Daily Bits and Bobs

If this Sunderland player had been at Arsenal last season, could they have won the league…?

Posted on by rico

Morning all.

Jermain Defoe. I truly believe that had he been signed by Arsene Wenger back in the summer of 2015, Arsenal would have probably won the league. Even at 32 years old, as he would have been back then, he went on to score 15 Premier League goals. Whether or not he would have made such a move had Arsenal enquired about him is another matter, especially having played for our bitter north London rivals for such a long time. His goals for Sunderland were key to keeping them in the top league of English football and if he could score for them, just imagine how many he might have scored in a side which created chances for fun, but seldom could they take them. When Ollie went missing for three months, Defoe would have been an ideal man to take his place….

He’s 34 years old now but he’s still a threat. Give him a sniff at goal and it’s likely he’ll get one on target but seldom has he scored against us over the years, regardless of which club he’s been at. In 21 fixtures in the Premier League Defoe has only scored twice – once for West Ham in January 2003 and again for Tottenham in November 2004.

Good to see Santi Cazorla in the photos of the boys training yesterday which should mean he’s fit to start this fixture. No sign of Theo Walcott or Nacho Monreal though so perhaps neither will be risked and let’s be honest, if Gibbs and Oxlade-Chamberlain can’t step in a do a good job today against the team sitting at the bottom of the table, then they really don’t deserve to be at the club. My hunch is both will do just fine, especially having played on Tuesday night.

I’d imagine the rest of the team selection will be the same as one which drew 0-0 against Boro but I just hope they are more switched on from the off. Boro caused us all sorts of problems early in that game and despite having so much possession over all, no-one could convert the chances we created. Hopefully that was a one off and not a sign of more frustrating performances heading our way as we’ve seen in seasons gone by.

Xhaka misses out again for this one, his last game of a three match ban and as already said, Walcott and Monreal are doubts.

Sunderland have injury concerns of their own too with Sebastian Larsson, Vito Mannone, Fabio Borini and Jan Kirchhoff all out. Lee Cattermole is a doubt, as are  Adnan Januzaj and Jason Denayer leaving David Moyes with a bit of selection headache but that’s his worry, not ours.

With the early kick-off, Arsenal need to win and put the pressure back on the other clubs around us, some of who face tricky fixtures themselves. In all honesty, ours shouldn’t be tricky, but it will be if complacency creeps in and the boys don’t turn up in the right frame of mind. Arsene too, he needs to be on it, otherwise for the first time in his Premier League career, David Moyes might actually get one over the Frenchman.

Surely not, not today……

rico

84 thoughts on “If this Sunderland player had been at Arsenal last season, could they have won the league…?”

  3. Ross says:

    Defoe is an Arsenal fan, we were close to signing him at the same time as Reyes but the Hammers wanted a lot more money than what they received 6 months later from the Spuds.

  4. Wavy says:

    morning all.
    Rico, in answer to your question re Walcott scoring at Sunderland, it was May 11th 2008. A while ago! I was going to go looking for the programme, but googled it instead!
    Don’t think he’ll be playing today though. If he’s a bit injured why would he be played?

    We should win, I suggested yesterday, but will be?

  5. rico says:

    Shame Ross..

    Thanks Wavy, long time ago indeed… I wouldn’t play him if there is even the smallest of doubts.

    This should be a banker, but I thought the Boro game was too. Which Arsenal will turn up is the big question…

  6. scottfromoz says:

    Morning all.
    Rico, Gibbs will do fine….IMO, he almost always plays damn well.
    Ox could be learning from Theo-YES IM SERIOUS 🙂
    I’m sure he’d see the change in Theo, and the results that have come with it.
    If he can do the same, we may well have a player!

  7. allezkev says:

    Morning Rico and Adam…

    4 day test in Bangladesh?

    As Adam knows, one of our worst and damaging defeats of last season, came at Southampton, where a Saints team in terrible form, stuffed us 4-0. So don’t expect this today, to be a cakewalk, it’ll be a dour battle and we may have to be satisfied with a narrow win (Burnley) or a draw…

    The injuries are stacking up again, but at least we have a squad this time that is strong enough to handle it…
    As I wrote yesterday, I would not risk Walcott or Santi or even a Monreal, there is no need for Wenger to take a risk. What’s the point of a strong squad if you don’t use the bloody thing…

    Giroud and Ramsey on the bench is welcome, Xhaka back in the CL in midweek. Maitland-Niles and Reine-Adelaide both at a stage of their developments where Wenger can use them off of the bench. We have plenty of options…

    Great result yesterday Rick, there’s some interesting young players who could be quite big players for us over the next 2+ years in that team…

    Morning All btw…

  8. rico says:

    Let’s hope so on both Scott.

    Morning Kev. Conceding late at Anfield didn’t help either soon after that match but yes, Southampton away was a disaster a really dented the confidence. A team struggling to buy a point stuffed us and went on a good run (ish)

    We cannot gift Sunderland today…

  11. kelsey says:

    Morning all.

    I think these games are sometimes the harest to predict.On paper we should win and Sunderland are in dire form.Defoe is their only striker of note but has he got the speed still,especially if Bellerin is on his case.
    Not sure who will play with a CL midweek then Spurs.

    Giroud and Ramsey may feature but not start.Monreal and Walcott are out according to my understanding.

    All the other top 5 have on paper wins, so there is pressure on AW to pick the right team and for us to star the game showing we mean business,which is not always the case.

  17. kelsey says:

    Elneny is playing the best I have seen him play.

    Great goal,what would we do without Sanchez.He thrives on playing even when not fully fit.Add two more with his skill and attitude to the team and you have a winning formula.

  28. kelsey says:

    Take Sanchez out of the side and who do you honestly think would have scored.That’s the worry for me. We should be out of sight,far too casual.Hopefully we can really put this to bed,especially with a rookie keeper in goal for them.

  48. Marshall says:

    We almost gave that win away ’till you know who came on…
    I’ll take the win but without Cazorla the old arsenal was on display. What’s happening to our attacker? We had 21 attempts 21! Half of them which could’ve gon in.

  49. scottfromoz says:

    Turning point was Ramsey coming on.
    Ok, maybe not, but good to se whim and Giroud back 🙂
    Rico, bloody ref denies us an obvious penalty and I just knew they’d score soon afterwards….that’s when I made that brief comment lol
    Incredible, but we stepped up a gear, the subs worked and we got the all important result.

  50. kelsey says:

    Last season we might have settled out for a draw even though Sunderland are a poor side.As per usual the ref was poor but all our goals were well taken and you can’t complain scoring 4 Away anywhere.Look at the last goal again even though it was close to the goal,Sanchez had two players and the keeper to beat and dummied the keeper with his left and flicked it with his right.Still think Elneny had a really good game.

    Does defoe have to pick his nose whilst being interviewed 😉

    I am not being negative today we have much harder games to come to really judge us.

  51. rico says:

    Conversion rate really needs improving Marshall..

    I get that Scott about the ref, he was shocking yet again but had we taken our chances, he decisions, or rather lack of them would have mattered not. Most of the PL refs are shoddy, and that’s not going to change any time soon…

  55. allezkev says:

    It’s gonna be a long long season…

    As long as we’re where we are the end of April, then were in with a great chance…

    I’m not convinced that we’re ruthless enough to win it….

    Rico, did we miss Walcott?

  58. Adam says:

    It took the penalty against us and some good old righteous indignation to spur the team into some positive action today. How long can Atkinson’s incompetence continue? Some of the stuff I have seen him miss lately, to say nothing of today, has been shocking.

  65. Obi says:

    Rico, I know SOME lol. The ref did everything possible for us to lose and the boys showed their resilience, we can’t ask for more than that. Very awful officiating.

  67. Obi says:

    True Rico. But the options are scarily Giround upfront with Alexis movement behind him is awesome; Perez, Ox, Theo, Iwobi, Ramsey, etc. And much props to Giroud for being a professional and not sulking like a schoolboy.

  68. Meerkat says:

    Ox missed his chances today, and has also missed the chance to step up in Theo’s absence.
    I wasn’t surprised to see him subbed, nor should he be.
    I thought we showed our superiority today, only lacking the killer instinct, until le prof used his subs.
    Olivier proved his worth yet again.

  72. Obi says:

    Thanks Lee, how can I? He’s next year thou…lol. Rico, the mindset is changing, is not there yet but much better.

  74. allezkev says:

    Man City are back on track, that’s a top result at West Brom…

    ManUre and Scum dropping points is always a reason to break out the Cava. ?

    Now if the Scousers drop points it’ll turn out a good weekend..,

  75. rico says:

    Go Burnley… 🙂

    You sure Obi, they all looked a bit too relaxed today imo, until Giroud came on and made a difference. Something I never thought I’d write… lol

  77. kelsey says:

    Wenger is a genius as he said it will take 86 points to win the leage.

    We have 23 points rom 10 games x 4 = 92 less two games = 86 points.

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