Arsenal 3 Sunderland 1: Mackems mangled at Highbury

Thierry Henry powers away from Jody Craddock

Reid brought his beleagured team down from the north east minus a good half dozen first choice players, with Gooner Kevin Phillips amongst the injured so the omens weren't good. Arsenal meanwhile had Keown and Bergkamp unavailable, but still fielded the type of team that could tear the opposition apart on present form.

Strangely, Sunderland emerged from the players tunnel on their own prior to the kickoff as opposed to the normal "side by side" entry on to the pitch that we're used to. Maybe we'd agreed to give them five minutes head start? - who knows. Sunderland were like the christians waiting for the lions, but any hopes that the Mackems had been harbouring about us not turning up were dispelled when Paddy led his band of lads onto the field some five minutes later.

The game was barely two minutes old when the ball was in the Sunderland net. I hesitate to say "back of the net" because it wasn't. Kanu fired the ball goalwards following a scramble, and the unfortunate Sorensen parried the ball away whilst he was a good two feet behind his goal line. The linesman obviously had a clear view of the proceedings, and David Elleray signalled a goal immediately. One-nil to the Arsenal, situation normal, and Reidy was no doubt sweating given that he'd probably been pleading with his players to defend, defend and defend again.

After nine minutes Kanu was on target again, this time with a goal of true quality. A lovely backheel by Ljungberg to Cole, a wonderful cross from left to right, and the Nigerian met the ball with his head, beating Sorensen all ends up. Two nil to the home team, and effectively "game over" as it was apparent that Sunderland are currently totally devoid of confidence and simply don't possess the attributes required to put up any sort of fight.

Minutes after our second goal, poor Thomas Sorensen picked up a nasty injury - possibly a broken arm - and had to leave the field to be replaced by Thomas Myrhe, formerly of Everton, and veteran of a couple of good Highbury hidings, notably in May 1998.

At the end of the fist half, during the five minutes added time, Patrick Vieira put us three-nil up and that was that. Sylvain Wiltord hammered a free kick through the Sunderland wall and the hapless Myhre could only push the ball out to Vieira, who headed home unchallenged. The whistle went for half time, and we wondered what on earth the final score would be given that the game was so one-sided up until that point.

Kanu and Gilberto celebrate the Nigerian's second goal

So, the second half, and Sunderland tried to get back into the game against the odds. Arsenal, as is often the case, failed to add to their tally of three first half goals. Some would say that they simply took their collective feet off the gas, indeed Thierry Henry was looking well short of the level of sharpness that we've come to expect from him. Of course he has a slight hamstring problem at the moment, therefore one wonders why Arsene Wenger waited until ten minutes from time to bring him off and give Jeffers a short run out - it's not as if we were chasing the game is it?

The heroic Jody Craddock pulled a goal back for Sunderland before the finish, and you'll probably not see a better header at Highbury for the rest of the season. It didn't help at the end of the day though - the stats still read twenty-one goal attempts for us against their six, and fifteen corners for us against their none.

So we march on, the records keep tumbling, and this rich vein of form continues. Seasoned Arsenal fans, whilst being amazed by what's going on at the moment in terms of results, have a couple of questions though: When are we going to have our "blip"? (it's always November isn't it?) .... and where on earth are we going to find room in the team for Robert Pires when he returns in a few weeks? - These are happy times indeed.