Arsenal 0 – 0 Sunderland
21 February 2009
The one positive to report from today’s extremely frustrating draw, was that Andrey Arshavin made a promising debut for Arsenal and looked to be our most dangerous attacking player, narrowly shooting wide in the opening minutes and then forcing the Sunderland keeper into a good save. He was replaced by Carlos Vela around the hour mark.
Apart from this, it was a mostly limp and depressing performance from Arsenal. We did create some opportunities but we squandered them all. We have dropped further points to lie 6 points behind 4th placed Aston Villa. Match report.
Captain’s notes – (Source) Cesc is targeting an April 4th return date according to today’s match programme. He said, “I have been working hard on the training ground.
“The doctors have told me that in the next 10 days or so I can start touching the ball again. The most important thing is working on my legs to build them up, which will take another three weeks or so. Hopefully, in five or six weeks I will be back playing. I am looking at the Manchester City game as a realistic comeback date.
“The problem with this injury is that it is on my right knee and on the inside of the knee, and of course my game is a lot about passing, I touch the ball 120 times per game, so all of the time I am using that leg.
“I have to make sure it is 100% cured before I come back. Especially because I am a midfielder – I play with the inside of my leg all the time. But it’s been great to be back at the club.”
Arsene Wenger spoke to the media ahead of the match, and said the following regarding the progress of some of Arsenal’s injured players, “Rosicky looks very good in training, he looks unbelievably strong. Fabregas looks good, Diaby will come back. Rosicky is three weeks, Cesc four weeks, Theo two weeks.†Of course 4 weeks away is March 21st not April 4th -so we will just have to wait and see. Let’s hope Cesc’s recovery and return to training is going well!
Cesc Fabregas attended the match and could be seen sitting behind the bench along with Rosicky, Eduardo and Adebayor. There are a couple of caps in the photos section.
Screen Caps – I have, at last, made bigger screen caps from the Nike V for Victory clips and added them to the photos section. I’ve also made some very simple Cesc Fabregas icons. These are very basic, sorry, but for those of you who don’t have photo software and like the V is for victory caps I thought you might like to be able to get some of them in icon size!
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That’s an interesting perspective. I don’t know if I agree George that the team turns in on itself but I do think in a team sport that if you have 10 great players + 1 journey man = you don’t really notice it, 9 great players + 2 journey men = you can compensate, 8 great players + 3 journey men = you begin to notice a slight drop in team performance 7 great players + 4 journey men and your team becomes only as good as it’s weakest links… that’s my theory that there is a balance and we have crossed some important line… but (I’m feeling a bit more optimistic today) we’ll cross back once our injured players are back.
thanks for fixing my comment Rosie
The trouble with Ade is he needs Cesc,,, he may as well not start while Cesc is out,,, he needs Cesc’s service
It’s hard to pin-point what is wrong,,, if you ask me the problem is not that the fans have stopped believing in the team,,, it is the clear signs that players in the team have no trust in each other,,, you see players like RVP so far out of posiition,,, just trying to get into the game,,, you hold your position and wait for service if you think it will come,,, but rvp has zero faith in that midfield and he comes back as far as the back four to pick up the ball,,, ffs
Arsene has created a problem imo,,, because there is such a gulf in class between team-mates,,, we might get fed up waiting for Song to be anything like a consistent and capable enough player for his role,,, but how do his team-mates on the pitch feel,,, team-mates have the ability to make each other look better and or worse than they are,,, there has to be a base line level of capability otherwise the team turns in on itself
hey now go easy on the Tevez… don’t hate him cos hes beautiful! haha
No calling Arshavin a hobbit… though I can see a certain ‘Sam Gamgee’ quality to him…
Plu, I commend your attempt to find the silver-lining but if we don’t finish in the top 4 then the team will deserve every piece of criticism they’ve had and then some tbh… they get paid well enough to be held accountable for the clubs results
lol You should sue Manchester United for cruelty!
Let’s just hope we get a DM and maybe a CB and that will be pretty great if we get that much! Although those positions were not the problem yesterday. After all we kept a clean sheet. Our problem yesterday was we didn’t create that many chances and we didn’t finish those we did – but still thinking ahead to when we have Cesc, Theo Dudu and Tomas back – I still think a DM is first priority signing.
Lol. I saw a gif of him dancing once. Oh dear lord I never want to see that gif again. I swear I was scarred. They need ratings!
lol. I think we can settle for David Villa. He is hot and a deadly finisher. Perfect combo
Lol. A virgin. Nice answer crouchy.Tevez x 2 O_o Haha!That made me choke on my chocolate bar with laughter:)
He’s a man u player. Tis ok to be mean.Ahem.
Tevez? I think Sky and Setanta should have to put up a Parental Guidance screen before they show him to give people a chance to get their children out of the room – is he a deadly enough finisher to make up for being the ugliest man in the universe? tough call.
Peter Crouch (in the best ever quote by a footballer) was asked what he would be if he weren’t a footballer and he said ‘A virgin’ well Tevez x 2
I shouldn’t be so mean
Arsene said in the Summer that our feelings towards Ade were ‘disappointed love’ well maybe he was right but now I feel I’ve moved on, I’ve gotten over that relationship and I want to start seeing other men loooooooooool.hmmmmmm…another striker to replace ade and his ‘disappointing love’….how about tevez?
hes probably just had a bit much asked of him a bit soon and that’s not his fault
Yep. That applies to half of our team sadly. But they aren’t doing awfully bad, considering how inexperienced a lot of them are.
Villa in the team would be amazing. And chuck Silva into the team and damn that would be a heck of a lovely dream team….And seriosuly the shortest.lol
Arsene said in the Summer that our feelings towards Ade were ‘disappointed love’ well maybe he was right but now I feel I’ve moved on, I’ve gotten over that relationship and I want to start seeing other men
Nicky Pink Boots Bendtner, sigh, he has scored some important goals and hes young – I don’t want to be too hard on him, hes probably just had a bit much asked of him a bit soon and that’s not his fault
I guess I wouldn’t really move 2 on but I think Villa is an unbelievable finisher – having him in the team – it’s a dream but it’s a nice dream lol
I did feel for Vela and I do think he should be given more time
damn. I was pretty certain they were the ones. *sighs* I mean they can’t get anywhere near Bendtner and Ade. O_o
Guess it has to be Vela and Theo then….and I’ll chuck in Arshavin (he’s played striker before right?) as another guess to be on the safe side that my guesses aren’t wrong. XD
I don’t think people should criticise RVP about missing in one match. People have their off days. And he has saved our asses so many times this season. aND here comes Andrey to take over:) Come on Andrey.Lol. But seriosly, yes we do need soemone to step up…..or even better if everyone stepped up a bit so we can get that ball in the net!! I’m not so worried about RoMa anymore because they play football, and we usually do ok against those sorts of teams. It’s just those that defend all the time that worry me.
I saw Vela’s chance on MOTD. Poor bb. He must have been replaying that in his head over and over again all night.Should have really scored that, but I can’t criticise him too much, as he’s one of my favourite players and I get really defensive over my favourite players.lol.
lol guess again
On a serious note, I’ve read a lot of criticism of RVP after yesterday’s game but the first chance he had was not a sitter, there was a lot of work still to do when the pass came from Denilson, sure would have been a great goal if he’d put it away – but he did not actually do that badly with it. He did not have our best chances of the game *cough*vela*cough* and anyway RVP carried our sorry arses right through January, he was due an off game. Players have a bad day at the office but usually someone else steps up and shines, it’s not RVP’s fault that didn’t happen.
looooooooooooooooooooooooool. Right. I’m hedging my bets on RVP and Eduardo right
lol I can think of two of our strikers where I would pack their bags and drive them to the airport myself
lol but seriously, yes we need a DM first and foremost you’re right 
I agree Rose. I had to get past my awwwwww he’s so cute moment before thinking realistically about what Arsenal really need. I would love it if we bought senna! I would take him over Villa, I think we have enough strikers.Unless two leave in the summer…which hopefully they won’t.
I love Silva but he is no where near the top of my wish list as there’s just other positions that need strengthening much more. With Arshavin I don’t think another pint-size AM is a priority.
If we’re looking at the Spanish NT I want an eats raw meat for breakfast killer instinct striker like David Villa or a DM like Senna before I want Silva.
LOLOL can you imagine as you say if we did have Silva the commentators on Sky and MOTD going on about Arsenal’s lack of height and steel and presence. Seriously, I almost wish we could get him, we could beat every one and then they could stick their steel up there — ok I guess I shouldn’t say that out loud
I’m a little sick of commentators this season.
Hiya Nastya. Your english is fine
I woudl love Arshavin to help take us to success and become a legend too 
I want cpatain cesc back too. I miss not seeing him on the pitch
It has been way too long.
I can’t wait to have our capi back!! I will be counting down the games
)
Came across an article from the daily mail saying Wenger wants Silva for £20 mill. Ah if only.Why are the newspapers still discussing transfers anyway? They are making me think of Silva in our midfield and damn I want him in there now. Lol. No chance of that though. No way Valencia would sell him for 20 mill.And we need a dm! It would have been amusing though. If we hypothetically did sign Silva, then I think we would have a case for having he shortest team. I didn’t realise how samll Arshavin was until I saw a pic of him from yesterday’s match with Wenger. Blooming heck he is short O_o.
I hope Arshavin become a legend of Arsenal as soon as possible. Sorry for my english-I’m russian girl.:-)
which means he realises that our cm pairing couldn’t deliver a pizza looool. Seriously, reading the comments on here make my day.
Jilli- I doubt Cesc would leave, because he has not had much of a shot at being captain due to the injury .He is bound to want to achieve something as captain (otherwise what would have been the point of accepting the captaincy?), before he thinks of moving on. So I’m not worried about him yet. I’m more worried about RVP, what with his comments yesterday. But hopefully he will stay, as Arsenal have kind of put in a lot of trust with him, what with all his injuries. Gallas I think would be the one most likely to want to leave, but I guess everyone kind of knows that was going to happen. It would be a shame though as he has been very good for us lately. Adebayor maybe as well….who knows….lets just hope we win something or another. I mean its not like we couldn’t have won 2+ yesterday comfortably. We just messed up our chances really bad.
NZGooner- I am also sceptical about Denilson’s being a key role against Rome. Let’s hope he surprises us all. I’m starting to feel a bit sorry for him to be honest. He’s still really young and everyone is writing him off as being rubbish.It’s not his fault he has been thrust into such a young team to compete at the highest level. And it is going to take time for him to develop.I just don’t think its fair on him to expect him to be key to the midfield.
I did not see the match but I have read many places it was worst game of the season I swear people say that about every match we draw/lose this season. And I wouldn’t say it was the worst as we didn’t lose did we?Our low points were certainly at the start of the season, where we lost against the likes of fulham and hull city (I’m not saying that they are not good).I remember earlier on in the season we created practically nothing for a few games, and I was really worried about the fact that we were creating no chances. Now, we are creating plenty,we are just not finishing them clinically.And I’m aware that is a bit JUST but on reflection, the team has not been doing as bad as people make out.True we may not get 4th spot this year, but who knows. Maybe getting 5th would be a good thing as it would give the players a kick up the backside and we will come back stronger (especially with our players back fit). And hey, the UEFA cup is still a trophey. Plus, if we had a whole team fit, our starting eleven would be pretty damn good. The only problem is we don’t have effective back up when we lose key players.But then again, by next season the back-ups will be one season more experienced.
And this has been a long post so I’m going to stop talking before I bore you all
What we have to hope for Sambo is that Villa has one almighty collapse. That they keep on dropping points week in and week out until we get our act together enough to take advantage!
to be fair nzgooner, it’s not only Denilson and Song. Nasri has been very inconsistent and our finishing has been poor all season
I can’t wait to have Cesc back… even if it’s too late to save this season (tho hopefully we still can!) at least Fab is a joy to watch and makes us a better team.
It would just be good to win more games and score a few more goals!
Jilli is right! It’s easy to feel discouraged but if we keep the faith and the team comes good we’ll be able to brag that we never gave up on the team, even in the bad times! So let’s hang in there
Don’t give up! We might win the UCL XD it’s been a weird season if we just make it past Roma we’ll have our injured players back and we could do it!!
I did not see the match but I have read many places it was worst game of the season
Well things can only improve let’s hope! Must be sad for Capi Cesc to see his team not doing well.
You are the best Cesc, please come and help us soon!
Hey now don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting the club rush Cesc’s return… far from it.
I’m just starting to think that with the way things have been going, it may be too late for us to salvage 4th by then.
Let’s see now, if we won every single one of our remaining games we would need Villa to lose twice and draw once for us to take 4th. That’s if we go on a 12 game winning streak starting now. Was there anything about yesterday’s game that said 12 game winning streak to you?
Look I hope I’m wrong, I just think by April 4th we could all be looking ahead to next season. Hey with a bit of luck we might still be in with a real shot at the FA Cup. It would be great to win something but at this stage that’s the only thing I see us having any shot at.
Any time the team wants to step up and give me some, any, reason to feel optimistic I will be happy to take it!
Sambo if Cesc is back for Man City,,, then he’ll play 8 of our 12 remaining PL games,,, and our next 4 are West Brom Fulham Blackburn and Newcastle so these are pretty much the easiest of our remaining matches,,, which is not to say we are going to win them all as we didn’t beat Sunderland,,, but they are all winnable games,,, so if Cesc can come back and help us win our last 8 that could make a big difference,,, if and it’s a mighty big IF,,, we can win our games between now and then.
This next match against Roma,,, we’ll probably win,,, the team will be psyched and will turn up and beat them after drawing with Sunderland,,, because that is us this season
I give up on this season. Hope next season is a good season now. I never follow uefa cup before.
Cesc + Eduardo looked cute in the stand but we need them to play. Bad game
TA agree with you about the lack of urgency but I think the team was like that for the whole 90. I could diss certain players but really it’s a team failure. Arsenal = epic fail
C’mon Sambo, cheer up we’ll have Eddy and Theo back soon. We might still be in a lot in 6 weeks certainly both cups and also we may have a shot at 4th.
I’m glad the club is being careful with Cesc, he’s young and they need to make sure he’s going to be 100%
Hey nzgooner, I added the quotes from Cesc and he is saying 6 weeks now. Still best be safe than sorry with these things but … April might as well be August now… as really where are we going to be in 6 weeks?
I won’t say too much because really we all know how bad we were but what we think doesn’t matter. We have to hope like hell that Wenger has some sort of plan. I suspect that he has committed himself to a few too many players based on their promise. Given them their chance and then they haven’t fulfilled it and there is no plan B. There is no depth, no competition. Our season depended on Denilson and Song stepping up. They haven’t.
Wenger says Denilson has a key role against Roma, God save us all.
So much for Cesc being ahead of schedule if he is looking to return in April.
we’ve drawn our last 4 games the last 3 were nil all draws.
this team doesn’t seem to have a third gear and right now we simply aren’t a top 4 side, we’re not good enough.
gutted. we had to win that. we had to win all of the last 4 matches. imagine where we’d be in the table if we had. if we didn’t always draw
miss you captain cesc
i hope our great players like cesc won’t leave if we don’t finish in the top 4 =(
At least Wenger isn’t blaming the ref but is talking about our passing, which means he realises that our cm pairing couldn’t deliver a pizza let along a decent through ball
Here’s Arsene’s comment
I haven’t found any pics of Cesc from the match yet but there should be some and I’ll put them up later but we have to go off-line for a while now sorry.
I agree we basically sucked the big suck of suckingness. But I did want to put in a word for Almunia who actually didn’t suck and in fact kinda saved our collective arse.
Roma now there’s a scary thought!
that was truly deeply painful. we were so disjointed and so slow about everything we did. we wasted the best chances we got but apart from a couple of moments from Arshavin I never felt like we wer dangerous
their weren’t any bullets in our guns
Aww. Shame. I really wanted to see him given more opportunities, but looks like he can’t take the pressure at the moment judging on other people’s comments.
Oh god, we have Roma on Wednesday. Completely forgot about that……..
Hi Plu, poor Vela had a nightmare game. He missed two of the best chances we had and he just never got into the groove. It was a shame he did really well on Monday but young players who aren’t first team regulars are prone to being inconsistent and he really proved that theory today.
Sam, I know we ‘sucked’ but we have a lot of injuries we have to make some allowances.
Kk. Thanks Sam for explaining.Ah. Thats not good.This team….argh….I think I’m going to start looking forward to next season soon….
When the crowd wants to express itself…booing is a blunt instrument but what methods are open to them? It’s hard to put together an articulate petition signed by everyone on the spot.
Arsenal’s midfield were unimaginative, passes were tame, weak or wayward, we play static ball these days not Wenger ball, the whole team plays with a lack of urgency for 70 minutes and then like headless chickens for 20. How do people say, “excuse me, please stop telling us Denilson is good enough, Song is good enough teams are outplaying us easily in the middle”.
I don’t want those players lambasted, they’re young and they’ll get better…I just don’t want the first team to be the place where people serve their apprenticeships and teams like Sunderland take us to task.
ok. What happened to Vela? What did he do? I’m looking at the player ratings on AM and some of the ratings for him are really poor and one didn’t have a rating, and just said oh boy. Did he muck up a really good chance?
it’s dissapointed….
Hiya Plu
The crowd didn’t boo until the end, they booed the team off the pitch and I’m not excusing them but if you get a chance to watch the game… well actually unless you are a masochist, you probably don’t want to watch the game… but if you did… you would understand maybe a little bit… that Arsenal really sucked big time and I don’t say that about my team lightly. I don’t bag Arsenal for the fun of it but we sucked.
They were booing?!Ok, deep breathes so I don’t feel like punching the screen.
Siiiiigh! The ref was a pillock but at the end of the day that isn’t what cost us 2 more points. We couldn’t have finished a cup of tea today. Poor vela had a ‘mare. I felt for him. RVP, Gallas, Bendtner, Toure – half the team managed to shoot wide or at the keeper almost everyone had a chance they could have done better with – it was one of those matches where you just want to throw your screen out the window.
I don’t agree with the crowd booing the team, I sympathise with the frustration levels, but we shouldn’t boo our own players.
I’m not giving up on 4th yet. I know we have made it almost mission impossible but I won’t give up until it’s mathematically impossible.
I am depressed though, Arshavin did well, but I’m with you fonz lol it’s not enough to cheer me up either!
I thought we would make up ground today,,, there goes that plan
I can’t remember a time in the last 10 years where we looked so likely to finish out of the top 4,,, I need a drink
This was not the result I was expecting when I logged on. Sheesh. Do they want 4th fricking spot or what? And then I hear also that Robin says he will only sign another contract if the club is ambitious. I don’t want him to leave at the end of the season because we don’t win any trophey’s again, or because we end up in a uefa place….*sighs* Well at least if we win the Champions League, we have a Champions League spot next year, regardless of whether we finish outside the top four. I’ve decided to be pessimistic and assume we are getting a uefa spot- that way no disappointments.
Good to hear that Arshavin did well. I’m actually glad I was working though, and not watching as I would have probably had a gazillion heartattacks through the match. Hope you are all faring well!
Andrey had a good debut…that’s all I’m going to say…because my mother taught me that if I didn’t have anything good to say I should shut up and … I really don’t have anything good to say.
I can’t wait for our injured players to come back, especially our captain… but we need them like yesterday
shit!
I reckon Cesc on one leg would have been created more than Song or Denilson did on two. Seeing him on screen along with Eddy and Rozza was kinda painful. I don’t know if we’ll still have a shot at 4th by the time they are back
Arse-shaving done good for the new kid but nothing could cheer me up today
I really don’t know what to say. We were so woeful. How did we get to be so bad. I know we have injuries but I still don’t understand a performance this bad.
It’s a pity Arshavin couldn’t have begun on a happier note as he did do well for his first outing and I think he will adapt well and quickly. I think he will be a big success but I don’t know that our season can be turned around now we only have 12 weeks left and we have a tougher looking fixture list than Villa…
Come on you Gunners…
Well of course I wanted a draw so bloody Chelsea won still I guess Aston Villa have dropped points and hopefully they are going to start doing a lot of that!
Anway whats important is that we do the bizzo now!
Andrey is starting!
Here’s the line-up
Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Toure, Clichy, Nasri, Denilson, Song Billong, Arshavin, Bendtner, Van Persie.
Subs: Fabianski, Vela, Ramsey, Djourou, Eboue, Gibbs, Merida.
Go Gunners!!
you never know george, andrey might start seeing as he can’t play in the CL and when he does… the best hair ever seen in the epl will be on the pitch… woo hoo!! I hope his game matches his tresses!
A draw would be a good result for us but the main thing is winning ourselves. We just have to take care of picking up full points from here on in and let everything else take care of itself!
As arshavin may not start,,, let’s let him off with 1 goal eh Sambo!
I guess a draw between av and chel$ki would be best,,, if Chel$ki lose and we win,,, we can get within 2 pts of 4th,,, anyway let’s just win it!!
Here’s to a draw between Aston Villa and Chelsea and a win for us! That oughta go a long way towards helping us out! C’mon lads seize your chance to make up some ground!
Great! I love that shoot so much I can’t get enough caps from it!
It will be a tough game today as Sunderland will probably park the bus but we can do it. Go Gunners!
I hope Andrey is going to silence Sunderland. Don’t wanna put to much pressue on the guy for his first match tho… a brace should do it! Come on the Arsenal