Arsenal vs. Sunderland: New-Look Gunners Will Cruise to Easy Win at Emirates

Arsenal takes on Sunderland in the English Premier League opening match today. The Robin van Persie transfer saga has finally subsided and now there’s only one thing to do: Play some football.

It seemed as if the endless summer of transfer talk would never end. It’s been fun, but not nearly as fun as its going to be seeing the Gunners dismantle the Black Cats in their opening match at the Emirates this afternoon.

Injuries may slow the team initially in terms of excitement and win margin, but make no mistake about it, the Gunners are coming to play.

They have a lot to prove after falling to third in their last campaign and undergoing a sizeable transition over the summer.

New faces will highlight the scoring for the Gunners; you all know their names by now.

Despite Arsene Wenger’s statement that he planned to ease new strikers Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski into action, he may have no choice but to play them against Sunderland after the transfer of RVP. He also said he was going to hold them out of preseason play, but ended up going back on that statement.

Fully ready and conditioned or not, the Gunners need the firepower their new transfers bring and Wenger would be wise to deploy them as necessary.

Giroud is expected to have a great season in the absence of RVP. The French striker punched in 21 goals for Montpellier and brings the most significant threat to pitch.

He’ll need to start out hot if he is going to live up to the big expectations left by the recently departed superstar striker.

Podolski, on the other hand, brings more than just striking to the table. His able footballing skills and defensive prowess makes him a critical piece to the puzzle for the Gunners’ success.

All-in-all, the truth is that Sunderland is facing just as many injuries and question marks as the Gunners. The match is being played at the Emirates and the Black Cats are clearly outmatched in this one.

To be brutally honest, it could even get ugly in Arsenal’s favor. Neither team is in mid-season form just yet and the advantage clearly goes to the Gunners at the Emirates in that instance.

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