Jack Wilshere came off the bench to make his long-awaited comeback from injury as Arsenal once again dropped frustrating points in a goalless draw at Sunderland.
The midfielder came on to replace Mesut Ozil for the final seven minutes in what was his first competitive appearance since last May. That aside, it was hard to find too many other positives from the game from an Arsenal point of view.
At times we looked excellent in attack, with some good passing moves, but we didn't test Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone enough and should've really done far better than we did.
Sunderland were plucky and battled hard throughout to gain the point they needed to take them out of the bottom three, but we really should be winning games like this and taking far better advantage of our attacking opportunities. Mannone did excellently to keep out some of our efforts but there was no excuse with the rest.
Although the title race is over for us, we could really do without needing a Champions League qualifier and had a great chance to move above Manchester City into third if we could've won...but we didn't and it was very frustrating. The result means we stay fourth and behind third-placed Manchester City, who we play next month, on goal difference.
Arsenal started brightly with Alex Iwobi shooting wide inside the opening three minutes before Per Mertesacker and Mohamed Elneny saw their efforts comfortably saved by Mannone. At the other end Lee Cattermole shot wide from the edge of the box, while Patrick Van Aanholt came closest to breaking the deadlock for the visitors as his free-kick hit the bar.
Mannone did well to saved Mesut Ozil's deflected shot before producing a superb one-handed stop to push Alexis Sanchez's free-kick behind for a corner. From the resulting corner, Mannone made an excellent save on the line to once against keep Arsenal at bay.
Both sides saw penalty shouts waved away by referee Mike Dean in the final 10 minutes of the first half. Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe saw his shot smash against the arm of Mertesacker. There didn't seem to be any intent by the defender but sometimes they get given, so Sunderland may have felt hard done by. But things were then evened out as Dean also failed to give Arsenal a penalty after Iwobi's shot was blocked by the hand of DeAndre Yedlin.
Arsenal had Petr Cech to thank for keeping the scores level as the goalkeeper produced a superb double save within four minutes of the restart. Jermain Defoe latched onto an excellent long ball from Jan Kirchhoff before unleashing a half volley, but Cech beat his effort away before getting across quickly to parry Yann M'Vila's follow-up.
Cech was called into action again just minutes later as he got down well to his right to parry Wahbi Khazri's effort. At the other end Iwobi and Aaron Ramsey both sent their efforts off target, while Elneny saw his strike block by the defence.
Sunderland were having the better of the chances in the second half and very nearly broke the deadlock shortly after the hour mark. Lee Cattermole's long ball released Defoe and the striker's lob went over Cech and just wide.
Arsenal were then nearly gifted a goal when Cech sent a long goal kick towards substitute Danny Welbeck. Mannone raced out of the box and misjudged his header of the ball the wrong way and Arsenal could've had a potentially great chance to score, only for Sunderland to somehow get away with it.
Welbeck tried his luck in the closing stages but the England striker shot straight at Mannone before Wilshere entered the action. It was great to see Wilshere back on the field but neither him or his team-mates were able to affect the scoreline.
Arsenal came very close to breaking Sunderland hearts four minutes from time when Sanchez cut inside and fired a low shot towards goal, but Mannone reacted superbly to parry the Chilean's effort.
As the game entered injury time, Sunderland wasted the chance to get a dramatic late winner when Lamine Kone sent an overhead kick over the bar. Neither side was able to add a late goal and the point was a lot more valuable to Sunderland than it was to us.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Sunderland fan Shaun Clewes was in positive mood after his side's hard-earned draw.
"I am happy with the performance but we could have got more from the match than the point," said Clewes. "We defended well and I felt that our penalty shout was much stronger than the Arsenal one, but am pleased that there was some consistency from the ref.
"The point doesn't really help either side but we are out of the bottom three which is the main thing."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
It was a rather uninspiring performance from the Gunners. Although we were excellent with are passing moves at times, it simply wasn't enough. We didn't test Mannone enough and we seemed to lack ideas in attack at times. This game was never going to be easy but we still should've performed a lot better than we did.
Although we have known our fate for several weeks, we are now officially mathematically out of the title race and need to be careful to not also drop out of the top four. Technically we could still finish second but we could also finish below fourth, so we need to make sure we finish strongly to avoid that happening.
Second, third or fourth all mean the same thing in that we will have failed to win the title but we need to make sure we at least get Champions League football without having to play a qualifier. This means we must finish in the top three if possible although even that wouldn't really be enough as with our squad we should be doing better than we are.
Our last game of April sees us host relegation-threatened Norwich and, although we don't have much left to play for, we can't think like that and must make sure we produce three strong performances in our remaining league games.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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