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The teams are out! Sunderland in their storied red and white stripes, Arsenal in second-choice mid-Nineties-throwback squiggly blue. A fine anticipatory atmosphere bubbles away, and there are poppy mosaics in the stand ahead Remembrance Sunday. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris speaks to Sky Sports … “We will see if we can find an opportunity to win … or to score, because it’s really tough to score against them … keep improving … we need play against the best to improve … [Granit Xhaka] is really important for us … a really good player … a strong leader … an ability to lead by example … on the pitch in real time … to help others and create new leaders … so it fits really well with our journey and I hope he will be at his best today.”
… then his Arsenal counterpart Mikel Arteta takes his turn. “There is excitement to come here and do what we have been doing … earn the right to win the game … every game in the Premier League is a really tough place to come and we are really aware of that … when you move a player from a deep position to a front position, normally the other way around is easier, that way is more complicated and Mikel [Merino] has done a brilliant job every time … we are going to need him today again.”
Early arrivals to this MBM will know that there used to be a picture of a dog in a Sunderland coat at the top. The picture editor has since chased him away, but let’s see if we can entice the little scamp back, because otherwise the email I’m about to publish in today’s Pre-match Postbag will make no sense.
Here, boy!
[clicks fingers, whistles]
Here, boy!
[sound of scampering]
Here you are! Here he is! He’s back!
Good boy! What a good boy! OK, sit. Stay.
Pre-match postbag. “The dog in your header image has the thousand-yard stare of a life-long human Sunderland supporter” – Andy (not that one) Flintoff.
All of the earlier matches have now finished. Barry Glendenning has the details of the 3pms and wins for Everton and West Ham, but only the lunchtime kick-off had any effect on this match, in so much as the point Spurs gained in their 2-2 draw with Manchester United has nudged Sunderland down one spot to fifth.
Here’s an illustration of the size and scope of the task facing Sunderland today. Arsenal last conceded a goal at 5.05pm on 28 September. Since then, they’ve only allowed 12 shots on target in 12 hours and 56 minutes of football, over eight-and-a-half matches, a sequence that equals a club record established in 1903, when they were still knocking around in Woolwich. Nick Ames digs deeper.
Sunderland are in If It Ain’t Broke mode. They name the same XI that started the 2-1 win at Chelsea and the 1-1 draw with Everton. This will be the first time Granit Xhaka has faced Arsenal since leaving the Gunners two years ago.
Arsenal make three changes after their 3-0 win at Slavia Prague. Eberechi Eze, Martín Zubimendi and Riccardo Calafiori step up; Ethan Nwaneri, Christian Nørgaard and Piero Hincapié sit down. Viktor Gyökeres remains on the injury list with a hamstring problem.
The teams
Sunderland: Roefs, Hume, Mukiele, Ballard, Geertruida, Mandava, Traore, Xhaka, Sadiki, Le Fee, Isidor.
Subs: Patterson, Neil, Talbi, Brobbey, Rigg, Mayenda, O’Nien, Adingra, Masuaku.
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Eze, Zubimendi, Rice, Saka, Merino, Trossard.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, White, Hincapie, Norgaard, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman, Harriman-Annous.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
VAR: James Bell.
Preamble
Sunderland do not have a good record against Arsenal. The last time these clubs met, four years ago, Arsenal won 5-1 in the League Cup, though the Black Cats were a League One outfit at the time. The last time they met in the Premier League, in 2016-17, Arsenal won 2-0 at home and 4-1 at the Stadium of Light. Arsenal are on a 15-game unbeaten streak against Sunderland in the League that stretches back to 2009, while the last time they lost any game against them was in the FA Cup in 2012. History is not on Sunderland’s side this evening.†
The recent form book doesn’t help them either, though that’s only because Arsenal right now are on the hottest streak in the country, in Europe, in the world. The Premier League leaders are currently on a run of ten consecutive wins in all competitions, and eight consecutive clean sheets. Who can compete with numbers like that?! In fact, Sunderland’s own recent form is highly impressive: five Premier League wins already, and unbeaten at home, commendable business for a freshly promoted team. And hey, someone has to score against Arsenal at some point, right? Eh?
So there is hope for Sunderland … and we’ve not even priced in the presence in their team of former Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka, who is a headline waiting to happen tonight, one way or another. You know how football goes sometimes. Arsenal are hot favourites, but Sunderland are unlikely to go down without a fight. Kick-off is at 5.30pm GMT. It’s on!
†: To be fair, Sunderland did beat Arsenal in the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1973, en route to their greatest triumph in the modern era. So there is that. But let’s not cloud the issue.
