When you concede a goal in stoppage time, you always have to say you’re disappointed with the result, but perhaps in the fullness of time this 2-2 draw we had at Sunderland yesterday won’t be seen as the dropped points it feels like this morning.

I was impressed with Sunderland as a side. They are well organised, they sit in a deep low block with bodies in and around their penalty area, but they also press high and intelligently. This isn’t a side that just push everyone up and press when we have the ball in our own defensive third; they pressed only at certain trigger points and it made for a frustrating first half for Arsenal for sure.

And the big worry once they’d gone ahead, was that we were going to get a ‘horseshoe of death’ game, in which we don’t create chances, we huff and puff, but the opposition just sit in their shape and head crossed balls away from their box. That was certainly what happened in the first half and with the first goal of the game it was certainly an industrial one that befitted the first half. Long ball, not challenged well by Rice, Ballard the beefy centre half steamrolls through and leathers one home. It was sloppy from Arsenal but it was the first effort Sunderland had in the game. I looked at the halftime stats and Sunderland had managed just 0.13xG from the game – practically all of that came from that goal.

The second half we were much better and you could tell instantly that it would not be like the first. We moved the ball quicker, we were finding pockets of space, we were moving Sunderland around and it was that man Saka who dragged us back level. Kudos needs to go to Rice for the turnover in the lead up to it, Merino did well to find a good weight on a pass and the finish on his weaker foot was sublime to be fair. We’re just used to seeing that from Saka but to generate that level of power and accuracy needs to be applauded I think.

And then it felt like we were on course to turn the game around. Zubimendi was unlucky to hit the underside of the crossbar, Eze had a couple of good chances, then Leo Trossard stepped up to leather his goal in from the edge of the box. I said it on my BBC Sport Fan’s Voice piece after the Slavia game last week, but Trossard has been sensational this season in terms of his output and that’s eight g’s and a’s that he’s bagged already this season. It was a finish that deserved to be the winner and as the game ticked down we’ve become used to Arsenal just shutting down matches and getting the wins, but yesterday was a weird game and of course we couldn’t hold on.

There had been warning signs before they scored their goal, which was a series of probably fortunate events that the ball seemed to land exactly where a Sunderland player was. Raya made a bit of a mess of the situation for the equaliser in stoppage time, but he’d also made a couple of really smart saves before then to keep Sunderland out, so we can’t say that the pressure had led to absolutely nothing for the home side. I was talking to The Management’s cousin who was at the game yesterday (Sunderland fan) via WhatsApp and he was obviously happy with the win, but he also said it’s possibly the best Sunderland side he’s seen – certainly in decades – so this isn’t a newly promoted club who are gonna go straight down. It’s a good side, a well organised side, a side who have already caused a few teams problems and did so for us. But I’m not quite sure I’d agree with some Arsenal fans and sections of the media that said it’s probably a fair result. We pretty much dominated from start to finish with a couple of pockets of time in which Sunderland took advantage of the little chances they had. We dominated in nearly every metric and should be speaking about another three points on the road. I think there’s a fair few of us who are quite sanguine at the moment because we’re still a bit of daylight between most of the clubs below us, but after the international break we have some really hard games that could easily see that lead at the top erode away.

The good news is that we’ll be getting back our attacking players after the international break and given where we’ve been this week with the lack of options, I think that’s cause for optimism, because yesterday showed just how unlucky I think we’ve been. Whilst Saka and Trossard were both there for us with end product, i thought Merino had a poor game. Hey, he’s not a centre forward and whilst it’s useful to at least have him able to fill in like he did in midweek, that sticking plaster only lasts so long and I think we had that last season after the initial goals against Leicester last season. He doesn’t provide the same running power, he doesn’t stretch defences and I didn’t think his overall link up play was that great, other than tee’ing up Saka for the first goal. But such is our lack of options, there wasn’t really anyone else to come in, unless you’re going to throw a Hail Mary and chuck Harriman-Annous in there. That’s just not feasible to ask a kid like that to go up against Sunderland’s robust defensive three and so I can understand why Arteta was reluctant. My hope is that after this current international break, we get a tone of good news, because it would be good to see some options for the North London Derby.

That’s just under two week’s away though, so for now let’s just take stock, accept the limitations of the draw and how impressive we’ve been with so many players out, then go again for the big one at home in 13 days time.

Catch you all tomorrow.