Team News ahead of Saturday afternoon’s 3pm Premier League encounter at the Stadium of Light between in-form Sunderland and Arsenal. Kick-off will be at 3pm and the game is not screened on television anywhere in the UK.
Black Cats boss Martin O’Neill has no new injury concerns going into today’s game but can’t field on loan striker Nicklas Bendtner against his parent club.
Sunderland’s new Transfer deadline day loan signing defenders Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Wayne Bridge could start their first games for the Wearsiders.
Still on the sidelines for the North East club are defender Matt Kilgallon (ankle) though he has returned to training this week, Lee Cattermole (hamstring), Wes Brown (knee), Titus Bramble (achilles, calf) and David Vaughn (ankle).
Arsene Wenger also has no fresh injury concerns but does welcome back two players; full-back Kieran Gibbs who has recovered from the groin injury that has kept him sidelined since the start of October and Marouane Chamakh who has returned from the African Cup of Nations. Ivory Coast forward Gervinho however still hasn’t yet returned as he is readying to play in this weekend’s final.
That means defenders Carl Jenkinson (back), Andre Santos (ankle), Abou Diaby (hamstring), Jack Wilshere (ankle) are all still out, along with Emmanuel Frimpong who has returned early from his loan spell at Wolves with a knee injury.
Line-ups from;
Sunderland (from): Mignolet, Westwood, Bardsley, Bridge, O’Shea, Turner, Kyrgiakos, Lynch, Richardson, Gardner, Larsson, Elmohamady, McClean, Meyler, Colback, Sessegnon, Wickham, Ji, Campbell.
Arsenal (from): Szczesny, Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Sagna, Walcott, Song, Benayoun, Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Henry, Rosicky, Arteta, Van Persie, Park, Arshavin, Fabianski, Ramsey, Chamakh, Gibbs.
Article source: http://whatculture.com/sport/sunderland-vs-arsenal-match-preview.php