Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been warned about how other teams may approach games against the Gunners following Sunderland's success in Saturday's 2-2 Premier League draw.
The top-flight leaders travelled to the Stadium of Light on the back of 10 successive wins in all tournaments, as well as eight straight clean sheets in their prior eight victories, achieving the latter feat for the first time in 122 years.
However, former flame Daniel Ballard - a Gunners academy graduate - ended Arsenal's 812-minute streak without conceding, before the Gunners appeared to turn the tide thanks to fine second-half finishes from Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard.
Arteta's men were uncharacteristically out of sorts defensively, though, allowing Brian Brobbey to nab a point for the Black Cats in second-half injury time, acrobatically hooking the ball into the back of the net after powering past Gabriel Magalhaes.
Sports Mole recently asked Arsenal expert Charles Watts what went wrong for the Gunners at the back, and he highlighted the direct, route-one and second-ball tactics that made the Gunners uncomfortable.
"I just think Sunderland unsettled them," Watts replied. "Sunderland have got such a defined way of playing. It is very, very direct. In the first two minutes they had a free kick deep inside their own half, and Granit Xhaka was just pointing. Everyone went out there - it was like a corner. That set the tone, and it wasn't just about the first ball.
How Sunderland "got under Arsenal's skin" in 2-2 Premier League draw
Charles Watts YouTube image
“Both of their goals came from second balls. Arsenal, didn't deal with the first ball in either of those occasions and didn't deal with the second ball either. I don't know what I can put it down to because these are players who are usually very, very good at that. You’ve just got to credit Sunderland as well.
“They obviously worked hard during the week on how can we hurt this Arsenal team? What can we do to unsettle them? And they put that into practice very, very well. Arsenal just looked a little bit shaky. Gabriel was just not quite as dominant, Declan Rice for the first goal, was so worried about Dan Ballard, he forgot to actually properly head the ball away.
“They just got under Arsenal's skin a little bit. And we haven't really been able to really say that so often this season.”
Arsenal's agonising late loss of two points at the Stadium of Light did not impact their standing at the top of the Premier League table, but they now only hold a three-point lead over Manchester City thanks to the Sky Blues' 3-0 beating of champions Liverpool.
When Arteta's side return from the international break, they will embark on a daunting run of festive fixtures, firstly facing North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in a home derby on November 23.
The Gunners then welcome Bayern Munich to the Emirates in a mouthwatering Champions League scrap on November 26, four days before a visit to Stamford Bridge to face Club World Cup champions Chelsea.
Have Arsenal lost their winning run at the worst time?
Sunderland's Dan Ballard celebrates on November 8, 2025
Brentford (H) and Aston Villa (A) also await Arsenal in the first six days of December, and Watts has conceded that failure to get over the line at Sunderland could harm the Gunners' mental state.
“Any time is a bad time to lose a winning streak, but it was going to happen at some point," he added. "You cannot win every single game. You cannot keep a clean sheet in every single game. It's just impossible. Records are there for a reason. They're hard to break, and Arsenal have broken so many of them on this run.
“It was inevitable it was going to happen. It was disappointing - not the clean sheets- but in terms of the winning run. Frustrating is probably a better word, because it was so close, so close. And it would have been such a massive win at a really tough ground.
“It was everything we thought it was going to be. The noise, it was intimidating, Sunderland were really good. They were on it, played to their strengths, and for Arsenal to be 1-0 down at half time, come back and won that game 2-1 in the manner that they did, it would have been huge for them.
“Not just for the points, but in terms of mental belief. That was the frustration I felt at the end of the game. It wasn't about the winning run, the clean sheets – they were so close to what would have been such a massive win on a lot of levels. They just let it slip through their fingers.”
Arteta also made just one substitution at the Stadium of Light - taking off Eberechi Eze for Cristhian Mosquera in the 88th minute - and Watts also revealed the three changes that the Gunners boss could have made to try to prevent Brobbey's late leveller.
> Click here to listen to the full reaction to Arsenal's draw with Sunderland
ID:585571:1false2false3false: from db desktop :LenBod:collect7470:
No Data Analysis info