Saturday 29th October 12:30 early kick-off, Sunderland host Arsenal. Sunderland lost at Southampton in the EFL Cup on Wednesday while Arsenal beat Reading at home and face Southampton in the quarter final. David Moyes is still looking for his first Premier League win but the signs are not looking good with Sunderland being close to the record for the worst ever start to a PL campaign. Match Appointments: Referee: Martin Atkinson Assistants: S Child, S Burt Fourth official: C Pawson Current Form: Arsenal: W-W-W-W-D-W Sunderland: W-L-D-L-L-L Head to Head (Last 25 games) Won 1 Lost 15 Drawn 9 Arsenal have won on four of their last five league trips to the Stadium of Light. Lawro’s score prediction: 1-2 Team Selection: Arsenal Theo Walcott, Nacho Monreal and Santi Cazorla all face late fitness tests but are expected to play. Arsenal striker Lucas Perez is out for 8 weeks but Oliver Giroud and Aaron Ramsey is back in contention. Granit Xhaka is still suspended. Sunderland Sunderland continue to have a long list of injuries including Sebastian Larsson, Vito Mannone, Fabio Borini, Lee Cattermole and Jan Kirchhoff who remain sidelined. Quotes from the manager: “Adnan Januzaj trained yesterday and will come in today so if we think he's right we may add him to the squad." "Jason Denayer trained as well but it may come too soon for him." "We want the fans in full voice but what we do on the pitch will determine that so we need to get them off their seat." Key Men Arsenal Alexis Sanchez please log in to view this image Sanchez had a tough life growing up in the Chilean mining town of Tocopilla and has a grit and determination to succeed. He is always a goal threat and with Ozil and Walcott also in good form, this match will be a big test for Sunderland's brittle defence. Sunderland Victor Anichebe please log in to view this image Anichebe played the full 90 minutes at Southampton and could be the spark SAFC need to kick off their season. Sunderland need to find someone else to find the back of the net with Defoe and Van Aarnholt having scored all of Sunderland’s 6 goals in the Premier League this season. My two pence... I’ll be watching my lad play for his local football team so will try and watch the recording without knowing the score, hoping that we can get a win from a deflected shot off Victor Anichebe’s rear end. Ha’wayawayaway the lads. Betting Arsenal 2-5 Sunderland: 8-1 Draw: 4-1
We'll get ripped apart if we allow them space and time on the ball like we have been doing. We need to play a high tempo game and close them down quickly. We cannot play like we did against West Ham.
I really hope its not. I've got no faith left in our manager but I hope he pulls it out of the bag somehow.
I hope not too of course but that's my honest prediction. Only hope is Arsenal have a bad day, no way can we outplay them.
I doubt it but there is always hope. The Southampton manager said Boufal was not fit to play but then played him for most of the game. We need to close them down high up the pitch and get some hard tackles in early on. If we sit back and let them attack like we did for the first 25 minutes against West Ham, Arsenal will batter us.
The Arse are 2/5 to win away to us. We're 8/1 to win at home. That's about as big an insult the bookies could give, matchday minus 1. I'm sure there's a silver lining somewhere. Somewhere? Anybody?
A very good write up RTB apart from putting Martin Atkinson down as ref. Could you not have lied about that bit. The man is a tw*t.
He has shown 35 yellows and 1 red in 10 matches, he hasn't been that bad for us in the last few seasons though apart from disallowing Jozy's "goal" against Arsenal. What do you hate him for?
That was an asolute joke, mind. Who knows what that goal against one of the top teams in the world would have done for Jozy's confidence, we could have seen a very different player potentially. Lovely through ball from Mavrias too.
Yeah - who knows, it could have been totally different. Good to see that he is playing well for Toronto.
