Aaron Ramsey steps up for Arsenal against Sunderland

Arsenal 3 Sunderland 1

Arsenal need to win by two goals, or by 3-2 or better, to progress or they will drop into the Europa League.

Midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who himself returned from injury at Norwich last week, is the man Wenger will now look to be the backbone of his team after revealing key man Santi Cazorla has undergone surgery on his ligament damage sustained at Carrow Road.

Wenger was without seven potential starters in this match and was relieved he did not add to that list, but revealed: “We know now it is a rupture for Cazorla. It’s not the season over, but it is at least three months, maybe four.

“He has had surgery 48 hours ago [on Thursday]. I didn’t know [he was having it], but he wanted the chance to come back quickly so he didn’t want to wait for 25 opinions and decided to go straight away [with the operation].

“The guy said it’s a clear case. It’s a rupture of the external knee ligament, so he said ‘OK, let’s do it straight away.’”

The attacking prowess of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil aside, Cazorla has been the engine in Arsenal’s title challenge this season and Wenger said that role will now fall to Ramsey.

The 24-year-old was brought in from the right of midfield to take up Cazorla’s central position and even scored a late third in this unconvincing win over a rejuvenated Sunderland.

Ramsey said afterwards: “I have made no secret that I prefer to play in the middle and hopefully now I can stay there. My performance in this match was good and hopefully I can keep building on that now to play where I prefer to play.”

Asked if he would have to fight his attacking instincts in the new position when Arsenal go to Greece, Ramsey responded: “Yeah, it is a bit easier at home because we have the majority of the ball and Mathieu Flamini normally stays behind so we have that bit of licence but in the Champions League game I will have to be a bit more professional in the way we manage the game.

“We have to choose the right times to attack, but we will always create opportunities — just hopefully we can stop them, keep a clean sheet and grab a couple of goals ourselves.

“It was never easy in Europe after the start we had [losing to Dynamo Zagreb and Olympiacos], but we have done well to come back into the position that we find ourselves in and it is in our hands. We know what we have to do.

“We got off to a good win to start December and hopefully we can continue this and keep ourselves in the hunt for the league and hopefully qualify for the Champions League as well.”

A repeat of this win will be enough in Piraeus on Wednesday, and they will hope to be less edgy than they were here, even after a classy 33rd minute first home goal from Joel Campbell broke the deadlock. An Olivier Giroud own goal levelled matters before the break only for the French striker to restore their lead with a stunning diving header before Ramsey’s late clincher.

The result aside, which leaves Arsenal a place and two points behind leaders Leicester, the highlight for the home team was the continued form of Ozil. The German drew occasional impromptu standing ovations from spectators along the Arsenal dug-out side of the pitch, drawing comparisons with Liam Brady in his 70s pomp and, more recently, Dennis Bergkamp.

For Sunderland, it was a case of having to ignore the scoreline and look to the future. They slipped back into the relegation zone, but were more than a match for Arsenal and created enough good chances to win.

A third consecutive victory for manager Sam Allardyce would not have been an unfair result, while a draw was the least they deserved. That is why the Sunderland coach is delighted to have his best finisher, Jermain Defoe, fit again for this weekend’s home clash with Watford.

Allardyce explained: “All those coaches who say they coach finishers are lying. You don’t coach finishers. Finishers are finishers. Our natural finisher is Jermain Defoe. Other lads can score goals but they are not natural finishers, Jermain is a natural finisher. And perhaps if he had been on the field he would have got two or three.”

ARSENAL: Cech 7; Bellerin 6, Mertesacker 6, Koscielny 6, Monreal 7: Flamini 6, Ramsey 7; Campbell 7 (Gibbs 77, 6), Ozil 8, Oxlade-Chamberlain 6 (Walcott 64, 6); Giroud 6 (Chambers 81, 6).

Subs: Ospina, Gabriel, Debuchy.

SUNDERLAND: Pantilimon 6: Yedlin 5, Coates 6, O’Shea 6, Kaboul 7, Van Aanholt 6; Toivonen 7 (Rodwell 61, 6) M’Vila 6; Watmore 7, Fletcher 5 (Lens 74, 6), Borini 5 (A Johnson 66, 5).

Subs: Mannone, Jones, Gomez, Graham.

Ref: Bobby Madley 7.

Att: 59,937.