Sunderland vs Arsenal: Where The Game Will Be Won & Lost

By Ian Newby /

Sunderland€™s defence was surprisingly one of their best features last year however the defence has suffered a few blows with losing Simon Mignolet and Danny Rose over the summer; they will also be without John O€™Shea for the Arsenal game as he is suspended following his red card over at Crystal Palace. Modibo Diakité is a defender that has only just arrived at Sunderland and will need time to adapt to the Premier League style while the likes of Wes Brown and Carlos Cuéllar have top flight experience both are getting on in age and have a tendency to get injured. Some still question the signing of Di Canio as their manager, his rather public jab at striker Ji for ducking out the way of a crossed ball shows the passionate Italian still marches to the beat of his own drum and doesn€™t care who he insults or publically questions A key point for both teams to remember going into Saturday€™s 3€™o clock kick off is their game last season, Arsenal won the fixture 1-0 but had Carl Jenkinson sent off early into the second half so clung onto the lead as Sunderland got chance after chance late on to almost sneak a draw. Of course it will be incredibly hard for Sunderland to repeat that game last season and get anything from the match but they need to know they can run Arsenal close and give them a tough game. Arsenal meanwhile need to understand these are the teams that defend in numbers against them so need to be more professional than fancy doing the job and picking up the 3 points. Another key point that will decide which team wins will be the battle between the two strikers, Olivier Giroud and Steven Fletcher. The much maligned French striker Giroud has started the season in good form 3 goals in 3 games is a good start Arsenal fans however will be hoping he keeps up this run of form the Gunners badly need a 20 goal a season striker He is benefiting however from starting more games Giroud now seems to be Arsenal€™s main striker and playing game after game seems to be doing the job for the Frenchman. Steven Fletcher is Sunderland€™s most expensive signing and last season he proved it scoring 11 goals trying to keep Sunderland in the top flight. His injury in March really could have spelled doom for Sunderland but they survived and finally he is fully fit and made a goal scoring return to the team coming off the bench to score against Palace in their defeat. The big tall Scot is a handful for any defence and with Arsenal€™s defenders known to struggle with height and power Di Canio must start with Fletcher on Saturday to stand any chance of getting a result.
The biggest drama and the biggest fee of deadline day was the 42 million pound transfer of Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid to the Emirates. It was the big money transfer signing Arsenal fans have been craving for years with Wenger smashing his last record transfer fee by nearly 30 million pounds to land the German international. It is a huge headline making signing that Wenger should be very proud of for at least getting the fans with €˜Spend, Spend, Spend€™ signs off his back. Mesut Zil Germany National Football Team 01 Ozil is certainly an Arsenal type player, a man with lots of flair, silky touches yet with a firm eye for goal Ozil was a big success in his 3 years at Real Madrid so much so that the fans didn€™t want the talented German to be sold. Arsenal fans have rightly been drooling over such a world class footballer coming to play for them, he is yet another high class attacking option to go with the likes of Wilshere, Walcott and Santi Cazorla. If he starts on Saturday then all eyes will be on him more than any other new signing from the window and fans will be really curious to see what Ozil adds to this Arsenal side. He could be the missing piece to the puzzle linking all of Arsenal€™s exceptional passing play into goals or could just add another small skilful attacking midfielder to Arsenal€™s growing collection while Wenger continues to ignore the need for a top class defender.
Not to forget Sunderland€™s signings though they brought 14 new players in over the summer window with the newest additions on deadline day being Fabio Borini on loan from Liverpool and Andrea Dossena to fill in the left back slot Sunderland already have pretty much a whole new team of transfers brought in including Jozy Altidore, Vito Mannone and the stylish Italian midfielder Emanuele Giaccherini to pick from. Even with all these transfers Sunderland are in trouble only a few days ago their full strength squad lost 3-1 to their own under-21 team a result so embarrassing Di Canio didn€™t want it leaked out in the press. It looks to be an easy three points for Arsenal but in the Premier League you just never know any team on their day can pull off a shock result and Sunderland fans will be hoping a big performance against a top side like Arsenal could really kick start their season.