Sunderland boss Steve Bruce felt his side deserved a share of the spoils in the 2-1 defeat at Arsenal. "We talked about starting well all week and then we conceded after 30 seconds, which wasn't easy," he told the club's official website.
"We had an awful start, just like the West Brom game, but again we showed enough resilience and fight to get back in the game.
"It's just a shame that [Robin] Van Persie, a world-class player, came up with piece of magic at the end. He is worth the entrance fee alone.
"If I'm critical we gave too many free kicks away on the edge of the box, but otherwise I can't fault the players."
He continued: "If we keep playing like that, stick together and keep our heads up, we'll be okay.
"Seb [Larsson] scored a great goal and that's three he's got for us now. He's showing his quality from set pieces."
"We had two big chances before half time and to go in 2-1 up would have been fantastic, but it wasn't to be," Bruce added.
"Against the big teams in the big stadiums you need to take your chances and we didn't do that today.
"We did enough to get something from the game and I take heart from that."
