Arsenal beats Sunderland 3-1 in Premier League

Sunderland sit fourth from bottom in the league table and will hope to extend their winning streak to three games when they take on fourth-placed Arsenal.

Arsenal, who need to win on Wednesday by any result other than 1-0 or 2-1 to reach the knockout phase of the Champions League, did what was needed on Saturday but will have to raise their game in Greece.

Arsenal battled their way to a vital win against Sunderland at the Emirates on Saturday, after the visitors produced an impressive display which arguably merited a share of the point.

Arsene Wenger’s men continued to control the tie but found themselves going into the interval on level terms after Olivier Giroud inadvertently turned a Yann M’Vila cross into his own net on the stroke of half-time.

“Yet these are not half-chances, these are golden chances and I think we’ve missed golden chances”.

The experienced Arsenal man showed better tempo on the ball in the first half and played a wider sort of role in the second half as Wenger made changes. “I had a chat with Alexis after his injury and he was adamant he felt ideal before the game because we tested his strength, stretching, all the signs we have we test every week were flawless”.

“We have proven we can score goals and could’ve scored a few today but unfortunately we didn’t”.

But Giroud made amends with a header from virtually the same spot, before Aaron Ramsey scrambled a late third. After a hard week, a victory was arguably all that mattered, and it came with the bonus of seeing Theo Walcott make his return from injury off the bench. And the absence of key players was only too evident in a performance that was far from being among Arsenal’s best.

But the defeat – coupled with Bournemouth’s win over Chelsea – sent Sunderland back into the relegation zone, prior to next weekend’s crunch visit of in-form Watford.

Sunderland are revitalised under Big Sam. Allardyce has won as many league games in six matches as former manager Dick Advocaat had in 17 (three).

“I prefer to be back in the middle of the pitch, that is where I feel more comfortable and feel like I play my best football – to grab a goal and get an assist was good for me as well. Frustrating day for us but I’m encouraged by the performance and sad for the players that they didn’t have their shooting boots on”, he said.