Three reasons to be cheerful after Arsenal's frustration at Sunderland 

When your team is at the top your expectations rise accordingly - but as we head into another international break here's why Gooners should feel extremely positive  

It’s often harder to stomach dropped points when you aren’t so used to it, writes Nick Manfredi.

In years gone by we may have found a result like Saturday’s easier to digest because our stakes were much lower and perhaps the margin for error is higher when you are fighting for the top four or lower. But when your team gets better your expectations rise accordingly.

I don’t think this will come as a revelation to any Arsenal fan given the amount of time we’ve now been a title challenging side. But when you are competing for the league title with the team who have dominated English football for a decade every dropped point can feel like a kick in the teeth regardless of the context of the season up to that point.

Saturday felt a bit like that, but it is far from the worst point we’ve ever picked up. Here is why I think that is. 

1 - We’re still top of the league 

Quite simply, we’re four points clear of Manchester City at the summit. Yes, we were six points clear at the start of the weekend but going into this block of fixtures following the October internationals we were only one point clear of then second placed Liverpool.

We are now eight points clear of the current champions and of course we still have that decent cushion on City. We will drop points between now and May, as will city but as of the present, we remain in the strongest position to win it.  Let’s not forget, at the start of the weekend we travelled to Newcastle, we were five points behind Liverpool.

That’s a 13-point swing in just six games. It shows how quickly things can change but it also shows just how good we have been. We have been to Old Trafford, Anfield, St James’ Park, a bogey ground in Craven Cottage and we are still quite comfortably top. City still must play at all those grounds. Let’s see what happens. 

2 - We responded well to going 1-0 down 

In the first half, Sunderland did a stellar job of negating almost all our attacking threat. They certainly did a good job at keeping our set pieces to a minimum. We have been unfairly criticised for not creating enough from open play but that certainly wasn’t the case in the second half as we scored two excellent goals from the two wingers Bukayo Saka and Leo Trossard.

We also created a host of other chances including Martin Zubimendi smacking a half volley against the bar and the double chance to win it at the death from Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino. Whilst the decision to sit back in the final stages of the game was perhaps questionable, the attacking performance from minute 45-80 was certainly some of the most fluid football we’ve produced all season. Against a low block too!

3 - Players returning from injuries 

Following the final internationals of 2025, we have the small matter of a North London Derby. We are set to see the returns of Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli in time for that fixture as well as the return of Jesus some point before Christmas.

That is a major boost given we now face what is essentially wall to wall football between the NLD and the next round of internationals in March. Shedloads of games in four different competitions is going to be intense, and Mikel Arteta will need as close to a full squad as he can get.

The first hurdle is getting our players through these internationals safely which is always cause for concern with our luck. But given the position we have put ourselves in with the injuries we’ve had, what we can achieve with so many more players available is exciting.  

So, there are three valid reasons to turn that frown upside down as we go into yet another interminably dull international break.

May the injury Gods bestow their evil powers on all our rivals.

We’ve certainly had our turn and then some!