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Pressure off as Gunners and Cats leave worrying to others
IT was a case of imagining just what kind of game it could have been at the Stadium of Light yesterday.
Instead, with no worries of relegation hanging over Sunderland or any chance of Arsenal winning the Premier League, this was as relaxed as last day fixtures come.
Even after the Gunners took a first half lead through the predatory instincts of Theo Walcott, the Wearside faithful that turned out in force remained in jovial spirits.
A sell-out may not have witnessed a surprise victory over one of the top four yesterday but there was a satisfaction amongst most of the 49,500-capacity crowd.
And with Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool all pencilled in for dates again next season, who can blame them? Yesterday was an occasion for celebration, even if there was no trophy in sight. There was, however, despite's Roy Keane's insistence last week, a routine lap of honour.
Now, though, the real work starts. Having had to wait until the third last match of the season to be assured of top-flight status for another 12 months, manager Roy Keane is determined to make sure no such situation arises in May 2009.
Keane was eager for his team to end on a high and, despite a narrow defeat to the Gunners, there was a much improved showing to that at Bolton eight days earlier.
But with fans dancing the Conga, attempting Mexican Waves and chanting for Manchester United's Jonny Evans to sign a permanent deal, there was no such frustration being felt here.
In fact, with Keane very rarely emerging from his dug-out, the Irishman must have spent the majority of the 90 minutes thinking about improvements for next season.
Talks are planned this week with chairman Niall Quinn and he is intent on making a number of alterations.
Arsenal, little to play for other than pride and reputation, were given a rough ride and were fortunate to emerge with three points.
It is a mark of the inexperience within the Arsenal squad that, having spent the majority of the campaign at the top of the Premier League, they had to settle for third place.
Such a fall from grace was largely down to a disappointing March, when four straight league draws was followed by a defeat at Chelsea.
And having already been knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester United and the Carling Cup by Tottenham, one of the most promising squads in the world ended up with nothing to show for their season's efforts.
There will inevitably be changes during the summer, with Mathieu Flamini on his way to AC Milan, while Inter Milan and Real Madrid are eyeing up Alexander Hleb and Cesc Fabregas respectively.
But yesterday was an indication there are further fresh-faced talents on their way through at the Emirates Stadium.
While the likes of Denilson and Walcott were given starting berths against Sunderland, the bench was made up of an array of highly-rated young men eager to make an impression at the highest level.
The names of Armand Traore, Havard Nordtveit, Mark Randall, Vito Mannone and Nacer Barazite remain largely unheard of, although there is a belief that all five have the ability to step up to the Arsenal first team on a regular basis.
And it was one of the successful graduates of Wenger's Academy that forced Marton Fulop into an early stop. Fulop, handed his first start of the season with Craig Gordon rested, gathered well when Emmanuel Eboue's marauding run and cross opened up the home defence.
Fulop also offered a further indication of his worth moments later. He emerged from his line quickly to deny lethal striker Emanuel Adebayor from close range.
Sunderland can also be proud of their youth ranks, although Keane resisted the temptation to throw any of the Sunderland youth team - who reached the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup and won their FA Academy group - into his match-day squad.
It must have been tempting. After all, in the aftermath of the previous weekend's defeat to Bolton, the Irishman warned he had lost patience with a number of players.
With that in mind it was telling that Kieran Richardson was the biggest casualty of the defeat. The £5.5m winger was left out all together, with his place on the left going to Ross Wallace.
Wallace had not figured since being transfer-listed in the wake of the defeat to Blackburn in early January, having suffered a serious knee ligament injury a few days after.
One of his first contributions was to win a free-kick 20 yards out for Grant Leadbitter - the only player in a red and white shirt on show to have progressed from the Sunderland Academy - to curl over.
Much of the opening half was spent playing keep ball, with Sunderland doing their best to keep possession for longer than their opponents.
But while a breakthrough looked unlikely, there was always the danger that Arsenal would find the perfect pass that would create an opportunity to score.
And, after Walcott turned on the edge of the box before forcing a low save from Fulop, the young England forward made sure he wasn't going to let another chance go begging.
An exceptional Gilberto Silva slide-rule pass between Danny Collins and Evans in the 24th minute led to Walcott racing through and, with just Fulop to beat, he placed his low finish into the Hungarian's bottom left hand corner.
But Arsenal's opener did little to dampen the spirits in the stands and that brought a positive response from the Sunderland players.
Had Leadbitter headed down instead of over from a Wallace centre ten minutes before half-time the scores would have been level.
Even after the restart Sunderland had the chances to equalise. Roy O'Donovan, a replacement for Kenwyne Jones who went off after blocking a Phillipe Senderos shot with his hands, missed two good opportunities.
With the exception of a wayward drive from Gilberto from eight yards - after Adebayor's short, indirect free-kick following Dean Whitehead's back pass to Fulop - the visitors failed to trouble the Sunderland goal.
Arsenal went close through young winger Randall, while O'Donovan forced an injury-time save from Lukasz Fabianski. But Arsenal's last-day win was achieved.
Keane's Sunderland, however, have further proof that things are being done right on Wearside.
4:03am Monday 12th May 2008
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