EPL: Sunderland, Arsenal share points

Neither Sunderland nor Arsenal could make the most of their goalscoring opportunities on Sunday afternoon as they were forced to accept a goalless draw at the Stadium of Light.
The Black Cats have moved out of the relegation zone due to a better goal difference than Norwich City, while Arsenal remain fourth, level on points with Manchester City above them.
Both Sunderland and Arsenal had large spells of dominance throughout the game, and both could have been given a penalty in the first half for hand-ball offences, but in the end, they settled for a point.
Arsenal put their opponents’ defence under early pressure when Alex Iwobi drilled a low drive from the edge of the area, but his shot dragged wide of the post.
The visitors began to dominate and Alexis Sanchez came close to opening the scoring four minutes after the half-hour mark when his free kick look destined to nestle into the bottom left corner, but Mannone made a one-handed save.
The main talking point from the first half was that referee Mike Dean denied both Sunderland and Arsenal penalties for hand balls.
The first of which came for Sunderland, who were given some luck when Hector Bellerin’s poor clearance fell straight to Defoe, who hammered a strike from the centre of the box, but the ball hit the hand of Mertesacker, who had his arms up while trying to defend the shot.
A few minutes later, Arsenal were denied a similar appeal when Iwobi’s shot from the edge of the box hit DeAndre Yedlin’s hand, which was raised while the defender dived to the floor in an attempt to block the strike.
After the break, both teams displayed attacking intent, but it was Cech who felt the pressure in the early stages of the second half as he was forced into a double save.
At the other end, Arsenal put Sunderland under pressure when the ball was played into Giroud’s path. The Frenchman did well to draw Mannone off his line before playing the ball back across the six-yard box for Iwobi, who had an open net to aim at but ended up mishitting his shot, which missed the target completely.
Seconds later, Duncan Watmore showed quick feet on the edge of the box before sending a cross in, but Cech palmed the ball away before it could reach Defoe.
More chances came at both ends, but the deadlock at the Stadium of Light could not be broken.