📏 Form Guide

Arsenal

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Arsenal, following on from their previous result, will be hoping for more of the same after the 1-0 EFL Cup triumph against Chelsea.

In that match, Arsenal had 44% possession and 5 shots on goal with 2 on target. The only player on the scoresheet for Arsenal was Kai Havertz (97'). For their opponents, Chelsea had 14 attempts on goal with 2 of them on target.

In their prior 6 fixtures, Mikel Arteta's Arsenal have managed to score 13 times, with that being an average number of goals per match equal to 2.17.

Looking at the pre-match facts, Arsenal:

• have not been beaten in the league by Sunderland in their last 16 matches. It's quite some record.
• haven’t won at home in the past 2 league matches.

Sunderland

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Sunderland go into this meeting following a 3-0 Premier League win to beat Burnley in their most recent game.

In that game, Sunderland managed 44% possession and 14 attempts on goal with 5 on target. For Sunderland, goals were scored by Habib Diarra (32') and Chemsdine Talbi (72'). Burnley got 5 shots at goal with 0 of them on target. Axel Tuanzebe (9' Own goal) scored for Burnley.

The numbers tell their own story, and Sunderland have been scored against in 5 of their last 6 games, with opponents netting 9 goals overall. At the back, Sunderland have not been doing too well. Historical results aside, we must now wait to see if the trend shall persist in this next game or not.

Going into this encounter, Sunderland are without a win away from home in their last 7 matches in the league.

↔️ Head to head

An examination of their past head to head meetings going back to 09/01/2016 reveals that these encounters have not been fruitful for Sunderland. They’ve not been able to come away with any wins whatsoever while Arsenal have just been stronger than them, beating them in 67 per cent of those ties.

21 goals were scored between them throughout the course of those matches, with 16 of them for The Gunners and 5 belonging to The Black Cats. The average goals per game has been 3.5.

The previous league meeting featuring the two was Premier League match day 11 on 08/11/2025 which ended up with the score at Sunderland 2-2 Arsenal.

That day, Sunderland managed 35% possession and 6 attempts on goal with 2 on target. The scorers were Daniel Ballard (36') and Brian Brobbey (94').

Arsenal got 17 shots at goal with 7 on target. Bukayo Saka (54') and Leandro Trossard (74') scored.

The match was refereed by Craig Pawson.

ℹ️ Team News: Arsenal

In our view, The Gunners should use a 4-3-3 formation for this one, utilising David Raya, Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Piero Hincapié, Kai Havertz, Martín Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Noni Madueke, Viktor Gyokeres and Leandro Trossard.

📰 Team News: Sunderland

There’s a good chance that The Black Cats seem likely to utilise a 3-2-4-1 formation, starting the game with Robin Roefs, Nordi Mukiele, Daniel Ballard, Omar Alderete, Trai Hume, Reinildo, Habib Diarra, Noah Sadiki, Enzo Le Fee, Chemsdine Talbi and Brian Brobbey.

💡 Prediction

Our assessment is that Arsenal certainly have the ability to score more than once when they come up against Sunderland, who may well find it hard to break down their defence.

We can therefore see a decent 2-0 victory for Arsenal at the end of this one.

Andre Moura, 15:03 04/02/2026