Just get the feeling that Saturday will be the catalyst for kicking off our season and relieving the pressure for PDC. We will have all our attacking options available and I think Altidore and Fletcher will be a real handful. Ki gives us more control I'm the middle and Johnson and Giacherinni will provide the bullets. It would be a massive result to beat the new look Wenger boys and I just feel we could click on Saturday and set up our season. I would love to read all the Sunday papers having to write that story and hear the ****wit pundits discuss a Sunderland victory over one of their darling favourites. Forza Paolo. Forza Sunderland.
Have a good feeling myself. Good to have a home game as well A win like you say would kick start our season
Why not? We've done it before and they're not in in that great shape. Ozil is a terrific buy and it's handy to get them before he settles.
The thing is, it would be an Arsenal loss they scrutinise - we still wouldn't get any credit for the win!
Whilst I hope he plays - I don;t want another moment of the Martin O'Neill madness where catts said "Yeah I'm fit" and got injured almost 8 months ago (I think!!) I want Cattermole ready to play for the season not risked because we think he's OK. The Arsenal game everyone expects we'll get hammered and the press love them - I hope they turn up feeling just as confident and things click - I have a funny feeling about Saturday and I don't know why - similar to Cest - so COME ON SUNDERLAND!!
We always do well at home to Arsenal. I have a good feeling too about Sat, even more so now ive seen their injury woe's!
12 September 2013 8:30 | By Chris Young FABIO BORINI hopes Sunderland can emerge from under the radar to scupper Mesut Ozil’s Arsenal debut this weekend. The media spotlight will fall on Arsenal new boy Ozil at the Stadium of Light on Saturday after the German international completed a £42million deadline day move from Real Madrid to the Emirates. Minutes before Ozil’s switch was confirmed, Borini finalised a season-long loan switch from Liverpool, with the 22-year-old expected to make his Sunderland bow against the Gunners. Inevitably, Borini and Sunderland will not garner as much attention as Ozil in the build-up to the game. But the Italian frontman believes that could work to Sunderland’s advantage by putting a weight of expectation on Arsenal’s record signing. “The headlines are going to be around Ozil, but that puts a little bit of pressure on them because they’ve got this new player who they’ve spent a lot on,” said Borini. “There will obviously be a lot of hype around him. “But maybe that will be good because no-one will be focusing on us. “It would be a big boost for me to be involved on Saturday. “It would be my debut for the season because I wasn’t involved in Liverpool’s first three games. “It’s obviously a big game against a top team too, against a side in the Champions League. “But,for us, it’s a chance after the first three games. “Arsenal have got a very good team technically and we’ve got to try to be physical against them.” Paolo Di Canio is expected to alter the make-up of his front line after Connor Wickham and Ji Dong-won both struggled to make an impression in Sunderland’s defeat at Crystal Palace, prior to the international break. The Sunderland head coach has Jozy Altidore back at his disposal after the American international missed the Palace game through a hamstring niggle, while Steven Fletcher could also be handed a first start of the season after making his comeback as a substitute at Selhurst Park. But Borini insists that he offers a contrasting option up front to either Altidore or Fletcher. “I like to think my strengths are playing cleverly and being always on the move,” he added. “I try to find space that other people can’t find. “I work the channels and look to work on the shoulder of the defender. “That makes it harder for the defender. “Obviously, I’m not a player who relies on physical strength, but I have endurance strength. I can be moving for 90 minutes constantly.”
I think the more outsiders keep having a pop at him the more I desperately hope he can do this job at SAFC as he will be amazing if he can. Its raree to see such passion and drive in a manager and if he can curtail feeding the frenzied ****ers of the British Press after each eprformance and concentrate on the team, he might just do that very well. Starting with Saturdays visit of the Wenger Boys, come on Paolo's Red & White Army.
Im unusually confidant about Saturday. Just hoping when I see the starting 11 i don't get the same sinking feeling i got before Palace. If we get in their faces and use our possession well on the counter we can get a positive result.
For you Cest. A copy and paste, of a thread i did earlier today, elsewhere. It's nothing more than a feel good thread, and proves every team is beatable at times. a look back at some history....hope you enjoy it. Took me ages to find all this, and make up a thread, hope you enjoy... The year is 1953, 12th Sep (today), the venue Roker Park. The reigning champions Arsenal, make their way north to face Sunderland, who had finished 9th the previous season. The champions hadn't had the best of stats to the season, in fact were pretty useless to say the least, 5 defeats and 2 draws, before they had to face the lads. Even so, they must still have fancied their chances, ha'way Arsenal usually fancy their chances against most team. So they lined up. ............................Jimmy Cowan............................... Jack Hedley.......Arthur Hudgell......Stan Anderson.....Ray Daniel.... Arthur Snell.......Billy Bingham.......Tommy Wright.......Trevor Ford ......................Len Shackleton.....Billy Elliott (nee idea if i've got them in the correct positions mind) Against the champion ...........................George Swindon............................................. Joe Mercer.......Dennis Evans.......Bill Dodgin........Alex Forbes Arthur Milton......Jimmy Logie.......Jimmy Logie......Don Roper .......................Doug Lishman......Cliff Holton... Anyhow a crowd of 59, 808 had made their way to the ground, to see Bill Murrays lads take on Tom Whittakers champions. Sunderland had a new player, aquired from Arsenal, Ray Daniel, who was regarded as being pretty damn good. But that summer Tom was unable to stop the departure of one significant player: Ray Daniel. Daniel had played 41 games at centre half in 1952/3 and yet was sold to Sunderland for a club record fee £30,000. Why (everyone asked) would a player leave the league champions where he was first choice number 5, to join a team that had finished 9th and which was not in the process of any serious rebuilding? (In fact they finished 18th in 1953-54). It is now known that Sunderland offered Daniel payments far in excess of the maximum wage that was allowed. Sadly Ray Daniel was tempted by a better (although illegal) offer. The game kicks off, and from the first kick it was obvious that today was going to be Sunderlands day. The lads go in 2-1 up at half time.. 2nd half was a rout, probably one that Arsenal had never seen before (i'm just guessing this mind, so bare with me), the dominance of the lads from Wearside was total, and battered the boys from North London into submission, and humiliation beyond belief. 5 more goals from the wearside warriors, left the champions crying into their jellied eels, for a long trip back to the capital 7-1 to the lads, yep, 7 past the champions A hat trick for Tommy Ford, 2 for Tommy Wright, and 1 each for Len Shackleton and Billy Elliot. Take that ya shandy drinking southern's. There don't you feel better now?
Here is my team and subs for the game. Westwood Celustka, Roberge, Diakite, Colback Johnson, Cabral, Ki, Giacherinni Altidore, Fletcher Mannone, Cuellar, Larsson, Mavrias, Catts, Borini, Karlsson