Sunderland – Arsenal Preview

Sunderland
Position 8th, 9-6-9 (33 points, +9 goal differential)
Home Record: 5-4-3, +8 goal differential
Recent Form: WLWWW
Last Meeting: Arsenal 2 – Sunderland 1 (October 17, 2011)
Crucial match . . . must win . . . backs against the wall . . . 3 points mandatory . . . blah blah blah.
It’s not that the cliches aren’t true in this case, it’s just that it’s getting a bit tiresome, because that’s been true of basically every league match this calendar year, and will almost certainly be true of every remaining match this season. The fact is that we are in a bad spot — 6th place, 3 points behind 4th pl...