Sunderland, unlike previous seasons, have not found goals a problem this term, scoring only one fewer than seventh-placed Liverpool, and Allardyce’s frustration was born out of the high standards that his side has set in attack so far.
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Wenger will be without Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla, Francis Coquelin and Danny Welbeck, but the Gunners must win by two clear goals – or by 4-3 in Athens if they are to reach the knockout stages of the tournament for a 16th season running.
Campbell was expected to leave the Emirates Stadium over the summer transfer window, but the forward stayed put and now, given Arsenal’s injury crisis, has been handed a chance to make his mark.
Goals from Joel Campbell, Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey helped secure victory, but Arsenal had Petr Cech and some poor Sunderland finishing to thank too.
“I was more nervous than usual because I knew it was a very important game in our season”, Wenger said afterwards. “Because we didn’t punish them, as always at this level of football, you pay the price and we paid the price on Saturday”. I’m in a good way and playing really well.
Ahead of their pivotal Champions League clash against Olympiacos in Greece on Wednesday night, Wenger was able to welcome England pair Theo Walcott and Kieran Gibbs back from injury while Ramsey played the full 90 minutes. Arsène Wenger confirmed the worst fears of both the player and his club when he said that the lateral collateral ligament had been ruptured.
Ozil’s achievements are perhaps even more incredible when one takes into account he’s rarely had a fully fit Arsenal team around him, applying pressure on him to bring the best out of those around him. If they score a goal then we have to score three goals, but we know that we can score goals. “We could have won but we didn’t because of our frailties in front of goal”.
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Arsenal started the game strong as they had couple of chances to beat Sunderland’s goalkeeper. “It was our first game without the injured players and we absolutely had to win. We still managed to win the game in the second half”. We have to be focused on the game, we have to give a really good performance.
