Arsenal travel to Liverpool on Wednesday as Premier League leaders but although Wenger rested Mesut Özil, Per Mertesacker, Nacho Monreal and Mathieu Flamini, his Saturday selection resembled in no way the collection of Anfield unknowns that Jürgen Klopp had sent out on Friday night at Exeter.
Joel Campbell, who has been linked with Galatasaray, wasted little time in equalising
Wenger gave a rare start to Alex Iwobi, 19, and was rewarded with a display that suggests more is to come sooner rather than later from the Nigerian. A late cameo from French playmaker Jeff Reine-Adelaide, a 17-year-old summer signing, gave a similar hint.
• Arsenal vs Sunderland: Five things we learned
Wenger made it clear that he regards himself as an expert in squad rotation these days and predicted the Anfield treatment room would be significantly less populated by the time the Gunners arrive on Merseyside. “I watched Liverpool but I did not learn a lot because the team who played is not the team who will play us,” Wenger said.
“I rested a few players. Everybody is mentally focused to pull in the same direction. It’s easier to keep everybody on board because you have always the next competition, and everybody thinks ‘I have a chance to play’.
“You can as well not say ‘we are a big club’ and not go for competitions. That is for me impossible. I’ve seen Bayern go for the cup every year, Barcelona or Real Madrid go for the cup every year.”
A terrible error by Laurent Koscielny allowed Jeremain Lens to fire Sunderland ahead in the 17th minute but Joel Campbell levelled eight minutes later following some clever play by Theo Walcott.
Ramsey made it 2-1
Both sides hit the woodwork before substitute Ramsey made it 2-1 in the 72nd minute thanks to Hector Bellerin’s surge down the right and the full-back also set up Olivier Giroud for a clinching third.
• Rabiot 'on verge of signing for Arsenal'
It was the same score as the league meeting between the two sides a little over a month ago and, satisfyingly, seemed just as competitive.
The home fans howled at referee Martin Atkinson’s decisions, including the non-award of a penalty when Giroud collided with DeAndre Yedlin in the act of shooting and Sunderland were encouraged by 2,300 vocal fans.
The focus for Sunderland is now solely on trying to avoid Premier League relegation, as it is most years, and inevitably manager Sam Allardyce continued to grump about three away fixtures in the space of a week and, more specifically, the truncated recovery time between the trip to fellow strugglers Swansea City on Wednesday night and a Saturday lunchtime assignment against Tottenham.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét