Arsenal vs. Sunderland

0-0, Premier League, The Emirates, 2012-08-18

Football has finally returned for real! It has been a good summer, filled with European and Olympic football, but the league is what we've all been waiting for!

0-0 against Sunderland may not feel like a good result, and I'm not saying that it is, but you have to take into consideration that it's the first game of the season and the new signings are always going to take some time to adjust. Considering what we've lost this summer (Robin van Persie to Manchester United and Alex Song to Barcelona) we will rely on these new signings, so let's hope that they will all feel more comfortable for the next game away against Stoke. The result feels even  better considering the fact that both Tottenham and Manchester United lost their opening games, so we're ahead of them at least!

Thomas Vermaelen, our new captain, led the team out and co-captain Mikel Arteta was also on display. We dominated the entire game, no question about it. Sunderland had one good chance in the beginning of the first half when our defence failed at an offside attempt, but otherwise than that they had nothing really. The two best chances we had were created by two of our new signings, Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud. The former looked amazing, definitely the one that impressed the most in this first game. He created pretty much all our chances (for this round he was the one who created the most chances out of all the teams, 7 in total) and he took most of our corners as well. He looked typically Spanish, brilliant technique and quick feet. His sizzling shot toward the top corner of the goal was, as mentioned above, definitely one of the best goalscoring chances we had!

Lukas Podolski started the game along with Cazorla, but playing alone up front is never easy and even though he worked well and hard through the game he didn't stand out as much as the Spaniard. Olivier Giroud came on in the second half and got really close to scoring when he found himself on a close-ranged one-on-one with the 'keeper. Unfortunately his effort was put wide.

Another player who at least felt like a new signing started the game today, Abou Diaby. He has suffered from a lot of injuries during his time at the Arsenal and it was really good to see him start this game. He has had a good pre-season and looked well, just needs some time to adapt to the pace of the league I reckon.

All in all we have to look at the positives, and the new signings will, for sure, bring a lot to the team.

Next up is Stoke on Sunday, and that will always be a tough game, especially away. We've always conceded plenty of goals against team, but considering this clean-sheet and the fact that we now have Steve Bould as assistant manager I should think that the defence has been sorted out over the summer. At least you can always hope for it.

I watched this game live at the Emirates and somehow I always manage to time my yearly with a 0-0 game. We rarely play 0-0, and three of my four games there have ended 0-0 (with the fourth ending 1-2, so no improvement there). But that special feeling of being at the Emirates will always remain, no matter the result.

Injury Update;
- Jack Wilshere is not far from returning now! It is devastating that he has missed out on more than a year, especially this early in his career, but with his return you do feel that we will be a stronger side! The boss estimated his return to full-training to about a month.
- Bacary Sagna is on the same course as Wilshere! More or less a month will mark his return to full-training along with Emmanuel Frimpong.
- Both Laurent Koscielny and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain picked up minor knocks during pre-season that prevented them from playing in this game, but they will most like be back for the Stoke game or the Liverpool game.