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……
Morning Rico and all.
Seems we pulled it back in the cricket.
Morning Adam. We have, Woakes was superb…
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.
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?
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…
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!
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…
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…
An easy all goal will do us very nicely.
And an EARLY one, as well.
iPad….bastard 🙂
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.
? Scott
afternoon all!
I’m in front of the TV now!
COYRRG’S!!!!!
What a super cross and goal…
Great goal but Atkinson is going his northern best to stop us
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.
At last, an Arsenal free kick. Didn’t Xhaka get sent off for something similar?
Thought the same re Elneny, he’s having a really good game.
27 minutes for us to get a free kick!
Incredible eh Bob!
Crikey, two bookings for Sunderland…
The casual stuff has started already
Dangerous at just 1-0
That miss by Ozil sums up the attitude
You’d have put money on him to bury that chance…
Sunderland haven’t looked like scoring, so one will be enough but 3 will be better 🙂
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.
Got to put this to bed, as always too wasteful/
Getting seriously pissed off by this now.
Referee is a c**t.
Well well, you just knew they’d score… perhaps we might wake up now…
3 minutes to Giroud
He might be Scott but if we drop points here, we’ve only got ourselves to blame..
Early ?
Just knew Atkinson would influence this game. Don’t tell me football isn’t corrupt
Ollie….. ?
And Sanchez gets booked after treatment he’s suffered today,
unbelievable.
I know Andrew, Atkinson has been dreadful..
3-1 Ollie again…
Haha haha Giroud
Hahaha Sanchez
So deserved…
Very much so Rico. Ozil should have chipped 2nd, Atkinson denied obvious pen and sending off. But character and good crosses saw us through. 20 attempts.
Yep, no the best football on show by Arsenal Andrew but I’ll take the 4-1 victory with open arms…
We are Top……..
Need to be there in May. ?⚽️
“We are top of the League, said we are top of the League”
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.
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.
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.
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…
Disgusting wasn’t he Kelsey.
4-1 was nothing more than we deserved, football wasn’t always great but three points is….
City already 2-0 up, Aguero with both…
Totts 1-0 up
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?
Wow!!! Arsenal fans. I hate to see if it was Sun 4 – ARS 1
Wow!!! Arsenal fans. I hate to see if it was ARS 1 – SUN 4.
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.
Kev, I think so…
Obi, some of us are pleased with the result.. 🙂
Rico. But what if we had lost 16-0 today.?
Riley won’t do anything about him Adam…
But we didn’t Adam…
True.
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.
To be fair Obi, Arsenal weren’t at it for long periods of the game either… at least it all came good in the end…
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.
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.
The options aren’t the problem Obi, it’s the mindset imo.
Don’t for get Sanogo….
10 men ManU 33 attempts on goal. Still 0-0. Maybe we not doing so bad. Keep calm Burnley!
Thanks Lee, how can I? He’s next year thou…lol. Rico, the mindset is changing, is not there yet but much better.
🙂 Lee, who?
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..,
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
It sure would Kev..
I’m off guys, catch up tomorrow..
Have a good evening and don’t forget the clocks go back….
Nighty…
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.
Jon Toral in the starting XI for Granada at the Camp Nou…
Barca won 1 – 0 .
Morning….
Morning Rico and all. I am rather enjoying watching the disintegration of Mourinho. Long may it continue.
New post up.
Morning Adam, me too…
Morning
I absolutely love all this Mourinho scenario.Maybe he will get a 24 hour bab in his hotel room