Arsenal v Sunderland

Arsenal managed to secure Champions League qualification on the very last day of the season ...at the expense of bitter north london rivals Tottenham , another season without a trophy has caused Arsene Wenger to splash the cash a bit ..new signings coming to the Emirates are german striker Lukas Podolski , french striker Olivier Giroud and spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla ...it seems that all these signings are it is too late to keep star striker Robin Van Persie at Arsenal ...he has refused to sign a new contract and a move elsewhere looks imminent .

a home game for Arsene Wenger to start the season ...the fans will be desperate for their team to get off to a winning start ...and i guess so will Arsene Wenger.


Sunderland finished a respectable 13th in the table ..it was a great season for new manager Martin O`Neil who guided Sunderland out of trouble when close to the bottom of the table ...a slightly dissapointing pre-season has meant Sunderland fans will be hoping their team can get somethig from their trip to the Emirates on saturday .

Last season saw Arsenal beat Sunderland 2-1 thanks to Robin Van Persie ...

I wonder what sort of recption RVP will receive if he is still at Arsenal by the time this match kicks off?
I hear that he was booed by Gunners fans at the recent friendly match away at Cologne in Germany.

Arsenal to win 3-1 against Sunderland.

There were about five fans booing, when he came on all I could hear was 'Robin van Persie, Robin van Persie'. While it's fickle, I too will quickly forgive him if he stays and shortly gets back to scoring ways!

4-0 Arsenal

looks likely that he will gone before the Sunderland game ...shame but what can you do if he wanst to leave . I will expect a home win from Arsenal ...we must make sure of that .

Arsenal really do need toi win this reckon they will but I won't be at all surprised to see Sunderland nick a point.

Line ups

Arsenal:
Szczesny, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Diaby, Arteta, Cazorla, Walcott, Gervinho, Podolski.

Subs: Mannone, Djourou, Coquelin, Santos, Ramsey, Arshavin, Giroud

Sunderland:
Mignolet, Gardner, Richardson, O'Shea, Cuellar, Larsson, McClean, Cattermole (C), Colback, Sessegnon, Campbell.

Subs: Wickham, Kilgallon, Meyler, Bramble, Saha, Elmohamady, Westwood.

looking forward to watching this one to see how Arsenal link up with Podolski

HT

Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland.

Cazorla's been the best player on the pitch by a mile. If Giroud, Podolski and Gervinho weren't so wasteful Arsenal would have this in the bag.

Specnur proving to be a clueless idiot as usual.

Result

Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland

Any comments on todays result?

I hear the Gooners created about 20 chances but failed to put any away....

yeah...the same old story ...have not seen any oif the match but we should have won that game ..Giroud missing a sitter apparently ...but we did not lose so a point it has to be .

we had plenty of chances ..Sunderland were obviously out to nick a point ..and they did thanks to Giroud missing from right in front of goal ...good debut from Cazorla ...i just hope we can start to finish our chances soon ..

They will start scoring goals. If they keep making chances like that, then Podolski will start putting them away. He is a decent player.

In my fantasy footbal scouting I was under the impression Giroud was going to be the spearhead of this Arsenal team with Podolski playing out wide? Do any of you goons still think this is the plan? Or wil Podolski be up front more?

I nearly went with Giroud straight up, glad I went with a front line of Torres, Tevez, and Aguero in the end.

i think it is too early to say really ....Wenger will chop and change depending on how things are going from game to game .

Put your over sensitive Spanish man love on hold pal. Go back and read my post and you will find i only had concern with a player that starts behind Mata for Spain, quite a reasonable concern unless you have a lack of control of your feminine side.
Let's not judge him on one game against that pillar of premiership excellence that is Sunderland shall we.

Given the rest of Arsenal's team were too useless to do anything of note vs Sunderland he's a significant upgrade.