, they were equally as unsettled for most of the evening, but found a way to secure a 2-0 win. As their fans were rightly singing at the final whistle, ‘that’s why they’re champions’.
From a Sunderland perspective, there were mixed emotions at full-time. Disappointment, undoubtedly, given that Bruno Guimaraes’ superb long-range opener came just two minutes after the game’s key turning point, when David Raya touched Enzo Le Fee’s penalty on the post. Yet also pride in the level of the performance and a justified sense of satisfaction in knowing that the attributes that made Sunderland so successful last season remain intact.
This was the Black Cats at their snarling, aggressive, in-your-face best. No quarter asked, and certainly none given. From the moment Brian Brobbey contemptuously pushed Ezri Konsa aside in the pair’s first tussle, Arsenal’s players were rattled. Sunderland’s ferocious intensity wouldn’t have been a surprise, but it still unnerved the visitors, whose constant moaning to the officials confirmed just how uncomfortable they were feeling in the face of a set-piece barrage and a bruising, physical test. Clearly, it’s not nice to get a taste of your own medicine.
Arteta’s side deserve credit for refusing to go under, and when he reflects on his side’s defeat, Regis Le Bris will probably concede that in a couple of key moments, his players were not quite clinical enough. At the start of one of the biggest weeks in Sunderland’s recent history though, with the return of European football on Wednesday night, this was a welcome reminder of just how far the Black Cats have come.
“They [Sunderland] are so good at doing what they do,” said Arteta. “They throw numbers into the box and their timing is so good, along with the type of players who are going in there. But it is not only that. When you give them space to play as well, they do that. They are a really good side, and on any other day, we could have conceded.”
Defensively, Sunderland were excellent. Nordi Mukiele was back to his best at right-back, marking Christos Tzolis out of the game, Dan Ballard once again relished the opportunity to prove a point to his former employers and Kevin Danso defended resolutely while hurling a series of long-throw missiles into Arsenal’s six-yard box. It took a wonder goal from Guimaraes – who else – to open the scoring, and the game was up by the time Reinildo Mandava pulled down Bukayo Saka in stoppage time, a foul that led to the full-back’s dismissal and enabled Saka to conclusively settle things from the spot.
Brobbey was the standout performer in red-and-white though, overpowering the Arsenal backline as he delivered a classic ‘number nine’ display. The Dutchman provided an ‘out ball’ for his under-pressure team-mates, repeatedly retained possession with his back to goal and reduced Konsa to a quivering wreck who was not even willing to engage in an attempt to win the ball.
Brobbey is yet to score this season, and there will be games in which Sunderland need the 24-year-old to be more of a threat in the 18-yard box. Here, though, his physical power and relish for a battle were sufficient to set the tone for the rest of his side’s performance.
“We feel that he [Brobbey] is getting better game after game,” said Le Bris. “I said before that it is just a question of time for him in terms of improving with us. He didn’t score, but he will score, 100 per cent, the only question is when. But it is going to happen.”
Le Fee would have backed himself to score from the spot on Saturday, just a week after he had successfully converted another penalty at Brentford. This wasn’t a bad effort, but Raya showed why he might well be the best goalkeeper in the world at the moment as he flung himself to his left to claw the ball onto the upright.
Guimaraes had been jeered onto the field at the start of the second half, but he had the last laugh as he curled a superb finish into the top corner to open his account for Arsenal following his summer move from Newcastle.
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