Sunderland 0 Arsenal 2

'THINGS can only get better' has been chanted by fans at the Stadium of Light regularly during the last couple of years, but Gus Poyet is not sure that they have for Sunderland during his first 12 months in charge at the Stadium of Light.

In a frank admission, after watching his side gift Arsenal a victory on Wearside which increased relegation concerns for the Black Cats, Poyet accepted he has to take partial blame for failing to eradicate the sort of calamitous errors still blighting his side’s progress.

Sunderland do not have a squad good enough to be able to recover from the sort of horrendous howlers which enabled the Gunners to head back to London with three points. The fact that such blunders have been common place around the club for years puzzles the man in charge.

Poyet, who still regularly claims his squad does not have the depth or the quality he would like after his first summer transfer window in charge, is satisfied with elements of Sunderland’s progress under him. The mistakes, though, leave him wondering what can be done to stop them.

“I thought until last week at Southampton we were a difficult team to play against. We showed glimpses of that against Arsenal, but you can’t get away from the mistakes,” said Poyet.

“We have conceded too many own goals, we are still conceding too many own goals and we are still making too many individual mistakes. So, no, that part of the game hasn’t improved at all.

“It is still there, it is inside the club, the group or whatever you call it and that is something I haven’t improved. My mistake, I accept responsibility, so it is up to you to judge.”

Seven days after standing bemused in the technical area at St Mary’s watching the goals – all eight of them - flow beyond Vito Mannone against Southampton, he was left perplexed again when Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal got their stuttering league campaign back on track.

Things were relatively smooth when the experienced figure of Wes Brown’s wild attempt at a back pass from close to halfway saw him mis-hit and Alexis Sanchez ran through and chipped a lovely finish beyond Mannone on the half hour.

After that Sunderland, although nervous defensively throughout, restricted Arsenal from scoring more, even if the visitors’ tendency to try to walk the ball in helped. There were a few chances too, but Wojciech Szczesny was equal to Jack Rodwell’s header and Seb Larsson’s drive. Jozy Altidore, brought on late, also wasted a couple of good chances.

And then, with Sunderland pushing on, for some reason Will Buckley tried a back pass from inside a busy penalty area which caught Mannone by surprise. The Italian, rather than instantly clear, made a mess of a touch, slipped and Sanchez side-footed the second deep into injury time at the end of the game.

Successive defeats, after Sunderland’s one and only league win of the season so far, has quite rightly raised question marks over the direction of the side again, particularly ahead of next Monday’s important trip to Crystal Palace. Are things any better to when you took over last October, Gus?

“From last year, the team that started against Arsenal here, seven players from the Sunderland line up are not at the club any more. Seven!” said Poyet. “Do you want to know which ones? Westwood, Celustka, Roberge, Diakite, Jack Colback, Ki, Vaughan (Borini was on the bench) - they are not here.

“Eight of the starting 11 of Arsenal are in their squad. We start all the way from zero, so how can you have a consistency, of understanding the game and a mentality of passing and when and how, if you are starting afresh every year? You are always catching up.

“You need your team to get momentum. Three weeks ago we were complaining about no wins in the league, we won that game - which was apparently the most important thing for the season - and then the next two were the worst two.”

The manner of mistakes against Arsenal and at Southampton boils down to a lack of concentration. There have been angry words exchanged in the dressing room during the last ten days but Poyet thinks the team have a collective responsibility to put things right.

“When we lose a game like we did last weekend it hurts, but they weren’t feeling sorry for themselves against Arsenal,” said Poyet. “When there is an individual mistake it depends on how you take it as a group because it easy for people to say ‘I did my job, it is his problem’, but next week it could be you and it is a group thing, a team thing.

“That is the feeling I prefer them to have. We made a mistake, so there is no naming of individuals. One was bad enough, but to have two mistakes, two goals conceded like that after last weekend, is tough. It’s not something you expect or can train.”