Injuries to Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin have opened up places in the Arsenal midfield and Ramsey said it “felt really good” to be back in his preferred central berth.
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A Giroud own-goal had cancelled out Campbell’s opener as Sunderland looked on course to extend Arsenal’s winless Premier League run to four matches despite the injury-enforced absences of Jermain Defoe, Lee Cattermole and Sebastian Larsson.
The Frenchman then gave Arsenal the lead by scoring at the right end and Aaron Ramsey scored the third in the 90 minute.
Wenger has admitted that he was “nervous” before kick-off, but later found joy in Arsenal’s 3-1 victory against a robust Sunderland side on Saturday.
Arsenal showed little sign of improving in the second half, but, as in the first, one flowing move was enough to cut through an otherwise organised Sunderland defence.
Speaking to Arsenal Player, Giroud said: “I’m happy for him because he has the opportunity to show his talent”.
Wenger could at least call on fit-again centre-back Laurent Koscielny, while Theo Walcott was back in the squad for the first time since late October after recovering from a calf problem.
Still, they climb to second in the Premier League, two points behind leaders Leicester.
Campbell has spent plenty of time out on loan since joining Arsenal in 2011 but manager Arsene Wenger has already declared the 23-year-old is very much part of the first-team picture at the Emirates Stadium.
Sunderland made a good start to the second half with Fletcher testing Cech from distance on 56 minutes forcing a corner.
Allardyce added “At the minute, we have won the sprint, but we are in the marathon, don’t forget, so we have still got a long way to go to pick up more and more points as quickly as possible”.
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“The more we frustrate them, the better chance we might have of exploiting the spaces they may leave”.
