SUNDERLAND captain Michael Gray believes that the thrilling performance against championship contenders Arsenal can kick-start the Wearsiders' belated quest for European glory.

Peter Reid's men at long last hit top form against the Gunners, and came within an ace of victory when a headed goal from Argentinian winger Julio Arca was controversially disallowed in the third minute of stoppage time.

The Sunderland players, who thought they had won the hard-fought game - along with most of their fans in the 48,029 crowd - mobbed Leeds referee Mike Riley, who had to have a police escort as he left the pitch.

Gray reflected: "We could beat the team but we couldn't beat the referee.

"We were complaining because we thought it was a goal. Kevin Phillips put the ball into the box and it was a fantastic finish by Julio.

"No-one in the crowd thought there was anything wrong with it and the referee and linesman have obviously seen something we haven't.

"The crowd went on for two or three minutes afterwards so the players who were celebrating with Julio didn't really know anything about it until they stood up and saw the referee pointing for a free kick for offside.

"We just had to see the rest of the game out because we were so disappointed."

He added: "We couldn't believe it was offside. We came off the pitch with a draw against one of the top sides in the Premiership and the lads were absolutely gutted.

"But the decision has been made and there is nothing we can do about it."

The former England fullback believes that the performance will give Sunderland a badly needed shot-in-the-arm after winning only one of their last eight matches.

He said: "I have watched Arsenal a few times on television and they have been unbelievable. It just shows how well we have played as a team against them.

"This performance should act as a springboard to better things - it has probably started our season.

"We know that in each of the last two seasons we have had little blips. Let's hope that this season's little blip has gone now and we can concentrate on pushing up into the top six where we belong."

Gray appreciates the concern of supporters that it has taken Sunderland 11 matches to get going.

He explained: "When you go out on to the pitch you want to win matches, but when you are losing games you do lack a little bit of confidence and that has been running through us recently.

"Everyone knows what happened at Middlesbrough. We never started - the game had gone and we found ourselves 2-0 down. That has been happening too often this season.

"But against Arsenal even when we were a goal down we knew we were still in the game and if we hadn't got anything out of the game it would have been a travesty.

The lads certainly deserved a draw and in my eyes we should have got a win.

"This time we came out of the blocks superbly from the first minute and we didn't give them the time and space to hurt us. It just shows the tenacity in the team.

"It was a great team performance. We worked our socks off from the beginning to the end, which is what we have to start doing and that's how you get your results. When you play teams like Arsenal that's how you have to prepare yourself and play.