Late Sunderland Review, Champions' League Preview

Hello,

We'll get right to it.  We lost to Sunderland.  We were without van Persie and had no ample replacement with Bendtner also out.  Eduardo was put in place but didn't fill the role adequately.  Nasri was fairly limp and didn't penetrate and Rosicky wasn't as active as we've come to expect.  Cesc played fairly well although he again struggled to find good deliveries from set pieces.  Diaby was missed as well with Ramsey filling in and playing far deeper than Diaby and not winning nearly as many tackles in the middle.  Song was our best player over all and we didn't play too poorly, just very, very flat and didn't penetrate as often as we would have liked.  That said we had a few chances that maybe should have been put away and I should also point out that without Diaby, either Nasri or Rosicky seems to me the better replacement as they have a spark and urgency going forward, where as Ramsey is a better replacement for Cesc. 

We let in a goal from one of their few chances.  Darren Bent reacted quickly after a fairly lucky deflection and we were 1 nil down.  It was hard to see us coming back at that point and the longer the game went on the less we looked like scoring.  Vela wasn't too great and when he went down the ref was spot on not to give a penalty.  We missed the final ball and the mobility and clever play of van Persie and a driving force in the midfield.  It's a true blow to our title chances, with each loss other losses seem bigger than before and should we not win today we could fall down a slippery slope as we have a tough patch ahead and need a couple of players back. 

Walcott, while ineffective against Sunderland will likely play today.  I expect them to hold tight and attack quickly.  Hopefully the game will open a little and we can get an early goal to settle the nerves.  Settled nerves and some assurance of our quality is needed tonight ahead of the now super crucial match against Chelsea on Sunday. 

It looks like we have Gibbs back and he may feature.  I wasn't very impressed with Traore at the weekend.  I also think Eboue will play and could provide a spark out wide.  It'd be nice to win the group and a win tonight will do that.  I'm looking forward to the match and am hoping for something of a pick up in performance and a rennaissance of creativity.  Let's hope whoever starts central today will do the business up front. 

Highbury86