Five Key Takeaways after Arsenal beat Sunderland 

Here's Charlie Ashmore with his regular take after Arsenal win again at the weekend 

1 - That’s the way to do it

The seasons of champions are littered with victories like this. 

Unfussy, relatively calm, competently delivered. 

The team did exactly what was required. In fairness to Sunderland (looking very much like a Pompey tribute act in their Portsmouth blue shirts and white shorts) they threatened to make life uncomfortable.

There were times in the first half when William Saliba in particular looked more troubled than I can remember seeing him for some time. 

There was one chance in the first half which threatened to derail us but Kai Havertz was there to sweep up the goal bound shot and avert the danger.  A couple of long range shots from outside the box just didn’t have enough curl and when it looked as if the first half was going to end goalless, up popped Martin Zubimendi, again doing his best to exorcise the ghost of Manchester United, drilling home off the post to put us ahead at the interval. 

The second half was more of an exercise in control and showing off the squad depth and in the end we cruised to a comfortable win which, coupled with the news from the South Coast that Villa had dropped points, ensured we ended the day nine points clear.  Exactly the sort of performance that City and Liverpool have delivered over the last few years on their way to their respective titles. On we go.

2 - Have we changed?

There was talk about a “beautiful meeting” of team and coaches after the United defeat since when we have won four games in three different competitions. 

Have we changed the way we play at all? It’s not obvious but I think there are two subtle tweaks that are becoming apparent. 

Declan Rice and Zubimendi seem to be operating more as a pair, both responsible for screening the defence and then each taking it in turn to sit while the other presses forward. 

It reminds me very much of the Manu Petit and Patrick Vieira dynamic which developed in 97-98 after a famous team meeting following defeat by Blackburn.   

That season ended well so let’s hope history repeats itself. 

The other tweak, apparent yesterday and in part trailed by Mikel Arteta in advance was the increased willingness to shoot from distance which was really noticeable yesterday.  Rice and Havertz both didn’t quite get enough curl on their efforts while Zubimendi made no mistake.

3 - Gyokeres double – coming good at the right time?

Much of the narrative around our season has centred on Viktor Gyokeres’ perceived shortcomings. 

Signed to plug the apparently obvious weakness up front (so obvious that we have consistently been among the leading scorers inn recent seasons), his failure to find the net on a regular basis was seen as failure despite him being an almost ever present in a side that was leading the way domestically and in Europe. 

To read much of the narrative you’d have thought we had achieved the impossible of being the best placed team of any in Europe whilst carrying a passenger which is of course nonsense.  But it cannot be denied that goals were his transfer currency and they hadn’t materialised.   

Yet here we are into February and he is the leading scorer in all competitions among Premier League clubs. 

Maybe he is now finding his feet. Maybe we are now finally starting to play to his strengths.  It is suggested that by virtue of the identity of the teams he has scored against he is merely a flat track bully. 

Yet wasn’t it those flat tracks which have proved our undoing in recent seasons? Time will tell but I think he will benefit enormously from not being the sole focus of attention up top and the manager’s ability to now pick horses for courses from his three very different options.

4 - Trossard – the unheralded dynamo

Is there a more underrated player in our squad than Leandro Trossard?

He continues to be damned with faint praise yet goes about his business like a man possessed. I though he was terrific against Sunderland which made some of the shouts around me utterly bemusing – get him off was one such when he lost possession. 

Trossard has a remarkable gift for finding his way out of tight situations – his ability to retain possession as he twists and turns is unerring and I’d hate to be the defender turned this way and that by him. 

It was of course his ball that fed Havertz enabling him set up Big Vik for his first goal yesterday and he consistently looks to take the defenders on either though his running with the ball or through his playing the ball through small gaps into his colleagues. 

I think he is an underappreciated but utterly integral part of our squad and he is playing like a man who has finally earned the right to compete for the biggest trophies and is not going to let the chance slip.

5 - The offside rule is increasingly farcical

There has been a lot of debate about offside and the nonsense of big toes, shoulders and even a player’s tackle (oo er missus) being adjudged to have been offside. 

There have been a number of ideas talked about including Wenger’s clear daylight idea,  For me there is one unavoidable obstacle to “perfect” decision making around offsides and that is the inability to be certain when the ball is kicked.  Is it when boot first touches ball?  Or is it when ball leaves boot? Or somewhere in between? And how can we be sure where attacker and defender were when that happened? 

That alone must mean that there has to be some tolerance in the application of the rules. And so we end up with the ridiculous decision to pull Jesus up eventually for an offside (after he had run half the length of the pitch and been brought down for a penalty). 

He was called offside despite both his feet being in our half.  How ridiculous is that? 

If that doesn’t show the current application of the rule up I don’t know what will. 

Offside should be simple. Feet only, for starters. And the tolerance or margin for error should come from a simple variation that if any part of the attacker’s most advanced foot overlaps with the defender’s rearmost foot then it’s onside.  Simple.