The Gunners seem to have one of the easier matches on paper despite playing away from home. Sunderland have had an awful season start and are now last in the Premier League standings with only two points gathered in 9 games. The Black Cats are still in the EFL Cup and are already in a relegation battle. On the other hand, Arsenal have lost just one match back in August which surely makes them favorites. Even if Wenger will not be able to count on Walcott, Monreal and Cazorla, he still has the proper players to take on Sunderland and win. Unfortunately, all three have picked up injuries during the past couple of weeks, injuries which may not be healed in time for the game. Cazorla is dealing with an achilles tendon bruise, Walcott felt some pain in his hamstring and Monreal suffered a knock which needs to be further analyzed. Despite Wenger’s positive response to questions about the two and their return, it is hard to believe they will be featured against Sunderland. .
Oxlade-Chamberlain will likely be replacing Walcott on the right, Elneny will take Cazorla’s place and Gibbs will handle the left-back position. Wenger would have probably used Xhaka instead of Elneny but the Swiss international is still serving a three-match suspension, with this being his last fixture to be left out. Lucas Perez is definitely out for up to 2 months after suffering that horror tackle against Reading in the EFL Cup and has joined Mertesacker and Welbeck in the infirmary with an ankle problem which will keep him there until January when all three are rumored to become available. Giroud and Ramsey will also be able to play but there’s only a small chance they will start. Both will probably play during the final part of the second half in order to get of feel of things before being ready to play a full 90 minutes.
Sunderland have to deal with some pretty important absences as well. Denayer and Januzaj have muscle problems and are unlikely to start this Saturday. Mannone, Borini, Kirchhoff, Larsson and Cattermole are set to return in December so there is no chance of seeing them in this weekend’s squad. Their biggest threat to Arsenal will be available though. Defoe has scored 4 goals this season and is seen by Wenger as the man to watch out for: “Their main danger is [Jermain] Defoe, and they are good on set-pieces with [Wahbi] Khazri. They are dangerous on set-pieces.
“Overall they are a team who is in a bad position but it’s very tight at the top and very tight at the bottom.” [Quotes sourced from the BBC]
Despite Defoe’s good form, Arsenal are still favorites anyway you look at it. In their last 25 PL games Sunderland have won just 1 game and lost 15. This is the perfect moment for the Gunners to consolidate their strong run and even maybe move to first place if Manchester City slip up. While their game against WBA is not the hardest of the season, you can never know what will happen given their current form and given the fact that they will probably be focusing on the Barcelona game which is just a couple of days away.