Sunderland v Arsenal 21 November 2009 Stadium of Light 15:00 UST (10:00AM EST) Form Sunderland W D W L D L Arsenal W W W D W W Expected Lineups Sunderland (4-4-2) Fulop - Bardsley/Turner/Da Silva/McCarthy - Malbranque/Henderson/Cana/Richardson - Bent/Campbell Arsenal (4-3-3) Almunia - Sagna/Gallas/Vermaelen/Eboue - Ramsey/Song/Fabregas - Nasri/Arshavin/Eduardo Implications Sunderland (8th) - win (6th), loss (8th-13th) Arsenal (2nd)- win (2nd), loss (2nd-3rd) Notes Sunderland - Current number one goalkeeper Craig Gordon suffered a fractured arm against Tottenham on the 7th and will be out of action for some time. Martin Fulop will replace. - Skipper Lorik Cana returns from cumulative yellow card suspension following one game off. - Defender Phil Bardsley considers the visiting Arsenal team "the ultimate test" for his squad. Arsenal - Forward Robin van Persie injured his ankle in international play during the lull and will be out of action for several weeks. Eduardo is expected to replace but may be placed on the wing in favour of having Andrei Arshavin in the centre forward role. - Abou Diaby suffered an injury against Wolverhampton and is likely to be replaced by Samir Nasri. - Defender Kieran Gibbs was carted off the field last night with a possible metatarsal fracture. He was replacing Gael Clichy who is also injured. In their place will likely be utility man Emmanuel Eboue or youngster Armand Traore. - Wenger is confident the Gunners will be in the shake-up at the end of the season and said: "I have had belief since the first day of the season."
Certainly not the same feel that the Black Cats had last season. The team is out of the gutter, at least for now. Cana/Sana is a good player and a likable one at that, but you can't cheer against the Arsenal.
We didn't really start playing until they scored. Had we played the whole match with that much enthusiasm, we probably would have won. We should have had a penalty at the end, but we also should never have put ourselves in a position where we needed a penalty to draw.
On a positive note, I really like how Armand Traore played. There hardly any drop off from between him, Gibbs, or Clichy.
