Individual errors were key to Sunderland again, as two big mistakes cost the home side against Arsenal, who left the North-East with a 2-0 win.
Sunderland kicked off the game, but were immediately on the back foot. The Gunners started off how they do best - dominating possession. The possession took eight minutes to turn into a goalscoring chance, with Kieran Gibbs, who scored his first goal in over a year against Anderlecht, was looking to make it two in a week, but his shot was poor.
Alexis Sanchez also dragged a shot just wide in the opening 10 minutes, before Sunderland grew into the game. The home side were playing a counter-attack style not unfamiliar to that of many Premier League sides, especially when playing against the big guns. The gameplan looked effective early on, as the Black Cats caught Arsenal out on a number of occasions. From their opening chance, they gained two successive corners, though couldn't threaten Wojciech Szczesny in the Arsenal goal.
Against his former club, Danny Welbeck curled a shot centimetres over the crossbar, with ex-Gunner Vito Mannone well-beaten. There was some controversy moments later, as Jack Rodwell went in two-footed on Calum Chambers. Gunners' players surrounded the referee but to no avail, and Rodwell was not punished for the challenge. Instead, Kieran Gibbs was booked a minute after the incident, having brought down a Sunderland player on the touchline.
The home side were proving tough opposition, and defensively were pretty stable, especially when compared with last week's 8-0 drubbing. Ironically, one lapse in concentration was to cost Sunderland, with Wes Brown mis-hitting a backpass to Vito Mannone, leaving Alexis Sanchez, who already had six goals this season, to go off and score his seventh. The Chilean attacker was left with 40 yards costless in front of him, quickly brushing off any challenge before coolly slotting past Mannone.
Arsenal created all of the chances after the deadlock was broken, with the home side barely being allowed to leave their half. Cazorla tried his luck from 25 yards, but his shot went wide, before the Gunners strung together a 50-plus passing move together on the edge of the Sunderland box, without an end product.
Half-time: Sunderland 0-1 Arsenal
Sunderland started the second half off much better than the first, and were already attacking the Arsenal goal just a minute after kick-off. Jack Rodwell was picked out in the box, but Calum Chambers did well to put the English midfielder off as Szczesny easily held the eventual shot. Rodwell was at it again about 10 minutes later, but again, his shot was aimed straight at the goalkeeper.
Chances were a rarity in the second half, but most of them fell to Sunderland, who had more control over the second half of the game. Despite this, none of the opportunities created were threatening to the Arsenal goal, whose win was never massively in doubt.
After Welbeck headed over from Nacho Monreal's cross, there was a huge chance for Sunderland to draw level. Szczesny and Hector Bellerin, who had come on for an injured Kieron Gibbs, both went up for a header. The goalkeeper won the header, but ended up scrambling on the floor, as the ball landed at the feet of Patrick van Aanholt, whose shot went well wide, with the goal gaping.
Santi Cazorla had the majority of Arsenal's chances in the second half, all of which went high and wide. It took until the 93rd minute for the Gunners to make the game safe, and another calamitous mistake at the back sealed the win for Arsenal. Vito Mannone was unable to deal with another backpass, kicking the ball with his standing foot and allowing Sanchez to nick the ball off of him, scoring his second of the day.
Full-time: Sunderland 0-2 Arsenal
| Sunderland (0) | Arsenal (2) | ||
|
|  |  |  |
| Mannone | 3 | Szczesny | 6 |
| Vergini | 5 | Chambers | 6 |
| O'Shea | 5 | Monreal | 5 |
| Brown | 4 | Mertesacker | 6 |
| van Aanholt | 6 | Gibbs | 6 |
| Cattermole | 6 | Flamini | 5 |
| Rodwell | 5 | Arteta | 5 |
| Larsson | 5 | Sanchez | 9 |
| Johnson | 5 | Cazorla 4 | |
| Buckley | 6 | Oxlade-Chamberlain | 5 |
| Fletcher | 4 | Welbeck | 5 |
| Substitutes | |||
| Wickham | 5 | Bellerin | 6 |
| Gomez | 5 | Ramsey | - |
| Altidore | 5 | Rosicky | - |
