I thought that was a hard-earned victory yesterday against Sunderland.

They’re a good team. A physical team. A team who know their strengths and is good at reducing its deficiencies. The data nerds may well raise an occasional eyebrow at how well they’ve done this season, but having watched them frustrate us and stifle us in the first half yesterday, I have to admit I’m surprised that their away form has been a bit, well, pants.

It took a bit of Zubi magic to unlock them, which then also meant they would have to come at us a little more, but I was still impressed at how hard we had to work. Zubi’s scored more goals than he’s ever done so before, but I bet if you asked him, he’d tell you that his highlights reel for this season has never looked as impressive. I love a goal that cannons in off the post and that one just before halftime felt particularly aesthetically pleasing. A real ‘have it!’ moment and worthy of winning any match alone.

It’d been tough going up until that point though. I thought Calafiori looked oddly at sixes-and-sevens at points in the game, perhaps still getting up to match fitness, but there was also a couple of weird moments in which Raya was a little sloppy too. Thankfully we weren’t punished, and in fact we did what we tend to do with these kinds of games – we basically locked out Sunderland for most of the match (Opta had their xG for the whole game as 0.17). Apparently Sunderland had three shots on target, but I’m struggling to remember whether Raya was troubled by any of them. Last weekend Daniel Farke spoke about how they essentially just don’t get a sniff and this week whilst Regis Le Bris didn’t exactly say the same, I’ll bet he was thinking it.

One-nil to The Arsenal at home earlier in the season felt like ‘job done’. But in 2026 so far we’ve conceded a few goals despite being ahead, so it did feel as though the stadium might get a bit antsy if that scoreline remained until the dying embers of the game. But thankfully we have a striker in form in Big Vik, so him bagging that goal on 66 minutes did make me feel like the game was essentially done. He’d only been on the pitch for six minutes, but his introduction clearly proved to be a master stroke by Arteta. His replacement Gabriel Jesus had hardly been in the game, same as Madueke, but the two coming on will have made their case to start against Brentford in midweek quite clear with their end product. Martinelli on the right is an interesting one; he’s barely ever been utilised there during Arteta’s time, but finds himself getting a few minutes here and there this season. Hey, if he can deliver like he did for Vik’s second in stoppage time, maybe Madueke shouldn’t be the defacto ‘next man up’ when Saka isn’t available.

It’s probably more to do with game state though. At 2-0 on 66 minutes, Sunderland are goingt o push forward a little more to see if they can unsettle us, plus with the fact that they are already basically safe, this one becomes a bit of a Hail Mary free hit of a remaining 25+ minutes as soon as we get the second goal. So perhaps that kind of game, where there is space, where there are moments in which Martinelli can run in behind like he did on 93 minutes, are perfect and the reason that he’s looked so good when coming on as a sub.

The same can probably be said for Gyokeres too. I really liked his first finish. It was instinctive. It was poachy. It was a good strike and a big to relief to all involved. At the start of the season I was very much minded to say if he gets 20 goals in all comps, then he’s done his job. That’s 13 now I believe, with plenty of football matches left to play, so if he keeps up this form, he’ll get to his target. We still need the other attackers to step up, for sure, but at least we have a goalscorer who will be feeling himself a bit after bagging a fair few goals over recent weeks.

Now there’s an opportunity to rest up, for those players to have a solid few days of light training, before a really tough away game to an in-form Brentford team on Thursday. This league is relentless, the same intensity will be needed and Arsenal will need to keep up the winning ways, despite being nine points clear. It feels great this morning, it’s handy that Liverpool and City play this afternoon and we know those Arsenal players have done their job. But if you ever want an example of how relentless this competition is, we play away to Brentford and away to The Scum in back-to-back Premier League matches. If City win today, that buffer we’ve built up could very easily be eroded, so it’s game faces on now and focus on the Bees next week.

Back tomorrow with more musings.