Match Day Thread Arsenal v Sunderland Tuesday 16th May KO 19:45

Sunderland face Arsenal on Tuesday in their penultimate game of the 2016-17 Premier League season.
Arsenal will see this a must win game in their fight for a Champions League spot. The Black Cats must be wishing the season was over following relegation to the second tier.

David Moyes:
“After beating Hull we wanted to end the season well so there’s no doubt that Saturday’s result was disappointing.”
“We’ve spoken to everyone at the club who has a situation with their contracts where it could be terminated or they could leave..."
“They all know and they’re ongoing so it’s been passed over to Martin Bain, and they’ll speak with their agents and see where we go.”
“At the moment I wouldn’t think [Honeyman, Anichebe and Denayer would feature] so..."
"I’m more concerned that I’ve now got others who are saying they’re injured as well, but we will go there and be committed."
“It might be that we have to take the kids with us to Arsenal but that’s not a problem..."

Arsene Wenger:
"I didn’t see the incident”

Arsenal have never lost a home Premier League match against Sunderland (W10 D5 L0).
Sunderland have won only one of their last 26 PL matches against the Gunners, a 1-0 victory in November 2009 (W1 D9 L16).
Olivier Giroud has scored four times in his last four matches in all competitions against Sunderland and if he scores in this fixture he will become the third player to hit 50 goals at Emirates Stadium, after Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott (all comps).
Arsenal have lost only one of their last 16 Premier League matches at Emirates Stadium (W12 D3 L1).

Lawro's Prediction: -:-
Merson's Prediction: 4:0

Referee: Roger East
Assistants: P Kirkup, M Wilkes
Fourth official: L Probert

Team Line ups
Arsenal

Subs from Ospina, Martínez, Gabriel, Jenkinson, Debuchy, Holding, Iwobi, Mertesacker, Maitland-Niles, Coquelin, Elneny, Walcott, Sanogo, Giroud, Pérez, Oxlade-Chamberlain
Doubtful Koscielny (calf), Oxlade-Chamberlain (hamstring)
Injured Cazorla (achilles), Reine-Adélaïde (ankle, both unknown)
Suspended None
Form WWLWWW
Discipline Y60 R2
Leading scorer Sánchez 21

Sunderland

Subs from Mannone, Love, Djilobodji, Lescott, Larsson, Cattermole, Rodwell, Pienaar, Gibson, Gooch, Embleton
Doubtful Cattermole (achilles), Anichebe (hamstring), Denayer
Injured Kirchhoff (knee, Jun), McNair (knee, Aug), Watmore (knee, Sep), Honeyman (back, unknown), Oviedo (hamstring, unknown)
Suspended None
Form LDLLWL
Discipline Y72 R4
Leading scorer Defoe 15

My two pence:
My score predictions have been all over the place this season but everything points to a comfortable home win. I'm just hoping we can keep the final score below our record 8-0 humiliation at Southampton.

Ha'way the lads

 

25/1.

 

One of my favourite games was the 0-0 with Advocaat ..... absolutely top class support that night.

We went on the train and there were Sunderland all over London.

Seemed like there were lads we knew in every pub we went in.

Got my ticket for tomorrow, hoping we can score and reward the away fans who've been exeptional this season.

 

Hope the players turn up and put some effort in for the amazing away support.

It's the least those gutless ****ers can do considering the circumstances.

 

Humiliation

 

Used to attend a lot of away games in my time but have to admit I think I would have missed out on this one, my congratulations to anyone travelling down, you are a real supporter

 

Hard to predict the team given that they've all declared themselves injured according to dour Dave.

Hoping to see a front 3 of Gooch Khazri and Defoe. Catts in for Denayer

 

We have a patched up team and Arsenal are 3pts behind 4th with a -5 goal difference.

This could get messy.

 

Sunderland to surprise all and tonk them..

 

I'm hopingfor a front three of Maja, Defoe and Asoro.....a bit of pace up front....what a new concept....

 

25/1 on a 2 horse race!! Tells you all you need to know - but hey - everyone can get a little bit of luck occasionally - may have a couple of quid on us!

 

Is that odds or predicted score line?

If you were playing Man City, Tottenham, etc and they needed to win by a landslide then I'd be more worried. I'm just ot convinced Arsenal have an absolute rollicking in them. The Beeb disagrees though:

 

Forfeit and take the 3-0 anyone?

 

You'd probably get shorter odds on that score line

 

Moyes asking the players to show professional pride tonight. Good move. Unfortunately. you're 36 games too late.

 

Sunderland

• 13Pickford
• 2Jones
• 23Koné
• 16O'Shea
• 21Manquillo
• 7Larsson
• 6Cattermole
• 17Ndong
• 9Borini
• 18Defoe
• 3Oviedo

Substitutes

• 1Mannone
• 8Rodwell
• 15Lescott
• 22Love
• 24Gibson
• 44Januzaj
• 46Gooch

Referee:
Roger East

No kasri

 

Was talk of players faking injury on RTG, glad it's not true and just another prime example of fans manipulating manager comments to suit an agenda.

Glad there's been no need to chuck the kids in tonight, biggest night of their career tomorrow night.

 

Yeh might see some passion

 

"of their career so far" hopefully. Easy to imagine some of them will be getting playing time in the first team in the near future.