Sunderland v Arsenal: Premier League – live

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Sunderland are in If It Ain’t Broke mode. They name the same XI that started the 2-1 win at Chelsea and the 1-1 draw with Everton.

Arsenal make three changes after their 3-0 win at Slavia Prague. Eberechi Eze, Martín Zubimendi and Riccardo Calafiori step up; Ethan Nwaneri, Christian Nørgaard and Piero Hincapié sit down.

The teams

Preamble

Sunderland do not have a good record against Arsenal. The last time these clubs met, four years ago, Arsenal won 5-1 in the League Cup, though the Black Cats were a League One outfit at the time. The last time they met in the Premier League, in 2016-17, Arsenal won 2-0 at home and 4-1 at the Stadium of Light. Arsenal are on a 15-game unbeaten streak against Sunderland in the League that stretches back to 2009, while the last time they lost any game against them was in the FA Cup in 2012. History is not on Sunderland’s side this evening.^†

The recent form book doesn’t help them either, though that’s only because Arsenal right now are on the hottest streak in the country, in Europe, in the world. The Premier League leaders are currently on a run of ten consecutive wins in all competitions, and eight consecutive clean sheets. Who can compete with numbers like that?! In fact, Sunderland’s own recent form is highly impressive: five Premier League wins already, and unbeaten at home, commendable business for a freshly promoted team. And hey, someone has to score against Arsenal at some point, right? Eh?

So there is hope for Sunderland … and we’ve not even priced in the presence in their team of former Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka, who is a headline waiting to happen tonight, one way or another. You know how football goes sometimes. Arsenal are hot favourites, but Sunderland are unlikely to go down without a fight. Kick-off is at 5.30pm GMT. It’s on!

^{†: To be fair, Sunderland did beat Arsenal in the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1973, en route to their greatest triumph in the modern era. So there is that. But let’s not cloud the issue.}