Gunners still grieve for an absent friend

HE was the man who wasn’t there, airbrushed from Arsenal’s history. Almost no one dared mention his name. No one, that is, other than the Sunderland fans, chanting ‘He leaves when he wants, Robin van Persie, he leaves when he wants’ and Arsene Wenger, who was admirably honest in his assessment of how much the striker will be missed.

But between Arsenal and their fans it seemed there was an unspoken pact not to dwell on the week’s sorrow.

There was an oblique reference to van Persie when defender Thomas Vermaelen was announced as ‘our new skipper’. This received the loudest roar of the afternoon.

And, although everyone knew the damage inflicted by the exit of the captain, coming on the back of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri leaving this time last year, the period of grieving was over and a new season awaited.

When £10million replacement Olivier Giroud was through on goal, eight yards out with eight minutes to play — having been played in delightfully by Santi Cazorla — he skewed his shot wide rather than finishing cleanly, as he might have done for Montpellier last season where he scored 25 goals.

Tempting though it must have been, there could be no comparison to van Persie.

There was more for Arsenal to be positive about after this draw than the smattering of boos at the end indicated. Theo Walcott had three chances — his best a shot into the side netting on 64 minutes — Abou Diaby shot wide on 28 minutes and Giroud went close on 76 minutes and then missed late on.

Most encouraging was Cazorla, the closest they might get to a Fabregas replacement. His every touch seemed to be a deft one or a switch of the play.

‘Basically, he created the chances,’ said Wenger, who complained that his side lack quality in the final third of the pitch.

For 64 minutes, Lukas Podolski looked bright and eager. As early as the ninth minute, he streaked away and struck a shot from 20 yards that Simon Mignolet did well to tip over.

Then there was a 59th-minute freekick that dipped just over. At times, he combined exquisitely with Cazorla but at others he threw his hands up in exasperation as Gervinho failed to read his intentions.

For Sunderland, there was an early chance for James McClean, whose snap-shot was well parried by Wojciech Szczesny. On 12 minutes, the Polish keeper had to be on call again when Jack Colback struck well from 20 yards.

Manager Martin O’Neil said: ‘In the first half we maybe should have done better with our chances but, in the second half, Arsenal had most of the possession and we had to defend. But as we get stronger and better we need to do the attacking.’