Darren Bent

By The Black Cats
November 23 2009

Sunderland were victorious when the Gunners visited the Stadium of Light on Saturday, courtesy of a second half Darren Bent strike. That's now two wins, a draw and a defeat against the big four this season and manager Steve Bruce was positively delighted post-match.

Sunderland outworked Arsenal and showed some outstanding individual performances and great teamwork capped by Darren Bent's ninth goal of the season.

Bruce said: "We came with a game plan to try and match them in the middle of the park. That's important against Arsenal and to be fair every single one of them has done their jobs.

"We had a shaky ten or fifteen minutes in the first half but overall I'm delighted to beat a team like Arsenal. As everyone's seen here today we've matched them and done very well to get a result.

"I've been really pleased with the way we've been playing without getting the breaks we needed. But remember, when we won at Manchester United we then went to Birmingham and didn't show up, so we'll be banging the drum that we must get something at Wigan next week."

"Marton Fulop didn't have a lot to do and people like Bardsley and Da Silva. But it's wrong to pick out individuals because we needed our whole team playing well to beat Arsenal.

"Darren's had a tough time over the last week or so but he's come back well and given us his work ethic and a goal."

Bruce admitted: "Getting the Stadium of Light rocking like it did today was one of the reasons why I came here."