After emphatically beating London rivals Leyton Orient in the FA Cup replay on Wednesday our attention turns once again to the Premier League. Sunderland are one of those teams: on their day they'll give any team a good run for their money, when it goes wrong they tend to flop. They're having a good season so far and sit a comfortable 8th. It wont be an easy job turning them over as they can be very dangerous when attacking.
So players to watch for then. Well starting upfront, Gyan can be dangerous when in front of goal, although he's had his moment this season. However I think the majority of their threat will come from the wings. Sessegnon will be a danger on the right and could give Clichy a few problems with his pace and skill. On the other side, Bruce may decide to include the Manchester United youngster Danny Welbeck who certainly has potential. One other player worth a mention is Henderson (don't laugh), he can cause problems on his day.
Looking at our team, with various injuries we will most probably line up with Bendtner (Sigh) on the right and Arshavin on the left with Chamakh playing the lone striker role upfront. The three holding midfield players will be Diaby, Nasri and Wilshere. A standard back four, minus Vermaelen of course, with Koscielny returning after his, how shall we put it 'incident' with keeper Szczesny in the Carling Cup final. However in typical Wenger style he will have instructed them to put it behind them and move on, so I don't see too many problems occurring (touch wood). I think that the majority of our attacking play will come from Arshavin and Chamakh with a lot of the moves instigated by Wilshere and Nasri of course. Although there would be no surprise if Nasri netted one on current form. So overall I can see it being a tough game where we will need to work hard to grind out a result.
Prediction: Arsenal 1-0 Sunderland
