Welcome Gooners, to another edition of WIITW – The one-stop shop for everything you need to know ahead of the next Arsenal match!

Here’s the last post I made before the terrific 4-1 win at Stoke City.

On Tuesday night, we’re at home to Sunderland.

The Managers

Arsenal

Here’s the pre-match press conference from Wenger.

On our Top Four chances: “Our chance is just to win our games. We have 69 points but our target is to get to 75. That would be four points more than last year. We have created the momentum again. Overall, the only chance we have to be in the Top Four is to win our games.”

On where it went wrong this season: “We were quite strong until January but I believe that in the difficult away games we suffered and conceded too many goals. If you look at our record, we have scored 74 goals but have conceded over 40 goals. That is too many goals.”

On our progress (if any) this season: “No team is absolutely consistent on the mental and physical front. Every team suffers a moment in the season. I think we suffered a lot when we went out of the Champions League under special circumstances. If you look at the first halves, we would have qualified. Would 75 points be progress? I don’t want to go into conclusions too early but it shows that if we can make it to 75 points it is good because I won the championship with 78.”

Sunderland

David Moyes took over as Sunderland boss last summer and has won just six of his 36 Premier League matches in charge. He replaced Sam Allardyce at the Stadium of Light after Big Sam left for his hilariously brief spell in charge of the England national team.

Moyes has faced Arsene Wenger 26 times before but the Scotsman has just four wins over the Arsenal boss. Three of them came in his Everton days. The other win was during his season in charge at Man United. Moyes has never won a match away to Arsenal – his last two trips to the Emirates finished 0-0.

A little over 12 years ago, David Moyes led his Everton side to Highbury in what was the last time Arsenal wore red and white at the old stadium. The Gunners put on a bit of a show, winning 7-0, with Dennis Bergkamp producing one of the finest individual displays Highbury had ever seen.

How’s your form?

Arsenal

Pretty damn good at the minute. Just two defeats in the last ten matches, Arsenal have hit the kind of late season form that has seen them secure a top four position in the past. The Gunners have won four of the last five home matches in the League, the most recent being that great 2-0 victory over Man United. But we still need other results to go our way in order to get into those Champions League places.

Last 5 (all comps): WLWWW

P: 36 W: 21 D: 6 L: 9 F: 72 A: 43 Pts: 69 Pos: 4th

Sunderland

20th place Sunderland are where they are for a reason. The Black Cats have won just twice in 2017 – and just six times all season. They have won three times on the road in this campaign – at Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Hull. But only Middlesbrough have scored fewer goals than Sunderland all season. Relegation was confirmed for Moyes’ side after a 1-0 defeat at home to Bournemouth three weeks ago.

Last 5: DLLWL

P: 36 W: 6 D: 6 L: 24 F: 28 A: 62 Pts: 24 Pos: 20th

Team News

Arsenal

Alexis Sanchez will have a test today to determine his fitness ahead of the match tomorrow night. He went off towards the end of the win at Stoke. Wenger said “yesterday it didn’t look too good, but with him you never know. He’s so keen. Maybe it was just a kick, it could be a possibility that he recovers for tomorrow.”

Laurent Koscielny has had a recurrence of his calf problem that kept him out at Southampton. He’ll also have a test today. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is still out but Wenger said the winger has an “80-20” chance of making it back for the FA Cup Final.

Sunderland

Young midfielder George Honeyman missed the 2-0 loss to Swansea after an injury he suffered in training when defender Lamine Kone fell on him.

Victor Anichebe could also be out for Sunderland. He went off midway through the first half against Swansea with a suspected hamstring injury.

Head-to-Head

Arsenal and Sunderland have met each other 151 times before in all competitions. The Gunners have won 61 of their previous encounters, while Sunderland have 49 wins. There have been 41 draws.

The very first clash between them was in an FA Cup 1st round tie in 1893. It turned out to be one to forget for Arsenal fans though – Sunderland won it 6-0.

Three of their first four games in League football finished all square, but Arsenal won the other one 2-0. They also got some revenge for that FA Cup embarrassment by beating Sunderland 5-0 in the 3rd round in 1906.

Sunderland have recorded some big wins over Arsenal in the past. 6-0, 6-2, 7-1 and four 5-1’s. Arsenal’s biggest win over them came in September 1932. Joe Hulme helped himself to three goals in a 6-1 victory at Highbury.

Sunderland haven’t won away to Arsenal in the League since November 1983. They did, however, win a League Cup tie at Highbury in 2002.

Overall, the two sides have met 31 times in the Premier League. Arsenal have the head-to-head advantage with 18 wins to Sunderland’s 3. There have been 10 draws.

All three Sunderland wins over Arsenal in the Premier League have come at the Stadium of Light and all by 1-0 scorelines. They beat Arsenal 2-0 in the FA Cup in 2012 but that’s the only time in almost 35 years that they’ve beaten Arsenal by more than one goal.

Arsenal have scored 31 goals at home to Sunderland in the Premier League, scoring at least twice in every home victory against the Black Cats.

Sunderland have gotten four draws from their nine previous trips to the Emirates in the Premier League. At Highbury, they had just the one draw out of six matches.

That’s Interesting

The first Premier League game between Arsenal and Sunderland took place in September 1996. The Gunners won it thanks to goals from Ray Parlour and John Hartson. That was the last Premier League match Arsenal played before Arsene Wenger took charge at the club.

November 1983 was the last time Sunderland won a League match at Arsenal. That was also the day that Tony Adams, barely a month after his 17th birthday, made his very first appearance for Arsenal. He would go on to play well over 600 times for the club, becoming captain at 21 and winning numerous titles and cups. Adams has the distinction of being the only player in the history of English football to captain a title-winning side in three different decades (1988-89, 1990-91, 1997-98, 2001-02).

Sunderland’s relegation from the Premier League was confirmed a couple of weeks ago against Bournemouth. It brings to an end their 10-year stay in the top flight. The last time they went down was in the 2005-06 season. That year, they also faced Arsenal after their relegation was sealed. The Gunners won the game 3-0 at the Stadium of Light. That was also the day that Abou Diaby suffered his first big injury, an ankle fracture following a poor tackle from Dan Smith. Diaby would miss the next eight months.

This is the second year in a row that Arsenal will face the side bottom of the Premier League towards the end of the season at home. Last season, we played Villa on the final day and thumped them 4-0. Olivier Giroud scored a hat-trick (one, two, three) and Mikel Arteta also contributed in his final game for the club.

When you think of players that have represented both sides, some obvious legends come to mind: Bendtner, Larsson, Mannone. But way back in the early 20th century, a guy called Charlie Buchan played for both Arsenal and Sunderland with distinction. Having started his career at Arsenal, he fell out with the manager George Morrell over his expenses and ended up signing for Sunderland in 1911. He was part of their title winning side in 1913 and they narrowly missed out on the Double that season, losing to Aston Villa in the FA Cup final. Buchan was their top scorer for seven of his eight seasons at Sunderland. He’s the second highest goalscorer in their history and their all-time record League goalscorer. In all he got 222 goals for Sunderland and undoubtedly would have had a lot more if it wasn’t for the First World War. Buchan returned to Arsenal in 1925. With Sunderland demanding £4,000 for the forward, Arsenal boss Herbert Chapman managed to strike a deal of £2,000 plus £100 for every goal Buchan scored in his first season. He went on to score 21 goals that year, meaning Arsenal ultimately paid £4,100 for his services. He captained Arsenal in their first ever FA Cup final appearance in 1927, which they lost 2-1 to Cardiff. Charlie Buchan retired at the age of 36, having scored 16 goals in his final season with Arsenal.

The first time Arsene Wenger faced Sunderland ended up becoming a bit of a saga. The two clubs faced each other three times in a row in January 1997. On the 4th, they played an FA Cup tie at Highbury that finished 1-1. A week later, they met at Sunderland in the League with the home side winning 1-0. Then on the 15th, the two teams contested an FA Cup replay that Arsenal won 2-0. Safe to say that the pair of them were sick of the sight of each other by the end of that one.

David Moyes is the 12th permanent manager Sunderland have had since Wenger has been in charge at Arsenal. Steve Bruce is the most recent Sunderland boss to have beaten Arsenal in the League. Former Arsenal player Niall Quinn finished his playing career with the Black Cats before returning to them as chairman in 2006. His Irish consortium bought the club and he even became their manager at the start of the 2006-07 season. Quinn won just one of his six games in charge before stepping aside to allow fellow Irishman Roy Keane take over.

The last two times Sunderland came to the Emirates, Arsenal ran out 3-1 winners. In the League game, the goals were scored by Joel Campbell, Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey. A month later in the FA Cup, the Arsenal goals came from Joel Campbell, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud.

How about some goals?

And that’s that…

There it is, all you could ever want to know to prepare for Arsenal vs Sunderland. A win makes sure the top four race goes down to the final day. Man City are at home to West Brom on Tuesday night too. Arsenal v Sunderland kicks off at 7:45pm. We should win without much to worry about. The bigger test will be Everton on Sunday.

I’ll be back in a few days to preview that game, the last of the season, against Everton.

Until then, good luck and thanks for reading!