After we went 1-0 ahead and Giroud gifted Sunderland an equaliser soon after, I was sure we’d done it again: we’d messed up another chance to gain points over Man City.

Fortunately, a slightly improved second half performance and having energiser bunny Rambo on the pitch meant we had the quality to not only go 2-1 up, but score another in injury time.

We also managed not to get any more injuries ourselves. Result.

Petr Cech – 7

The goalkeeper was forced into making a great save in the forth minute from Fabio Borini and continued to keep us in the game until Rambo could put us 3-1 up in stoppage time.

Per Mertesacker – 5

The German made a couple of strange defensive decisions, for example, backing off players at the wrong time, particularly in the first half and, along with the rest of our defence, looked nervous throughout.

Laurent Koscielny – 5.5

The centre back’s usually decent communication with Per wasn’t quite there today and he made one or two mistakes, leading to him not having his normal, solid performance.

Mesut Ozil – 8

The magician got another assist, putting him in the running to beat Thierry Henry’s record.

Olivier Giroud – 6

The striker didn’t have the best game, which was summed up when he scored Sunderland’s equaliser for them not long after we’d gone 1-0 ahead. However, he did make up for it by scoring at the right end later on, with a header, of course.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 6

Only just returning from an injury he picked up against Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup, the forward started brightly and continued to look lively, although his energy began to dampen in the second half.

Aaron Ramsey – 8

Rambo is officially back. The Welshman’s work rate throughout the entire match was top notch and he even got an assist and goal for his troubles.

Nacho Monreal – 6

The Spaniard almost gifted Sunderland another goal in the second half when he misjudged a header back to Cech. However, other than this he was solid.

Mathieu Flamini – 5

The midfielder did his usual ‘running off up the pitch’ routine once or twice and keep sliding in all over the place. On the plus side, he didn’t kill anybody. This time.

Hector Bellerin – 5

The youngster still hasn’t quite regained his form from before he got injured recently and his positioning at times was way off. On more than one occasion the full back got caught too far up the pitch, leaving us exposed and nervous.

Joel Campbell – 7.5

Campbell appears to really be coming into his own after being given a chance at regular football. He never stopped chasing and even managed to score a great goal.

SUBS

Theo Walcott – 5

Although he came on late, he instantly got involved and was attacking from the get-go.

Kieran Gibbs – N/A

Calum Chambers – N/A