Premier League weekend review: Sunderland vs Arsenal - Arsenal miss penalty and blow game in dying minutes
Arsenal went into their game on saturday with a glorious opportunity to go top of the Premier League table, they managed to get the lead early on in the game, however a last second equalizer saw the team drop two crucial points
in the game.
Cesc Fabregas, the Arsenal captain scored the opening goal for the team. The goal was somewhat a fluke but resulted in the captain injuring his ankle and being forced to take an early shower. Arsenal however looked like they would
still hold on to their lead and take home the three points, despite being cut down to ten men and missing a vital penalty.
However that was not the case, as the referee put the whistle to his mouth to end the game, Darren Bent managed to put the ball into the back of the Arsenal net. This came as a result of some bad defending, but the fact that the
goal was scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time, despite the fact that the referee had indicated a maximum of four minutes of extra time to be played, saw Arsene Wenger go into an outbursting rage on the sidelines.
This result saw Arsenal go one point behind Chelsea on the night, however after the weekend the difference was increased to four points as Chelsea went on to win their game on Sunday.
There were three major turning points in the game for Arsenal that ultimately saw them take home only one point from the game. The first most notable fact being that the team’s captain, Fabregas ended up picking an injury in the
thirteenth minute that prevented him from completing ninety minutes on the pitch and hence when he was substituted Arsenal lost a whole dimension to their attack.
The second was when Alexander Song was asked to leave the game for a second bookable offense. Arsenal were down to ten men in the fiftieth minute with almost an entire half to go and it was fairly obvious the numbers game was going
to take its toll on the team, sooner or later.
However despite all of that the one moment in the game that decided the outcome for the team, was when Thomas Rosicky missed a chance to take Arsenal two goals clear with a penalty kick. The midfielder sent his shot over the bar
and with it Arsenal's hopes of taking home the three points were sent out of reach.
Arsenal did a decent job of containing Sunderland in their home stadium, with just ten men but due to some poor defending in the last minute of the game, when the team is supposed to be giving it their all, Arsenal managed to gift
the home team a lifeline to salvage something out of a game that they didn't deserve to draw.
Arsenal will be going into their midweek fixture against Tottenham wth a point to prove and the fans will be hoping that the team can find a soulution to the teams ability to throw games away in an instant.
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