It's the Shorts

The superstitious side of me wants to think that it's the white shorts that cost us three points on Saturday. I don't really know how the decision to wear white shorts came about, considering that we've worn blue shorts with our blue kits, but it struck me as odd about ten minutes into the match. I wondered what the point of it was. Is it because Sunderland wear dark shorts? It reminded me of that ghastly kit Liverpool wore when Robbie Keane scored a goal against us last year.

The logical side of me thinks that we never got out of first gear and it was a tremendously disappointing performance. Yes, Chelsea did what they were supposed to do. They also had Wolves at home, and they now have Gael Kukata claiming that the Premier League seems easier than the Reserves. We went to the Stadium of Light against a team ready to prove themselves, directly after the international break.

Other than the shot on goal by Rosicky, the one-two between Song and Eduardo, and the blatant penalty on Vela that was turned down, we didn't do very much. Ramsey for all his plaudits has yet to deliver a definitive Arsenal performance. For a creative player, I don't know how many assists or key chances he's created for Arsenal. Eduardo's movement was subpar and his finishing has been far from clinical lately, but he's finding his way back into things. You know it's bad when Alex Song was the primary playmaker during the second half, a product of Cana harassing Cesc the entire game.

We were sluggish though, and we never got out of first gear.

As my fellow colleague said, champions win games like this. With points dropped against West Ham and this result against Sunderland, our momentum has been stopped dead in the tracks.

That's why the game against Liege is of great importance.

We need to reassert our dominant self on weaker opposition. If we win tomorrow, we'll be guaranteed the top slot in the group and be able to field the reserves in the last Champions League group game.

But more importantly, it'll build some real momentum heading into the weekend. Chelsea awaits. We must deliver.