10/11/2025 - Sunderland 2-2 Arsenal “Four Points Clear, But the Fear Creeps In”

All of a sudden, those nerves start creeping back in. If you’re an Arsenal fan you know exactly what I mean. Arsenal dropped points for the first time since the 21^st of September. But it feels like we have let Man City grab the momentum from us.

Arsenal now sit 4 points clear at the top of the Premier League table, SUPERB! Well, as Arsenal fans know all too well no cushion is enough of a cushion when you have the Norwegian Viking chasing you down. Now I don’t think there’s an Arsenal fan out there that wouldn’t be happy with this start to the season but everyone around the club knows what it feels like to have a cushion and see it fall away. The real question on everyone’s lips is are Arsenal going to bottle it again?

Over the course of the weekend these questions have reappeared. Man City put in the most complete performance I’ve seen from them since this time last year against the Champions Liverpool. That worries me. But to be honest after having time to cool down after the draw with Sunderland I realised that Sunderland played brilliantly. I’ll get to my one and only qualm in a moment but Sunderland need to be praised for causing Arsenal the most problems of any team this season. Saturday evening was the first time in a long time that I have seen both Saliba and Gabriel not only under pressure but beaten. Conceding two goals for the first time this season having played 11 games is out of this world, but this week it was David Raya who was the main man at the back. He reminded everyone of what a quality keeper he is, after working from home for the last 812 match minutes he really stepped up when we needed him.

So, my only criticism…the substitution. It took me straight back to covid when Arteta would bring on Rob Holding to shore up the game with 1 goal in it. Now Mosquera is a brilliant young player and by no means am I comparing him to Rob Holding but bringing a defender on when you are winning away at Sunderland instantly rang alarm bells for me. Arteta essentially told Sunderland that we are not leaving our box until the final whistle. When you change the entire shape of your back line that late into a game it throws off the whole press of the team. Eze was the right man to be taken off but we needed energy to keep a level of pressure on Sunderland. How you don’t have trust in your defence when they had conceded 4 goals in the league up to that point astounds me. Arteta also showed he doesn’t have enough faith in any of the other players on the bench that day. But like I said earlier Sunderland deserved the draw.

So, the international break now, then the big one, Spurs. A massive game in every sense, and with how they are throwing points down the pan at the moment it is simple, we must win.

If you haven’t gathered it yet this is where I plan to splurge my thoughts about my beloved Arsenal for the rest of the season. I have been an Arsenal home season ticket holder for 12 years since I was 11 years old. Lucky, I know. My Dad and I have seen it all, the highs of the FA Cup wins in 2014, 2015 and 2017, the lows; Xhaka getting booed off by his own fans, there being more away fans than home fans when Emery was failing. It’s been a long old journey as an Arsenal fan over the last decade, and it feels amazing to see how far this Arsenal team has come in recent years but like most Arsenal fans, I understand the reality… we must win a trophy this season. Without a doubt we are the best team in England and probably one of the favourites for the Champions League too. There cannot be any excuses this season, we simply must win. I’ll be releasing a blog after each game so stay tuned.

The Northbank Blogger.