Arsenal held by Sunderland at bay!

Arsene Wenger's students have played on Saturday a very important match on Emirates against the eight-placed, Sunderland. The stake of the game was represented by a closer position to Manchester United in the rankings.Hosts manager used the best seal possible, despite the fact that Arsenal will play in the middle of next week the final game against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. But the hosts could not count on the captain Cesc Fabregas , on the top scorer Robin van Persie and the wing Theo Walcott , all three being  injured and their absences have said their word.

Arsenal dominated the game from one end to another, but failed to break the lock of the defense side leaded by a goalkeeper in a day of grace, Mignolet stopping many times the hosts efforts to open the score. In turn, Samir Nasri,two times and Nicklas Bendtner were blocked by the French in the first half. Second half brought nothing new, hosts continued to miss, the largest miss being Chamakh 's bar. The guests could finally kick, but England's youth team striker, Danny Welbeck has got a great volley , but  Szczesny rejected it in corner, making it up for the League Cup final blunder from Birmingham's winning goal. It ended 0-0 and Arsenal lost two huge points in the battle for the title.

 The manager of the hosts said he was satisfied by his team's game : "I am happy with the way my students have played. The defense was very good, but they had a certain lack of creativity in the offensive phase. We had also two big mistakes of arbitration, especially at the stage when Arshavin was stopped for a non-existent off-side. A 1-0 win would have been very important for us. " 

The hopes of " the gunners" are heading for the English championship derby which will be held Sunday at Anfield Road between Liverpool and Manchester United. Wenger hopes the rivalry between the two combatants would materialize in a new failure for Sir Alex Ferguson's team, after the Tuesday one , a 1-2, suffered in Chelsea's ground.