Sunderland vs. Arsenal 2013-14 Premier League season, what did AFC fans think?

Sunderland vs. Arsenal 2013-14 Premier League season, what did AFC fans think?

Arsenal travel north to Sunderland on Saturday hoping for a third win to get their 2013-14 season started in more momentous fashion. Going on previous experience, the omens are good for three points in this game; last season saw the Gunners beat the Black Cats 1-3 away, Mesut Özil making his debut and setting up Olivier Giroud for an early goal, with then-Sunderland Manager Paolo Di Canio sent to the stands. Aaron Ramsey followed this up with two goals inside 9 minutes in the 2nd half and the win pushed the teams to opposite ends of the table, with Arsenal top on 9 points from 4 games and Sunderland bottom, with a single point out of a potential 12.

Di Canio was sacked less than a fortnight later after another loss to West Bromwich Albion and Kevin Ball took over as interim boss before the appointment of Gus Poyet, who leads the Cats into battle against Arsène Wenger’s men on Saturday. Both teams have played 8 games this year rather than last season’s 4 and Sunderland sit in a slightly better situation now hovering above the relegation spots, while Arsenal are in a much worse position, still stuttering in 7th place.


Both Managers will have their eye on a win and crucial to that struggle will be the starting 11 each chooses to take the field of play. To see how AFC fans may be thinking about this game, we looked at the Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football data from this fixture last season, to see what players were picked for the lineup last year.

Beat Your Manager! Fantasy Football is a game similar to “Football Manager”, but applied to live football, where you manage your favourite Club and pick lineups, bench, formations and substitutions, all in real-time. When fans play the game, the Beat Your Manager team can measure the popularity of different players, by looking at how frequently they are selected for the starting lineup, substitutes bench or not selected at all. You can check out their Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/beatyourmanager and follow them on Twitter – https://twitter.com/beatyourmanager

The app ran for the 2013/4 EPL season and is currently inactive while the developers are creating the revised version – we’ll keep you posted on when it’s going to re-launch.

Formation: A solid 4-4-2 the choice for Arsenal fans

37 per cent of Arsenal fans opted for a solid 4-4-2 formation for this game, with the next-most popular formation a more attacking 4-3-3, selected by 24 per cent of Gooners.

Goalkeeper: Szczęsny your only man yet again

Wojciech Szczęsny was the fans’ obvious choice in goal; his 95 per cent popularity rating making him jointly Arsenal’s 2nd-most popular player.

Lukasz Fabiański was the clear-choice for backup keeper with Gunners fans, but this measured popularity wasn’t enough to keep him at the Emirates; his move to Swansea City is currently paying off with regular first team football while his replacement Colombian keeper David Ospina is in the Arsenal sick-bay for 3 months as 3rd choice Emiliano Martinez was pressed into service against Anderlecht in the Champions League and produced a pretty solid display.

Defence: Wenger rests fan favourite Mertesacker

Planning for the upcoming fixtures, Wenger rested his start defender Per Mertesacker for this game, but fans did not agree with the switch; easily voting him the club’s most popular defender, his 95 per cent rating making him jointly (with Szczęsny) Arsenal’s 2nd-most popular player.

Kieran Gibbs (89 per cent) and Bacary Sagna (88 per cent) were slightly behind Mertesacker and very closely rated, while Laurent Koscielny was much further back with fans, on only 65 per cent.

Wenger rested fan favourite Mertesacker, but kept the other three defenders, instead fielding Carl Jenkinson, his 45 per cent fan rating making him the club’s 5th most popular defender.

Koscielny should make a return for this game from his Achilles injury, allowing Nacho Monreal to return to his more customary full-back position if selected and while Sagna is now at Manchester City and Mathieu Debuchy is still out, Calum Chambers returns from suspension to give Wenger additional options in defence and likely will play after a good showing in the Champions League.

Midfield: Midfield injury woes are the story this year much like last season

Midfield injuries hit the club hard for this fixture last season, with Santi Cazorla, Mikel Arteta, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Abou Diaby all out.

Theo Walcott was Arsenal’s most popular midfielder, on an 89 per cent fan rating putting him just ahead of double-goalscorer colleague Ramsey, on 86 per cent. Jack Wilshere took the 3rd midfielder spot with fans on 73 per cent, followed by new boy Özil with a poorly 39 per cent. Tomáš Rosický just scraped into the lineup, with a very low 20 per cent recommendation from the Emirates faithful.

Wenger agreed with fans on the first four, but chose to start Mathieu Flamini instead of Rosický, despite the Frenchman registering only a 6 per cent fan rating for this game. After a shaky initial recommendation from fans, Özil’s impressive debut in this game subsequently resulted in consistently high ratings for every match until March 2014.

Özil and Wilshere are both out this weekend through injury and suspension respectively, but Ramsey is again available to torment Sunderland following recovery from a hamstring injury, while Walcott could also return but will likely be saved for the Burnley fixture to give him an extra week of recovery. Arteta is available this year after recovering from a recent calf injury, while Diaby and Serge Gnabry (only 5 per cent rating for this match last year) are expected to return.

Forwards: Giroud top of the heap

Opening goalscorer Olivier Giroud was Arsenal’s most popular player for this match, with a staggering 96 per cent approval from Gunners fans.

With Lukas Podolski and Yaya Sanogo out injured, Gervinho was chosen to partner the Frenchman upfront, on only the recommendation of 36 per cent of AFC fans, but still well ahead of Nicklas Bendtner, on only 5 per cent.

This year, Giroud is injured, but Podolski is available and surely deserves a start some time soon given his 91st minute heroics vs Anderlecht in the Champions League. Sanogo is expected to be available, while Wenger can call on new signings Alexis Sánchez and Danny Welbeck to slot into the attack. Expect even more goals from this fixture this year although you would expect Sunderland to be getting back to basics and trying to deliver a sound defensive performance for Poyet after they let in a mind-blowing 8 goals in the shellacking Southampton gave them last week. The Gunners are due a good performance in the League and let’s hope they deliver this weekend at the Stadium of Light.

Cheers to BeatYourManager.com for the data and their insights to complement our own analysis. Check out other stats from last year’s game in the infographics available on our Facebook Page.