STANISLAV Varga admitted he was disappointed not to complete a personal debut double over Arsenal.

The 35-year-old Slovakian made his Sunderland bow against the Gunners in 2000, in his first spell at the Stadium of Light.

The Black Cats ran out 1-0 winners that day, thanks to Niall Quinn's 54th minute goal.

And Varga, who is on-loan to Burnley in his second spell with Sunderland, admitted it would have been nice to mark his first game for the Clarets with a repeat scoreline and help cause an upset in the FA Cup third round.

"There were a lot of positives to come from the game, and I think if we win as many tackles as we did against Arsenal I think we will be all right in the division," said the 6ft 5ins central defender, who completed a one-month deal on Friday morning.

"But football is about winning and losing so we're disappointed.

"When you're playing well and losing it's not a good sign. I think it's better if you're playing badly and winning. I prefer it that way."

But, although frustrated at conceding two goals, Varga was pleased with the number of chances they created against their Premier League opponents, in particular Kyle Lafferty's early header that cannoned off the crossbar.

"I don't know what would have happened if we'd scored from Kyle Lafferty's header. Maybe that would have changed something; or the red card changed something," said the former Celtic defender, who felt Lafferty was unlucky to be sent off for his challenge on Gilberto Silva just before the hour.

"I think it was a fair challenge to be honest.

"Their striker, (Nicklas) Bendtner, thought it was really harsh. He thought it should have been a yellow card.

"I asked the referee and he said it was a red card because he tried to hurt the opponent. But I think he went for the ball.

"It was probably a little bit of a hard tackle but in football you have to tackle.

"If he wouldn't tackle he would probably play chess or something. But I think, especially this season now, referees just punish them."