With Arsenal missing so many crucial first team players, Sam Allardyce will be hoping that his Sunderland team can cause the Gunners problems although they themselves are also suffering from injuries to key personell.
With Francis Coquelin and Santo Cazorla both ruled out for at least three months, Arsene Wenger will have to find a new central midfield pairing to sustain our assault on the Premier League. At the moment that looks to be Matthieu Flamini and Aaron Ramsey that will fill the gap, and Wenger believes that Ramsey will be the key to our success now that he is back in his favoured position. “I believe that a change of positions can help with development when you do well,” Le Prof said. “When you don’t do well, it can change your confidence.
“In Aaron’s situation, I think he has done extremely well – on an individual front, because he has developed a sure technique and I believe he has developed the quality of his runs and his positional play.
“On the team front, he has helped us as well because he balanced a very offensive side by being one more midfielder. That has helped us a lot.”
He can certainly cover some miles on the pitch o maybe this role is taylor-made for him, and hopefully he will find his scoring boots again too. For Sunderland, Wenger is keen on Yann M’Vila, who he tried to buy for the Gunners a few years ago. “He was a very young, promising midfielder and we were interested in him,” Wenger continued. “But the year we wanted to bring him in, they did not want to sell him.
“He had a few off-the-field problems but it looks like now he’s stabilised and he’s of course a very good player who is a regular player in the national team in France.”
With Sunderland missing Jack Rodwell, Jermain Defoe and Seb Larsson today, Ramsey and Ozil should have some extra space in midfield to feed Giroud. We need to take an early lead to settle our nerves and keep it tight at the back.
I have already decided on the starting XI that Wenger will pick, which I discussed earlier
Giroud
Gibbs Ozil Campbell
Flamini Ramsey
Monreal Gabriel Mertesacker Bellerin
Cech
It certainly looks a lot different to our usual starting line-up, but if Ozil and Giroud are in their usual form then I don’t see why we can’t beat Sunderland today. I am predicting one early goal, then another one late on to secure the points.
Arsenal 2-0 Sunderland