Eurosport - Sat, 21 Nov 17:00:00 2009
Arsenal suffered their first defeat since September as they lost 1-0 to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
Darren Bent's second-half goal was enough to see the Gunners lose for the first time since their defeat at Manchester City on September 12.
The loss was also the first time Arsenal have failed to score all season, having managed a Premier League record 36 goals from their opening 11 matches of the campaign.
Bent's ninth Premier League goal of the season came with 20 minutes to go after he rose to head Andy Reid's corner.
The initial effort was off target, but the ball rebounded off the leg of Fraizer Campbell and back into Bent's path, and the England striker got to it just before Manuel Almunia to score.
The win means Sunderland stay on eighth place, but they are now level on points with Liverpool.
Sunderland's Marton Fulop - in for the injured Craig Gordon - was the first of the two goalkeepers to be called into action after five minutes.
Fabregas acrobatically hooked Bacary Sagna's cross back into the centre for Tomas Rosicky to fire a shot that forced a good reaction save from Fulop.
Typically, Fabregas was at the centre of everything good about Arsenal's performance, and he had chances of his own as he fired two long range strikes over the bar in the first half.
With Robin van Persie out injured, Eduardo was the lone front man for Arsenal. The Croatia international exchanged passes with Alexandre Song but was off balance as he arrived in the box, and he shot chipped over Fulop dropped wide of the far post.
Sunderland made several chances of their own, with the best of them in the first half falling to Steed Malbranque. The French midfielder fired two shots over the bar in the space of a few minutes.
After a quieter start to the second half, Arsene Wenger brought on Andrei Arshavin on the hour mark. The Russian's introduction brought fresh impetus to the Gunners, but once they fell behind Wenger also threw on Carlos Vela and Theo Walcott, but to no avail.
Fabregas was at full stretch as he tried to turn in a Vela cross in the dying moments, but could not get a touch on the ball.
Comment 147 - 166 of 166
ha' way the lads
Patrick
I am sick and tired of so called resspective epl managers coming on to thetv and saying "if we had a full strentgh team out we would have won or played better" Prima dona's get nowhere, whilst workhorses plod on and get the job done. Come January, I think there will be further additions to the team to strengthen the squad and to push a few who think they are an automatic choice.
The defensive combination of Mensah and Da silva with Cana infront of them was class and stopped all the forward play from Arsenal.
Malc. Quite right. When Arsenal lose, Wenger comes out with the same old "we didn't play" cliche.
The man is so arrogant, he can't be generous in defeat and accept that other teams can play as well.
Sunderland in large parts of the game stopped a very talented team playing good football and scored the winning goal. Isn't that what football's all about?
Points taken from Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal... NO COINCIDENCE.
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interested in african football, players etc? visit africaplays.come
all these comments about how Arsenal didnt play well?? how about some positive comments about how well S/land played and played well to beat a top 4 side !!! Well done SAFC
HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I take back everything i said earlier. Arsene's little @#$% kids are Sunderlands @#$%. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAA HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Fabregas= @#$%. Arshavin=@#$%. Bendtner=?. Rosicky=Good player,@#$% team. Song= you guessed it, Prince Arsene, the Duke of Edinburgh is the biggest pile of them all. HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I take back everything i said earlier. Arsene's little @#$% kids are Sunderlands @#$%. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAA HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Fabregas= @#$%. Arshavin=@#$%. Bendtner=?. Rosicky=Good player,@#$% team. Song= you guessed it, Prince Arsene, the Duke of Edinburgh is the biggest pile of them all. HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Losing happens Arsenal supporters, u will get over it. I could have rubbed it in but i won't. I will however congratulate Sunderland for the win. (Spurs No1 fan)
and stop making excuses "oh are players are injured" u have the strength and depth and had years to build the team wev had 6 months and are still building
who are ya safc on the rise to european football and next year challenging for champions lge
Thanks Brendan c @ 138. you hit the nail on the head. the best comment by far. it is so unfortunate that most people here allow their snetiments to overwhelm their sense of reasoning. Arsenal will bounce back, and can, mark my word 'CAN' possibly win the league. just like Chelsea, Mna utd, Liverpool and others CAN. That is the view of reasonable football people.
There is nothing wrong with a team loosing a game, is sunderland not a premiership side? so what is the big deal if they win another premiership side. that is why it is a league, after all they won Liverpool and almost beat man utd at old traford. i think most people posting here do not understand the concept of football, we have 11 vs 11, sometimes the best 11 on the day wins, and sometimes the best does not win. Arsenal was poor against sunderland. get on with it, that's football. Arsenal played better than Man utd, but lost. This does not determine who wins the league, there is still so many games to be played. Any team can still win the league. Man utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Mancity, even HULL. Can any of you honestly put £100 that Chelsea will not drop ponts?. like Roy Keane frankly said... 'GET ON WITH IT' .
arsenal need to to really sort out their defence
Arsenal were not good enough.They must learn this lesson before an important clash against Chelsea.Come on Arsenal.
Chelsea was beaten by Wigan, Man U beaten by Barnsly... Sunderland won against Arsenal so that is the name of the game fools. The league is still wide open so relax. We will bounce against Chelsea!!
Arsenal showed again that they have not got that quality for big games and they will fall apart when a phisical team play against them ,,, they have won all their games against middle class teams in leagues and they are not competitive enough for the title ,,,,, they have to fight again for a place in CL for next season and try to keep their important players at the end of the season or winter transfer and in this case they are not also strong enough to do that .
ar.ss again? haha they should play with young girls.
chelsea we coming for u nex week. chesssslsssssssea 4 life
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Almost all Gunners were on International duty and Away match didn't helped at all
In contrast, almost all Sunderland players were fresh and had 2 weeks for training...
Otherwise, do you think, they would have matched Gunner's pace for 90 minutes.
Chelsea, ManU and Liverpool were lucky to get a Home match after International break...
But no issues...we will start another unbeaten run starting from Tuesday until end of seaon to be champions again.
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