On Saturday, Manchester United overtook Arsenal in the top of the Premiership with 20 points for Manchester United in the standings versus 19 points for Arsenal. ManU took the lead with an earlier Saturday win gainst Wigan Athletic. However, Arsenal’s Sunday victory on their home pitch at the Emirates Stadium against Sunderland returned them to first place in the Premier League.

Arsenal’s Robin van Persie scored on the 80th minute to give Arsenal a one goal lead, and the full three points in order to regain their position at the top of the English Premier League standings. Robin van Persie was also responsible for opening the scoring of the match with a scorching free kick in the 7th minute that left Sunderland keeper Craig Gordon helpless, and putting up Arsenal 1-0. In the 14th minute, Arsenal’s Philippe Senderos was able to pick up a loose ball from a corner, and put it in the back of the Sunderland net to give Arsenal a 2-0 lead.

However, Sunderland coach Roy Keane made adjustments and eventually Sunderland was able to find two goals through the efforts of Ross Wallace who rebounded an attempt from Kenwye Jones on the 25th minute to make it 2-1. On the 40th minute, Sunderland’s Kenwye Jones found a header that Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia couldn’t push out to draw the score at 2-2.

It wasn’t until the 80th minute when Robin van Persie found the breakthrough goal following a wonderful move by 18-year old Arsenal substitute Theo Walcott, who avoided the Sunderland defenders and was able to pass the ball right in front of the Sunderland goal with Robin van Persie blasting it past Sunderland keeper Craig Gordon to give the Arsenal Gunners a 3-2 lead.

The win is Arsenal’s 10th successive victory in all competitions this season, which include the English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League and the English Cup.

Arsenal leads the standings of the 2007-08 English Premier League with 22 points, followed by Manchester United with 20. Manchester City is third with 19 points and Liverpool is fourth with 16.

Arsenal’s next English Premier League match will be on October 20 when they host the Bolton Wanderers at the Emirates Stadium. Three days after, on the 23rd, Arsenal will be hosting last season’s Gambrinus Liga runner up SK Slavia Prague for a group stage UEFA Champions League Match.

Meanwhile, some Arsenal players are also expected to participate in the UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifiers on October 13 and 14 as representatives for their home countries. Among those expected to see action are Cesc Fabregas for Portugal and Robin van Persie for the Netherlands.

To bet on Arsenal vs. Bolton Wanderers and other English Premier League matches, click here.

To bet on Arsenal vs. Slavia Prague and other UEFA Champions League matches, click here.

To bet on matches of the Euro 2008 Qualifers, click here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 8:26 am and is filed under Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Adebayor, England, English Premier League, Netherlands, Portugal, Robin van Persie, Soccer News, Sports News, UEFA Champions League. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.