Chamakh Plays Well, but Gunners Cursed by Black Cats

After a fine pre-season and a feisty start to the regular season, the Gunners looked to have rid themselves of the defensive slide in the waining minutes.  Last year they dropped points in too many matches that should have been put away.
Have they returned to their old ways?
In the match against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, their play seemed spirited at the beginning of the match, running the Black Cats ragged in the final third.  In the 5' during what should have been a routine clearance by Anton Ferdinand, he waited too long to kick and an advancing Cesc Fabregas put his foot up and blocked the ball, which took a bizarre flight straight into the goal some 25 yards out!  ARSENAL 0-1.  Ferdinand's face said it all, and he struggled for much of the first half to keep up defensively, making several errors that could have meant more goals for the Gunners.
But sadly for the Arsenal fans, that crazy/lucky goal was the only they could muster during the remaining 90 minutes.
In the midst of that nutty goal, Fabregas tweaked his ankle a bit and had to come off.  His replacement, Rosicky, did an okay job, but didn't have the same spark as el Capitan.  He had a chance to put the game away (and make it 2-0) with a penalty that was awarded.  He completely missed it and put it over the bar.  That would prove costly for his team.
It's not that they didn't have the chances.  But their finishing lacked polish today.
The one bright star for the Gunners was center-forward Marouane Chamakh.  Hailed before the match by the footy pundits as the "get for the summer," he has impressed the usually-dire commentators.

So what happened?  Like last year, the Gunners got sloppy.  Alex Song (a doppelganger for Fred Sanford) had too many crazy challenges and earned himself a second yellow.  It's ironic that his team played better with ten men, but it also cost them in extra time, when they didn't have the numbers in the box. 
Sunderland played hard the entire match (aside from the first ten minutes), and quite honestly outplayed Arsenal for the majority of the time.  And in the final kick of the match, their doggedness paid off.  Darren Bent jumped on a loose ball in the box and smacked it home to level.  Bye Bye two points for the Gunners.  Arsene Wenger looked as though he wanted to impale himself on the fourth official.  Was too much time added on? I don't know.  But I have to say it was a wonderful strike by Bent, who has a new-found confidence since his call-up to the England NT.

Almunia (with eyes closed!) is thwarted by Bent

Maybe the quick turnaround from the Wednesday Braga match was too much for the London team, but it wasn't as if they traveled to Portugal for that match, it was at home.  They will need to toughen up and marshall the backline if they have any hope of keeping pace with United and Chelsea at the end of the season...when those dropped points can become the death knell.