Sunderland at home a chance to go 9 clear

Morning all.

Arsenal are in 3pm Premier League action today, taking on Sunderland at home. After some midweek doubt, Mikel Arteta confirmed in his press conference yesterday that Jurrien Timber is fine, and that both Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka are close – but we’ll have to wait and see if either are available for this one.

I think we might see a bit of rotation from the side that started against Chelsea. With Sunderland likely to play a back five, and sit deep, it feels like a game where technical quality will be key. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the manager swap out his full backs and start Ben White and Riccardo Calafiori. The Italian has a greater ability to impact our attacking play than Hincapie, and when the Ecuadorian starts, Timber is the one asked to roam around midfield.

Ahead of them, I can’t see beyond Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice, and there are options then for Arteta to choose from. If Odegaard isn’t fit, Eberechi Eze could continue, or Kai Havertz, fresh off his goal against Chelsea on Tuesday, could play there like he did against Leeds. Personally, because of how we’re likely to face a low block, and and a team that will sit deep (or be forced to sit deep), I’d be more inclined to look at Gabriel Jesus, or Havertz, up front than Viktor Gyokeres.

With Leandro Trossard on the left, and Noni Madueke on the right, the Brazilian’s ability to link play, and produce moments of skill would give him the edge over the Swedish international for me. The goal against Leeds is a good example of that. In a tight area in the box he found a way to make space for a shot and apply the finish. But, maybe too the manager might think the Havertz/Gyokeres combo that looked like it worked well at Leeds might be tempting for him. To be honest, I quite like not being able to predict the line-up with any real certainty, so let’s see what he comes up.

As for Sunderland, they’re having a great season on their return to the Premier League, but it has been predicated fairly substantially on their home form. They’re the only team not to lose a game at home so far, and when you look at the home-only table, they’re third, only Arsenal and Man City have a better record (29 points to Sunderland’s 26). We know fine well how hard it is to go to The Stadium of Light after a 2-2 draw there back in November.

Away from home though, it’s been a different story. That table has them in 17th, and they’ve won just twice on the road. Which doesn’t mean we can take anything for granted, (one of those wins was at Stamford Bridge!), but I think their approach today will be informed by that. They will defend with discipline, they’re a physical side as we know, and we’ll need to defend set-pieces and balls into the box better than we did in the previous game. There’s no Granit Xhaka today, so that slice of narrative isn’t something we have to deal with, but they could still be a tough nut to crack.

Mikel Arteta says:

They are extremely competitive, really well coached, they have very good individuals, very clear identity of what they want to do, where they want to take the game and they are very good at it. You could obviously see the result they had against the top sides, so we know what to expect, but we need to deliver that tomorrow.

The fact we play today gives us a chance to extend the lead over Man City to 9 points, before they face a tough trip to Anfield tomorrow. In that sense, the fixture list has been kind, but it’s up to us to take advantage of that and apply that little bit of pressure with a good result. The game at Sunderland was one we should have won, and while this isn’t a case of Arsenal being out for revenge or anything like that, it’s a chance to do better this time, and hopefully that’s what we see in terms of performance but more importantly result.

Right, let’s leave it there this morning. As ever, we’ll have live blog coverage for you, all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News, and there’s a preview podcast on Patreon if you need something to listen to in the meantime.

For now, have a good one, and I’ll catch you later for the game.