Sunderland Preview: Almunia & Song in, Sol’s a doubt and Diaby, Gallas, Arshavin & Eduardo all out 19 February, 2010

So it’s back to the league tomorrow and back to a Saturday 3 o’clock kick off – I’ve been getting used to seeing us on the telly. We’ll be looking to put the disappointment of Porto behind us and get back to winning ways in the league. That horrible run against Villa, United, Chelsea and Liverpool is over now and you could say it’s downhill from here. Every single game is winnable now including our toughest matches away to Spurs and Man City at home.

I’m by no means expecting us to win every league game until the end of the season but it is possible. It would be quite some achievement though. Mainly wins and few draws and we will be right up there in this title race. We can’t afford to lose any more games now, we won our last game against Liverpool and we need to back that up now with another win tomorrow.

The team news is that we’re still without Gallas, Arshavin and Eduardo which is a real shame and Abou Diaby is a fresh body to the injury table. Sol Campbell had tests today to see how well he recovered from Wednesday night and we will make a late decision on him. It’s fair to expect a player his age not to be able to play 180 minutes in a few days but I’d be a bit worried if we have to play Silvestre.

Gallas and Arshavin are set to miss Stoke away next week too which also sucks. Eduardo is supposed to be back but then he has supposed to have been back all of our last three games so I’m not counting on him. No word on the extent of Diaby’s injury but his record is not good…

Almunia and Song do return though which I suppose is good news. Maybe Song will play central defence ahead of Silvestre if Sol doesn’t make it? It’ll be good to have Alex back though. Also despite Wenger backing Fabianski it looks like Almunia will be back keeping nets again. Not sure how I feel about that to be honest, I guess it is for the best.

So will all those injuries in mind this is how I think we might line up tomorrow:

Almunia
Sagna – Campbell – Vermaelen – Clichy
Song
Fabregas – Denilson
Rosicky – Bendtner – Nasri

However if it were up to me I would drop Rosicky back alongside Cesc and play Eboue right attacking midfield. He has been very penetrative when he’s come on recently and I’m surprised he hasn’t been given a start in that position. At times he looks like the only one who really gives a shit and I like those sort of players. It’s amazing how Eboue has turned himself around in the past year or so, there’s still a bit of diving in his game but he really puts the effort in and is a danger going forward.

We’re still really lacking strikers though and that January just gone with no one brought in still looks like a bad idea. We could do really with van Persie back but it looks like it’ll be late April at the earliest. We might’ve been one of the top scorers in the league but we certainly haven’t been in the past month or two. We’re struggling to score and create enough chances plus we really need that guy up there that can score a goal on his own. Wenger has still yet to convince me that we didn’t need anyone.

Hopefully that can change tomorrow though. I said the other night that Bendtner needs a goal and that still applies, I wouldn’t back against him scoring tomorrow; Apart from Fabregas I don’t really see where else a goal is going to come from. Nasri and Rosicky are dangerous but they don’t score bags of goals. Maybe it’ll take another set piece for the centre backs to get a head in.

We need to be solid defensively too. ‘Solid defence’ aren’t really words you associate with Arsenal but we need to do our best. I have faith in Campbell and Vermaelen but not really in Clichy and Almunia – I hope they are in good form tomorrow.

Speaking of ‘good form’, that’s not exactly how you’d describe Sunderland at the moment. Their last win was against us in November but I don’t think they will fancy doing the double over us. After a great start to the season they’re now just three points off the relegation zone. They have bad injury problems too and could be without six midfielders tomorrow but Fraizer Campbell could return.

They are a side that we really, really should beat. It sounds cocky but anything other than a strong three points tomorrow is a very bad result for a team chasing the title.

So here’s to a good performance, three points and all smiles again tomorrow. Come on you Gunners!

Speak to you Sunday.