Joe Fitzpatrick 
If Arsenal want to build on their fantastic 7-1 win over Blackburn Rovers, and if they are truly serious about bagging all three points at the Stadium of S**te, they are going to have to find yet another dynamic performance. Sunderland have won nine out of thirteen games under new boss Martin O'Neill, and have now booked their place as our opponents in the next round of the F.A. Cup, meaning that Arsène Wenger is going to have to find a way to defeat Sunderland not once but twice in the coming weeks in order to resuscitate a season that is slowly slipping away from him.
O'Neill has turned Sunderland's fortunes around, and has transformed them into a much trickier team to beat than they were during the last few months of Steve Bruce's reign as manager. Stéphane Sessegnon is their stand-out player this season with six goals and nine assists already, and O'Neill seems to be giving the man from the former French colony of Benin more licence to drift infield behind the main striker and affect the play than former manager Steve Bruce allowed. If Arsenal are going to stop Sessegnon from getting on the ball and having any meaningful effect on the game, they are going to have to be far more organised and communicative than they have been in recent matches.
Alex Song would be the obvious choice to man-mark Sessegnon, as he did such an admirable job of marshalling Wayne Rooney during last season’s home win against Manchester United. The problems begin when (and not if) our main defensive midfielder, the same Alex Song, decides to bomb forward to assist in the Gunners’ more attacking play. If Arteta doesn't fill in for Song and pick up the job of marking Sessegnon, then Koscielny could be drawn out from the centre-half position to track the movement of the Sunderland man, leaving space in behind for the main striker to go head-to-head with the cumbersome German giant, Per Mertesacker. If Sessegnon pulls out wide to avoid the attention of Alex Song/Arteta, then the Arsenal full-backs, Vermaelen and Sagna, must be alert to the threat that Sessegnon presents, and not allow themselves to get caught out of position, high up the pitch, when Arsenal’s attacks break down in the Sunderland half.
Niklas Bendtner would not have been eligible to play against us even if he wasn't injured, but I doubt Martin O'Neill would be silly enough to have started with the not-so-Great Dane anyway, especially when you consider all the newspaper reports of the drunken behaviour of every Junior Gunner’s favourite Danish striker.
Frazier Campbell has scored two goals in his last three games for the Black Cats and he looks like he has developed a good understanding with the dangerous Sessegnon in training. Since returning from long term injury, Campbell has looked to be more determined than ever to make a name for himself, with goals against Middlesbrough and Norwich leaving many Gooners nervous about the prospect of the young Englishman getting at the tortoise-like Mertesacker. The ever-improving Laurent Koscielny simply has to take responsibility for tracking Frazier Campbell's runs, and must not allow the striker to pull on to the much-slower Mertesacker.
James McClean has also emerged as a key player for Martin O'Neill, and the young Irishman brings defensive solidity, excellent crossing ability as well as a few goals to this improving Sunderland team. With former Manchester United man, and rumoured Arsenal January transfer-target, Kieran Richardson, likely to fill in at left-back behind the solid McClean, Arsenal may well find it easier to look for opportunities on the opposite flank against Phil Bardsley and former Gunner, Sebastian Larsson. Sunderland are particularly vulnerable to conceding headed goals from crosses, so exploiting the weakness of the defensively-poor Phil Bardsley on their right-hand side would be advisable.
Robin van Persie mentioned earlier this season that he would like to score more headed goals, but it won't happen if he continues to take most of the corner kicks and Walcott continues to play the ball only to his very talented feet. Arsenal must make improving the quality of both their defensive and offensive set-pieces a priority if they are going consistently to break down teams that set up in a defensive style with men behind the ball. Scoring a first-half goal from a set-piece can make opponents change their defensive approach to the game, and the return to full fitness of Vermaelen should help with the set-piece problems, because he is our strongest player in the air and has a devastating left foot as well.
Professional footballers like Arteta, Rosicky and Walcott on £70,000 a week should be good enough to take corners and free kicks with either foot but, sadly, their relative incompetence at set-pieces means that our top goal-scorer and only real out-and-out striker will be taking most of the set-pieces. We have seen flashes of brilliance from Song, Arteta and Rosicky this season; now is the time for our midfield to step up their game and deliver consistent performances, and I think that we should continue with Rosicky in the team until Aaron Ramsey regains the dynamism and first touch of earlier in the season. Rosicky has played well in recent matches, and the manager should reward the desire and effort the Czech captain has shown to force his way back into contention for a starting-place.
Sunderland are currently missing Wes Brown and Lee Cattermole through injury, meaning that they are without arguably their strongest central defender and definitely their most effective defensive midfielder. The general lack of creativity and of a real ball-winner in their central midfield is a huge plus for us, but we must be aware of the danger from Sebastian Larsson's free-kicks. The former Arsenal man scored an absolute stunner from a free-kick at the Grove earlier this season. It seems that players are more than happy to test their dead-ball ability against our inexperienced goalkeeper, and have been, ever since Wayne Rooney destroyed him from set-pieces at Old Trafford. Szczesney's positioning for Pederson's free-kick against Blackburn last week was atrocious, as he positioned himself on the left post and seemed to invite the shot to his right-hand side. Free-kick specialist Pederson was, unsurprisingly, only too happy to oblige. Gerry Peyton is not exactly covering himself in glory with some of the positional mistakes that his goalkeepers make (I'm thinking of Mannone in Greece and just general Flappyhandski and Almunia performances). Arsène Wenger should definitely consider bringing back Jens Lehmann or David Seaman as goalkeeping coach.
Sunderland have only lost to Chelsea and the scum under Martin O'Neill, so these two games will provide a good test of what level we are actually playing at. They will also show whether or not the Blackburn game was another false dawn.
When you consider that Sunderland played deep into extra time on Wednesday night against local rivals Middlesbrough, their energy levels could be significantly reduced in the later stages of their first contest with us, and the thought of van Persie, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott (on the back of the 7-1 demolition of Blackburn) running at Bardsley, O'Shea and Turner will have most Black Cats quaking in their boots. Arsenal to win by two clear goals 1-3 on Saturday, with goals from van Persie, The Ox and Vermaelen.
I will be pleasantly surprised if Arsenal somehow manage to keep two clean-sheets in their upcoming games against this resurgent Sunderland team, but their recent record suggests that we are always likely to concede at least one goal, Time now for the manager to ask for more contribution from his defensive and midfield players, as he seems to have done successfully with his more attacking players. There is no better time than now to start performing like we know we are capable of, because the upcoming fixtures against Tottenham, A.C. Milan and Newcastle will not be any easier than this. Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain really stepped up to the plate in our last fixture, and we will need them to link up just as well with Premier League top-scorer van Persie this time around if we are to save our season from further disaster.
To end on a positive note, it looks as though Sagna will be fit enough to start Saturday’s game against Sunderland, and that is a massive boost for us, because he is arguably the best right back in the league on his day.
