Good poacher's goal, you have to say.

That’s gutting.

Surely the most biased commentary from sky for some time.

A point gained from half time but two points lost at the end

Overall a point there isn’t bad

Frustration we didn’t finish them off at 2-1

Very aggressive play from Sunderland who did not let up. We did give the initiative away after going ahead. Players need a rest and re-set

Took the foot off the pedal. We were by far the better team.

Just a bit too passive after we went ahead. Surely the situation was tailor made for Nørgaard? But in the end I suppose its a good point away to a form team.

Hopefully that doesn’t give other teams a template - we didn’t look good until the second half, and that was a soft goal to give away at the end.

Eze needs to step up more and fulfill the pre-signing hype. Not sure what his role is, and he doesn’t seem to know either.

At the moment Ødegaard will be straight back in when fit.

It was very good performance

Our Xg 2 and Sunderland scored 2 from Xg of less than a half

Unlucky to not win

2 weeks break will do us a lot of good.

Looking forward to mashing Spuds and increasing our lead at he top.

Pig sick
I had an uneasy feeling about this all week.
Turned it around brilliantly and should have gone for the kill.
But the *%^@ers wouldn't lie down.
That ball is usually food and drink for Raya.
Shouldn't be conceding from that.
Deflated but this was a tough tough game.
I hope they are that geed up when city and Liverpool visit.
Did we hand the initiative by bringing on Mosquera and taking off Eze.
On Eze he has to impose himself more.
Strut his stuff and grab a hold of the game.
He seems to be playing it safe and not being more risk taking.
Not a bad result but we should have won.

Yep. Really important not to lose going into the break. With hopefully Gyökeres, Jesus, Madueke and Havertz close to returning….

We’d have deffo won today without all the injured forwards

The Brobbey goal was clear foul too. Boot is at head height.

Nah Gab had his head low. It was 2 bits of poor defending that cost us. Rice letting the ball bounce for the first and Gab caught wrong side for the second. Fair enough taking Eze off but I would have brought on MLS.

All this nonsense about its Arsenals title to lose.
Just setting us up for the fall.
In a good position but its just turned November ffs

His head wasn’t that low, it is marginal

But Raya is standing and Brobbey is kicking at Raya’s shoulder height ish

Very strong case that is dangerous play

Trossard has really benefited by having so many minutes. He just looks totally sharp and on it. Apart from his other attributes, he's become very effective against the low block, with his little shifts to find space, and incisive passing. One of our players of the season so far.

Agree. He’s been a great signing. His goal today was unreal.

Gutted, should have defended harder outside our penalty area. Dont let them find a pass.

Fortunately he didn't go on loan

Calm calm calm.

Was never going to be a procession. And we were never going to win all the game we expected to win.
We have the biggest injury crisis of any of the top teams. International break comes at a good time.
Today was one of the games, on chances, territory etc we dominated and should have won, ref was poor gave them the marginal gains but we go again. No need to make a catastrophe out of it.
The presides from outside is such that every game we have to win otherwise it’s a disaster….ignore it. We’re the best team in the country with the worse injury crisis at the moment.

Take the two week break get some players back and go again

Absolute rotten ref performance. The classic home ref. No big decisions on the goals but all the little decisions going their way helps so much

Yup. 9 times out of 10 we win with that performance. We did well not to panic and to keep playing the way that would give us the best odds of scoring, but with increased intensity and precision.

Speaking of percentages, is it really the best tactic to start sitting back and hoofing long clearance in the last few minutes? Aren't we good enough to keep possession a bit better? The comms were praising Sunderland for dominating possession after we scored, but was that because of something they were doing, or was it because we kept giving them the ball?

The other issue was not always being positive on transitions when we were 2-1 up. There was one where Eze seemed to have a good opening right in the middle of the field, but chose to play it back. Then after a couple more passes it is hoofed aimlessly forward and we lose possession anyway.

As I said, 9 times out of ten we can hang on for 15 minutes playing like that, so it is not a major grip. But is it giving us the best odds?

It irritates me how refs officiate the same incident completely differently when it’s in the penalty area or when a goal is scored.

In the penalty area we’re told now ANY touch on the ball means it can’t be a foul and a penalty. This doesn’t apply anywhere else on the pitch as we saw with Zubimendi’s tackle for their first goal.

Sunderland’s equaliser in the middle of the pitch with Gabriel going for the header is a high foot 99 times out of 100, but in the act of scoring a goal refs change how they would normally officiate the situation

We’ve had a few 50/50’s go our way at the start of the season in the Man U game and with the penalty Dowman won v Leeds but since then we’re not getting them, 2 cancelled penalties and yesterday.

Flagged a few weeks back but there are some issues with Eze. It’s early days but he’s on the periphery of games. He’s undoubtedly a talent but I’m not sure where he fits right now. He has the ability to win matches and have a moment like the volley he scored the other week but as others have pointed out Ødegaard will come straight back into this side when he’s fit and that leaves me wondering where Ebs fits in. I actually think Nwaneri might be more industrious generally in the midfield role.

67 million quid is mega money for Arsenal and it’s obviously very early days but there might be a problem there if they can’t structure his role in the team. It wasn’t just yesterday it’s quite clear he’s not in tune yet.

https://x.com/asnyder0913/status/198724 ... -j6VVZXEoA

This is just awful from the ref. Allows the injured player back on the pitch on the blindside of the player about to receive the ball.

On reflection, it's a decent point - however having re-watched Pawson is a terrible referee - every single marginal decision went against us and this clearly influenced the game

Ballard elbowing Merino in the head, could easily be a penalty and red card, looked premeditated to be, elbow swung into Merino

Sunderland's first goal - blatant foul on Eze as Xhaka went right through the back of him - ignored by Pawson who was in perfect position who then yellow carded Zubimendi for less of a foul

Ballard had two hands full of Rice's shirt to pull Rice out of the way too

The Brobbey goal is marginal too - his foot is high - Raya is standing and Brobbey's foot is about collarbone height as he connects with the ball - both Raya and Gabi's heads are close by - that could easily be deemed dangerous play

There is zero chance Sunderland get a draw without this atrocious refereeing letting everything Sunderland did slide

Totally Rich - it's bias - there is no way we get to score after such fouls - VAR would intervene and rule them out - the threshold is driven by bias and is far from objective

This weird narrative about Arsenal being long throw specialists continues. Sunderland moved their advertising boards in to stop a long run up for long throws. It’s crazy, Sunderland rely on and take more long throws than we do. We haven’t scored from a long throw and rank roughly in the middle of the league for long throws attempted.

Interviewers even asked the Sunderland manager about it. It’s so weird, why is there not a single person commentating on football who just corrects them with easily attainable stats and facts?

It was a game we should have won irrespective of the late goal, just based on the quality of chances and domination we had. The expected goals against was virtually exactly the same as in each of our last 8 games (except Brighton), we’re conceding between 0.4-0.5xG in 7 of those 8 games and didn’t concede a single goal, Sunderland had the same quality of chances as all those other teams had who barely laid a glove on us but they scored 2 goals.

Meanwhile our xG was 2.2. Higher than all but 1 of our last 8 games.

Football in this country has a massive problem with over supporting the underdog. The 100% consensus yesterday will be Sunderland deserved ‘at least’ a point- but if the game was played exactly the opposite and it was Arsenal with the last gasp equaliser with only our second shot on target having no been battered by Sunderland all second half the reporting would be totally opposite.

So why is there the need to pander to the underdog. No one challenges it because no one wants to punch down, you can only punch up. This is in built to our entire nation at every turn and in built in to referees who far too often see it as their job to level the playing field. Yesterday was a prime example

I don't have a problem with supporting the underdog per se, what I do have issue with is the inconsistency in judging incidents

For example if Gabriel does that elbowing to the head then he's probably red carded

If Jesus scores that with a high boot, I bet you VAR overrules it

If we score after a blatant foul in build up (Xhaka on Eze) then it will not be brushed over in the post match analysis

etc

Show some grace ffs. The ref did ok. Only a child thinks a ref will get every single decision the way we want it. Some decsions are marginal. Their equalising goal was fine. Poor defending was the issue.

Injuries hurt us in that game. With a fit squad there would have been 2-3 attacking subs to see out the game.

We’re playing our 5th choice striker!

Liverpool minus Isak, Ekitike, Gakpo, Chiesa….what does that front 3 look like?
Man City minus Haaland, Marmoush, Savinho, Foden(?)

They’ll both miss a key player when AFCON starts

Grace?

I'm not going to twist reality to pretend Sunderland deserved a point, as Rich points out we created way more than them - they got lucky down to getting all these marginal calls and they finished well

That is it

plus I don't have any grace ;)

https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/4 ... gue-season

Here is the analysis. Sunderland take the 3rd most long throws in the league, they generate the 3rd most shots from long throws and generate the equal second highest xG from long throws. Arsenal have taken the 9th most long throws

And yet everyone is lauding Sunderland for bringing in the advertising hoarding to stop Arsenal’s long throws. What genius at Sunderland decided to do this, and why is there no one anywhere on any tv, radio, print who is able to do what I just did with 5 seconds of googling.

I swear when it comes to Arsenal people almost go deliberately stupid

[Tweet]https://x.com/footyhumour/status/1987476151879582026?s=46&t=fkwaCrtFB5yR-j6VVZXEoA[/Tweet]

More evidence for the outstanding quality of officials we have in this country. Zero incentive to improve. They mark their own homework and have given Sky pointless access to Howard Webb in return for zero criticism

On the one hand, yes, if he'd had a full bench he would have brought on Martinelli etc to replace the forwards, for sure.

On the other hand, he had Nwaneri and Nørgaard but instead brought on a defender and we fell back into a defensive laager. So I don't know if that was forced by the quality on the bench, or is just the way Arteta thinks we should defend a lead with a few minutes remaining.

There is no deserving. There are no marks for style as Mourinho used to say. The only things that count are goals. We had most of the play and on that should have translated our superiority into goals but we didn't. That's football. We've all seen teams absolutely dominate the other team and end up with a point or even losing it. These things even themselves out over a season.

Listening to Newstalk one commentator said as someone posted up thread, Sunderland will be a tough place to go for all teams and a draw wasn't the worst result. Another on the same programme suggested 12 months we migh well have lost that game. We are doing well given the injuries we have had.

Everyone?

Indeed. He replaced an attacking midfielder with a centre back. That is a move to concede possession and defend our box. It backfired because Gabriel amd Raya made a right mess of things for the goal. I thought it was strange that he only made one substitution in the whole game.