Sunderland (A)

As the game drew on I had that feeling that we would be staring down the barrel of another disappointing result. But then in the 78th minute Lukas Podolski's deflected shot found the bottom right hand corner. After a bizarre ruled out and ruled back in incident and rather amusing moment between us and the Stoke fans we had our goal and held on until the end. In all honesty Stoke turned up happy to try and absorb all the pressure and nick a point, but we always looked like scoring. Let's hope we can have a repeat performance against Sunderland this weekend.

Sunderland have been in a real hit and miss side this season. Beating City one week then losing to Reading the next. Let's hope we catch them on the off day when we travel up north on Saturday. Now we know Sunderland are a physical side much like Stoke and we know it'll be a tough game. Fletcher is their main target man having scored nearly double the amount of goals as their next highest scorer. We also have Danny Graham to contend with having signed for them in the window.

Vermaelen is still a doubt after failing to shake off an injury picked up before last weekends game. If he's still out Koscielny will step in again. Wenger will have a choice to make between keeping Diaby and Oxlade-Chamberlain in or returning to Podolski and Cazorla. I thought we looked more dangerous with the German and Spaniard in the team, however both, Cazorla especially needed a rest. I think Wenger will throw them back in this weekend. So: SZCZ(who might actually have a save to make this week), Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscileny, Monreal, Arteta, Wilshere, Cazorla, Walcott, Podolski, Giroud would be my guess at the team.

I thought Monreal overall was fairly solid against Stoke, he can certainly pick out a ball and he can certainly hold his own physically. He has a few wobbles but I'll put that down to nerves more than anything. It was great to see another Spaniard in the team in the form of Mikel Arteta, whose experience is desperately needed in the team. We're no doubt better off with him in the team so I'm glad to see him back.  

It'll be a tough trip to Sunderland but let's hope we can grab another 3 points in the fight for the top 4. COYG!

Prediction: Sunderland 1-2 Arsenal