Arsenal went, at least temporarily, into a nine point lead in the Premier League with an ultimately comfortable 3-0 win over Sunderland at the Emirates yesterday.
A late change in our writing schedule has led me to metaphorically rip off my tracksuit and produce a report on the game which I viewed from inside the stadium and subsequently at home. As I did not take notes this will be more impressionistic than deeply factual.
One of the first things I noted on arriving at the ground was that both goalmouths are significantly worn. Not in the way that goalmouths would wear in the sixties and seventies when there would be no grass on the pitch after November. What has caused this is unclear. Could it be volume of matches with the stadium hosting a full season of men’s matches and most of the fixtures for our Club World Championship winning ladies side? Or could David Raya have single-handedly worn them down as he fannies around the six yard box when taking goal-kicks? Or has Jamie O’Hara the ex- Spurs pundit who I listened to driving back after the game, vandalised the pitch in an attempt to thwart our advance on the Quadruple? Listening to his pathetic claims post-match it made me realise that a village in Essex must be currently without its idiot and that this season is becoming a very painful one for many people. Especially if you are based in N17.
For the Sunderland match Mikel Arteta tweaked the team that reached Wembley on Tuesday. Raya returned but had one of his fortunately very rare days of slight eccentricity, Calafiori replaced Hincapie and also looked slightly off his best, Gabriel Jesus started upfront with Havertz in midfield.
Sunderland stuck with the side that had put Burnley to the sword on Monday and began the game in lively mood. They are the first side I have noted with a Mr. Brobbey upfront and he looked a difficult customer to deal with pinning Saliba on a number of occasions. Diarra was elegant upfront and Danny Ballard, once of this parish was the cornerstone of their defence.
Havertz headed wide in the first minute after excellent work by Trossard who had a very hardworking and effective game but left the field near the end with what looked like a muscle strain. Raya had fumbled an early cross which Brobbey drove towards goal only for Havertz to block his effort. It was an even contest with Sunderland looking neat and well-organised. Rice curled an effort narrowly wide but Arsenal weren’t able to dominate possession or pin the Mackems back. The game burst into life a few minutes before halftime when Trossard on the left rolled a short pass to Zubimendi and he hit a low shot with slight curl which beat Roefs on his right and entered the net via the right post.
Arsenal 1 Sunderland 0 – Zubimendi 41
Shortly afterwards Jesus was put clear through the middle took the ball around Roefs and was brought down. The refereee, Sam Barrett who was reasonably impressive, apart from being too lenient on a Brobbey charge on Timber, gave a penalty but then Jesus was given offside. Later the strange mechanistic drawings that PGMOL use to illustrate offsides showed Jesus with his feet in his own half but his head over the line. I suspect the knowledge that a penalty would force them to consider a possible red card for Ballard may have influenced their decision. Shortly afterwards Havertz picked up the ball in the outside right channel drifted inside and curled just wide. Arsenal had narrowly shaded a hard- fought first half in wet and windy conditions.
Halftime – Arsenal 1 Sunderland 0
Arsenal, as they so often do looked more energised as the second half began but Madueke who had begun well started to fade as his end product reduced and Jesus continued to be neat but peripheral in search of a second Arsenal goal. Meanwhile Talbi fired a low-shot which Raya saved with difficulty.
Arteta decided to make changes on the hour bringing on Martinelli and Gyokeres for Madueke and Jesus. Arsenal immediately began to hold a higher and more dominant press and on 66 minutes quick and clever switch passes by Trossard and Havertz set up Gyokeres who while off-balance managed to fire a shot past Roefs.
Arsenal 2 Sunderland 0 – Gyokeres 66
That seemed decisive and Arsenal brought on Eze for Havertz. Eze has attracted criticism despite some notable moments in his fledgling Arsenal career but his contribution was increasingly assured. Sunderland remained competitive but were not penetrative due to the vigilance of our defence where Hincapie replaced a rusty-looking Calafiori. Gyokeres was notably effective causing real problems with his muscular presence and neat in his build-up play.
When Norgaard replaced Trossard in injury-time, the Belgian looked to be suffering from cramp but we hope it is nothing more serious. He had a very good game combining ubiquity with skill and underlining what a terrific asset he has been since his signing three years ago.
Norgaard made a timely interception, early in injury time ,playing the ball forward and Martinelli used his pace and strength to move into the penalty area, draw Roefs and give Gyokeres a tap-in.
Arsenal 3 Sunderland 0 – Gyokeres 90+1
The natives are softening towards Gyokeres with good reason as he is the top scorer in 2026 of any Premier League striker. Yesterday he caught the eye with the intelligence of his moving and his pressing and it is possible that his confidence has been boosted by changing fortunes and this is reflected by the speed of his reactions. He has tended to score against the less vaunted teams but Arsenal have lacked someone who puts the lesser teams to bed for some time.
A scintillating Eze run almost set up Martinelli. This was a day when all of our substitutions worked well, increasing the energy and creativity of the team. Juggling minutes for our squad in the midst of this incredibly intense programme is a difficult challenge but one we’ve dealt with excellently.
This was a highly satisfactory result and a decent performance, putting us temporarily nine points ahead of C130y who celebrated the third anniversary of their charges this weekend. Nothing is decided yet or will be for some time but steady performances like this will help us closer to that elusive league title.
Full-time Arsenal 3 Sunderland 0
Nice work at short notice, TTG.
Excellent points re Trossard and Gyokeres, TTG. Trossard was indeed everywhere and lit up proceedings. Gyokeres looked rejuvenated by his recent goals, was linking up play and holding the ball up, both of which he struggled to do earlier in the season. Your point about us needing a striker to put away the kind of teams we struggled to beat over the past few seasons is very well made.
Excellent breach filling, TTG.
If Gyökeres gets the goals that turn a couple of draws and a couple of losses against the less vaunted teams into four wins, that is 10 more invaluable points a season, which alone would repay what we paid for him. I don’t think it is an accident that we have three centre-forwards of differing styles. Horses for courses.
Trossard was excellent again. He is the embodiment of Arteta’s demand for consistently high standards. He is not spectacular, which risks making him underappreciated, but, he is always busy and always contributing, and, as Mike McDonald says, he doesn’t have bad games.
Talking of consistency and not having bad games, Rice put in another 8/10 shift. These are becoming so routine, they barely merit comment (you mentioned him once).
One other thing that caught my eye was Eze’s ability to keep the ball towards the end of the game. Sunderland couldn’t get it back off him, frustrating their attempts to attack.
Adrian Clarke’s take:
I omitted to thank Pangloss for responding so speedily on a Sunday afternoon to put up the report .
Ned makes some very good points about Rice. He was quite outstanding yesterday as he was against Chelsea but his consistency can sometimes mean that we. overlook his quality In my lifetime Arsenal XI I have Vieira and Fabregas in midfield . The only recent addition has been Saka on the right side of midfield but I am seriously contemplating Cesc with Declan . Imagine Vieira and Rice in midfield !
Thanks TTG.
A fine report at short notice. Many thanks.
Pity about Chitteh winning but whatever as it’s
in our hands now. Onwards to Brentford and what
will be another tough game.
It was a pleasure to go for a sail in the boat with Mikel and the boys on Saturday, mostly a day of very fine cheer and calm waters. A good all round performance in which Declan excelled, Zubi and Leo were outstanding and Saliba, Noni and Cala will have better days. It was a pleasure to see Victor score a brace and, in doing so, prompt my young companion into a chorus of his song.
I suspect the waters may well be more choppy later in the week as the boat sails westward toward Brentford. Seriously waterproof gear recommended for all planning to attend.
NLFE
Cheers TTG. An enjoyable report from an enjoyable day at the match in my case.
I’ve always been part of the Leo fan club, so I very much enjoyed his performance on Saturday.
Nothing we can do about Liverpool vs 115, all we have to do is keep doing….what we are currently doing. Things are looking quite good.
Here’s to more wins and more randomly bumping into fellow ‘holics.
The latest GHF Predictathon leaderboard has been posted. Matchweek 25 brings a new leader — and he isn’t from Boston. Plus an escape from the relegation zone and the usual churn in positions in mid-table. You know where to find it…
BtM@7: I thought that, after an uneasy start, Saliba handled the handful that is Brobbey quite well, despite playing on a yellow card for an hour. The in-form Dutchman (three goals in his last five PL games) was only able to get off one shot, with an xG of 0.08, all game. He was subbed off near the end, so there was no chance of a repeat of his last-minute equaliser at the Stadium of Light that cost us a couple of points.
Thanks TTG – excellent stuff and especially at no notice 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
The meedja generally seem desperate to persuade everyone that City are closing g the gap on us. Actually, after the weekend, the gap is slightly bigger as we’ve increased our superior GD by another 2. We’re still in a wonderful position. Important to enjoy these times. Don’t let the hacks and pundits spoil it.
Trev nose.
Ned – msny thsnks for the Predictathon update – I think !
Excuse me for being picky enough to ask why it’s all dated 31st July, 2023 ? Sorry !
End of the World as predictathed, Trev?
Thanks for your excellent report TTG on a most enjoyable game to watch. Sunderland are a good team and we handled them expertly. I must agree about Saliba’s outstanding play after he got his yellow card. It is so much more relaxing watching these close games, as this was for most of it, knowing we have such a solid defensive team. COYG
Slowly sinking without trace, Ollie – thanks in no small part to that ridiculous mob down the road who I trusted to significantly improve. Should have known better !
Thanks TTG for an excellent match report – you relayed a perfect mix of facts and opinion.
It seems my old eyes must be deceiving me, the meeja saying our chances of winning the league are now gone yet I’m thought our 6 points lead was maintained with an improved goal difference – wtf!
Also thanks to NBN for his outstanding work in maintaining the predictathon. Like Trev I foolishly anticipated that Gooner Frank would improve the mob from the marshes – I shoulda known better.
Trev@13: That is either one of the great existential questions of our time, or a function of our WordPress setup, although I might take a quantum view that both states can exist simultaneously.
The bigger mystery is, how has TTG snuck into the lead?
Uply@17: You are far from alone. Only four players did not predict a top-half finish for the neighbours. Several thought they would qualify for Europe.
Restorative brandies on the bar for all Predictathon players. Competitors in the 1908 London Olympics marathon consumed brandy during the race — the Edwardian gentleman’s energy drink, if you will — so it has a fine sporting pedigree.
Thatvwould be a 5:30am brandy (my time), Ned. Donthe predictathon rules allow me to wait a few hours? If not, I agree to take one for the team. 🤣
Ned,
Some might surmise that I have resorted to underhand tactics to assume the lead . I thought I made it clear in the financial settlement we concluded before the season that my contribution to the Monks’ welfare was to be entirely confidential 😀
Thanks TTG for stepping into the breach at short notice and producing a most informative report of the action from which I only saw the second half on a dodgy stream that my son found on his iPad after we came off the slopes. A fine report of a fine victory yielding a critical three points. The Scousers let us down but we should focus only on what we can control. Onwards!
TTG@20: The benefits of a silent order 😉
bt8@19: Breakfast of champions!
Mulling that today might be the last before Thomas Frank gets his freedom from the Middlesex Marshes, I went to check the odds the gentlemen of the turf were offering on that eventuality, only to be surprised that Brighton’s Hurzeler is at even shorter odds for the old heave-ho.
@24 I was surprised at that too Ned, but another one I checked had little Scottie Parker and Frank vying for favoritism.
OM@25: There is a permanent perch in the frame reserved for Scott Parker.
Yep, he would certainly be in a managers rogues gallery.
@10 Ned, that’s fair and I’ve seen similar comments expressing the same viewpoint. If the pink Rolls Royce that sits proudly on my drive coughed and spluttered for the first part of my daily journey to the point where the local plod presented me with a strong warning, I’d promptly garage it in favour of the silver Roller that is my reliable back up. I was feeling similarly about big Willie on Saturday and pondering the possibility of a Mosquera introduction. Fortunately Mikel shared your view.
Thomas Frank get’s the tin-tack
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/feb/11/thomas-frank-sacked-tottenham-head-coach?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Alas poor Agent Frank, I hope we give him a good membership now,
If the spuds are willing to wait a week or so then I believe little Scottie
Parker will be available,,,,
De Zerbi has left Marseille ‘by mutual agreement’. So much for the idea that de Zerbi was the right manager for Nwaneri to do his loan.
My mulling @24 proved prescient. I really don’t understand why any self-respecting coach would take the job at the wrong end of the Seven Sisters Road. The club needs an even bigger makeover than we did in the late-Emery days. I guess we show that it could be done, but would need vision and determination in the boardroom to stay the course that the Lewis family has not displayed in either the Levy or post-Levy eras.
“We have been determined to give him the time and support needed to build for the future together,” a [Sp*rz] statement said.
Since Poch, who was sacked a month before Arteta started, the tenure of managers in the Middlesex Marshes has been, in days:
Frank — 244
Ange — 731
Mason — 43
Stelleni — 29
Conte — 509
Nuno Santo — 124
Mason — 71
Mourinho — 516
Not a lot of time, nor support, come to that.
Ned@32 – It would appear that them lot are still very much in the Levy era, just the optics have changed.
https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/the-club/investor-relations/shareholder-information/
Sorry to sully the pages of this august organ with the use of offensive words. Mea culpa, mea macina culpa.
Macina? Maxima…
Jeez, now I can’t even type my own moniker correctly….
I actually feel for Thomas Frank and I think he will do a much better job when he’s not trying to coach 22 misfits, deal with a hapless board who are incapable of running a club that has, whisper it, a lot of potential and trying to keep the most ignorant fan base known to the football world happy. Good luck Thomas and well done for moving on to something much better, even if it is sitting in a churchyard drinking white diamond cider.
CER@36: It only gets worse…
~@34: It seems to be Joe Lewis’s children, Vivienne and Charlie, who are now the movers and shakers of the neighbours’ ownership. Joe Lewis used to own THFC through his ENIC investment group, rather than his main business vehicle, the Tavistock Group. ENIC’s Bahamian subsidiary, in which Daniel Levy and his family have a just shy of 30% stake, is still the owner of record of the club, but ENIC is now owned by a Lewis family trust, and Joe Lewis, who has just turned 89, has stepped back completely. You may recall that he ran into a little insider trading unpleasantness in the United States a few years back. He pleaded guilty to the charges in 2023, but last November, that nice Mr Trump pardoned him.
The newly announced proposed expansion of River Plate’s stadium in Buenos Aires caught my eye for its applicability to the Ems. The Monumental is similarly hemmed in, so the plan is to hang a new roof with a tier of seats suspended from it over the existing stands. The supports for the new roof would more or less fit within the existing footprint of the stadium, although structurally independent of it. That would add 16,000 steats taking the capacity to over 100,000, and the construction could be done without interrupting the use of the stadium. The project has the advantage that the Monumental doesn’t have a roof, whereas the Ems does, which would have to be removed (and I don’t know if there are structural implications for the rest of the stadium if it is). Fascinating if expensive idea but ticks a lot of boxes in terms of the problems the Ems expansion has to solve, which we discussed in July https://www.goonerholicsforever.com/?p=11425.
Here is a video about it; there is about 5 mins of history before it gets to the nub of the new design.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>