Gunners turn on the fireworks

2005-11-05 20:20

London - Thierry Henry scored twice as Arsenal maintained their perfect home record in the Premiership with a comfortable 3-1 win over struggling Sunderland on Saturday.

The Gunners registered their sixth straight league win this season at Highbury thanks to Robin van Persie's opener and Henry's brace, either side of an Alan Stubbs effort from the visitors.

This triumph enabled Arsene Wengers team to cut the gap on leaders Chelsea to 11 points, although the Blues could extend that on Sunday when they travel to Manchester United.

It also piled more misery on Sunderland, who remain rooted to the foot of the Premiership table after slumping to their fifth straight defeat.

Arsenal needed this win. The Gunners may have already qualified for the Champions League knockout stage, but domestically they have stuttered.

Only that unblemished home record has kept them within sight of Chelsea, but they desperately needed three points here in order to put some sort of pressure on Jose Mourinhos team.

With that in mind, Sunderland seemed ideal opponents. Mick McCarthys floundering team had failed to register a league win at Highbury for 22 years and never looked capable of improving that record.

McCarthy responded to fans criticism of his number one goalkeeper Kelvin Davis by dropping him in favour of the 18-year-old Ben Alnwick.

The youngster needed protection from his older team-mates but an awful error from Stubbs had him sweating after just seven minutes.

Sunderland's luck could not hold

The former Everton defender dawdled on the ball and was dispossessed by Jose Antonio Reyes.

The Spanish striker had just Alnwick to beat, but the teenager was grateful when he shot wastefully into the side-netting.

It was left to another youngster, van Persie, to show Reyes how to finish five minutes later.

The Dutchman has been in exceptional form recently and he vindicated Wenger's decision to start him when he collected Sol Campbell's inch-perfect long pass and drove a fierce shot past Alnwick.

Van Persie almost added a second after his twisting run cut a swathe through the Sunderland defence, but he opted for a cheeky chip over Alnwick rather than driving across him and the shot was saved.

But Sunderland's luck could not hold, and they fell further behind in the 35th minute.

Henry was the scorer, but it was the right-back Lauren who deserved the plaudits. The Cameroonians surging run ended with a precise cross across the area and Henry could hardly miss from eight yards.

The second half began as the first one had ended. In the 50th minute, the Gunners should have scored their third when Henrys clever header set van Persie clear, but for the second time the teenager chose to chip and screwed wide.

He opted for a more conventional approach just after the hour, but this time his low shot from the edge of the area was well stopped by Alnwick.

However, the keeper could only stand and stare eight minutes later when Henry produced a trademark piece of magic.

- AFP