Justice for Sunderland Against Arsenal

Justice was served at the near death in the Stadium of Light yesterday as Darren Bent smashed the ball into the back of the Arsenal net to earn Sunderland a deserved draw.

Arsene Wenger was left seething, complaining his Arsenal side were robbed of victory after referee Phil Dowd played on a measly 11 seconds to the “minimum” four minutes added time. It will not be a surprise to Sunderland fans as Wenger has never been gracious in defeat (it must have felt like a defeat!) and his post-match interviews after playing us in recent seasons have been rather embarrassing.

Excuses are the reasons of a weak man Arsene.

The Sunderland goal always looked like coming; it just so happened that the equaliser was the last kick of the match. After dominating so much of the play and looking the more dangerous of the two sides Sunderland would have left aggrieved had we not managed to gain a point, at the very least.

The scenes when Sunderland grabbed the equaliser were epic. Strangers hugging like long lost brothers and sisters meeting for the first time in years, shins bruised and left gushing with blood from scraping on the seats in front and the celebratory roar was like no other.

The game started well for Sunderland, having most of the play. But when the ball was played back to Anton Ferdinand in his own half, he was slow to clear and Cesc Fabregas was quick to pounce, blocking Ferdinand’s effort to clear the ball forward and fortunately deflecting the ball from 30 yards over the head of the stranded Sunderland keeper Simon Mignolet.

It was a freak goal.

Thankfully we kept our heads and continued where we’d left off, playing some great football and dominating the game up until the half way mark. The possession statistic at half-time apparently read 65%-35% in our favour. Not many Premier league sides could boast such dominance against the Gooners, a side renowned for their passing game.

The second half was similar to the first. Sunderland had the majority of the play but it was very much end to end stuff.

Alexander Song was shown a red card for his second yellow of the game. His first yellow was the result of consistent fouling and his second was a reckless challenge on Steed, leaving Dowd with no other option but to send him off.

I thought we would take advantage of the extra man after outplaying Arsenal for much of the game. However, Arsenal proved to be a much tougher prospect with ten men, tightening up at the back and breaking with speed on the counter.

Arsenal were becoming more and more dangerous and when Nasri was clumsily tripped by Elmo inside the area Dowd blew for a penalty. Rosicky stepped up to take it and reminiscent to Patrick Vieira’s penalty at the Stadium of Light many years ago he skyed the ball straight over the bar much to the relief of the Sunderland faithful. Game well and truly back on.

Sunderland continued to pile the pressure on Arsenal and were duly rewarded seconds from time. Clichy’s clearance from a goal-mouth scramble fell straight to the prolific Darren Bent who blasted the ball into the net.

Good result in the end. It’s a game we should have won but we put in a top performance and continue to improve. The future’s looking bright.

I’d like to add that it was refreshing to see a capable referee for a change. Phil Dowd is the best referee I’ve seen for a long while, it’s a shame we don’t see such consistency on a regular basis.