Sunderland (A)

Lack of fight. Lack of passion. Lack of quality? These have all been factors that are to blame for the painful defeat we suffered on Wednesday. We were poor from start to finish, none of the players apart from Henry, RVP and when he came on Chamberlain seemed to care about the game. We were particularly poor at the back and got opened up time after time by the same lack of awareness. After beasting him since arrival I must admit, we missed Mertesacker. Yes he makes us defend much deeper than we normally would and yes hes slow but his height and organisation were missed. He keeps the line and on Wednesday there was no structure. We lost out in the air with Ibrahimovic winning every ball, there wasn't even a challenge. if we'd have scored there was a chance, but at 4-0 we need a miracle.

Anyway I think the quicker we move on from it the better. Now to our only chance of silverware this season and a really tricky FA cup against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light for the second weekend in a row and of all the teams you don't want to be playing right now Sunderland are up there (along with Tottenham who we play next weekend). Yes we won there last weekend but it was hardly convincing was it? This is going to be a real challenge and I can see it being a draw.

Team news and after limping off on Wednesday it appears Koscielny's injury isn't too bad and he should be back for the derby next weekend. This means that more than likely we'll have Djourou and Vermaelen at the back with Gibbs and Sagna in the full back roles. The rest of the team I would imagine will revert to normal Premier League standard with us playing 4-3-3 with the 2 wingers adopting their normal positions. Gervinho is back so Wenger will probably start him instead of the Ox.

Sunderland threats come from the usual suspects: Campbell, McClean and Larsson along with a few others. Once again however their lack of pace at the back is where we need to break and hopefully get in behind them. This is going to be a really hard game and we certainly worked for the points last week, lets hope that we can pull it out this time.

Until next time COGY!!

Prediction: Sunderland 1-1 Arsenal