Arsene Wenger has slammed his frontline for “lacking desire and sharpness” as they failed to find the back of the net for the first time this term.
With Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner sidelined through injury, Arsenal failed to trouble the Sunderland backline. Eduardo, who was given a rare start, had a dismal game all afternoon.
Wenger said: "Going forward we lacked sharpness, we lacked the desire to go behind defenders. We've chosen the easy part of the game and not exposed them with our pace in behind.
"If you want to score goals you have to go behind the defenders. We choked a little bit and chose the easy part of the game.
"Mentally it's a blow. It's a big disappointment because we know it was a very important game that we couldn't afford to lose and we perhaps under-estimated how difficult it would be for us here.
"Give Sunderland credit, they defended with a lot of heart and great desire and they fought for every ball. They played it like it was a cup tie.
"We had more of the ball so they tried to stop us from playing. Sometimes they were on the fringe of the rules but that's part of the game."
Arsenal next play London rivals Chelsea, and Wenger concluded: "It's important to win the next game - that is in the Champions League - and to forget about Chelsea."
Wenger: We choked against Sunderland | ESPNSTAR.com 
