Arsenal vs Sunderland Time and Venue: 5 March 2011

Arsenal hosts Sunderland tomorrow in an important match of English Premier League on 5 March 2011. Both sides have something to win from this fixture. While Sunderland looks to bounce back following consecutive defeats in the last four league matches, Arsenal players would like to reduce the gap with leader Manchester United who lost at Chelsea in the midweek.

Arsenal’s 5-0 thrashing of Leyton Orient on Wednesday in the fifth round FA Cup replay came as a morale-boosting victory for the North London side following their Carling Cup defeat at the Wembely stadium last Sunday.

Arsenal is missing a number of players for the Sunderland match with in-form players like Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persiel and Theo Walcott all out injured. Besides, Song, Vermaelen, Fabianski and Fimprong are also ruled out for this fixture. However, center back Koscielny is expected to be available for selection after recovering his minor injury. Aaron Ramsey is also back following a small but successful loan stint at Cardiff City.

Time and Venue of the Match

The match kicks off at 15:00 GMT and 20:30 IST (Indian Standard Time) on 5 March 2011. It will take place at the Emirates stadium, the home ground of Arsenal.

Arsenal won only one of their last five matches against Sunderland, but then they are unbeaten in the last 10 Premier League matches. So, football fans can expect an exciting fixture at the Emirates.

Roy Keane Stepped Down as Sunderland Manager

(This entry was originally posted in this blog on December 4, 2008 and the information is based on that time.)

Former legend of Manchester United, Roy Keane, has recently stepped down as Sunderland manager recently following his side’s 4-1 defeat to Bolton Wanderers. Club Chairman Niall Quinn said that he had tried to convince Keane to stay at the club, but that was of no avail as Keane thought it was time for him to leave the club. Picking up 15 points from 15 matches, Sunderland has moved down to the relegation zone in the point table. So, Keane’s departure has come as another blow for Sunderland.

Roy Keane took over Sunderland’s managerial job in August 2006 when the club was struggling in the relegation zone in the football league (the second flight of English football). From that point, Keane guided Sunderland to get promotion to the premier league as the champion of the football league. Last season, Sunderland also survived in the league. However, the club has not been performing well so far this season. In fact, Sunderland lost 6 out of their last 7 matches in the league.

Now, Ricky Sbragia will carry out Keane’s job on a permanent basis until a new manager is appointed. Reserve-team coach Neil Bailey and senior member of the Sunderland squad Dwight Yorke will help Sbragia. In an important premier league match, Sunderland will face Manchester United at home in their upcoming match.

Related article:

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Roy Keane Favors Chelsea to Win the Premier League Title

Former Manchester United legend Roy Keane thinks that Chelsea will win the title of Premier league this season. Keane’s side Sunderland is going to face Chelsea on the road today in what is expected to be a tough match for the mid-table club. However, Sunderland manager Roy Keane thinks his side can achieve a satisfactory result against Chelsea. Indicating Sunderland’s defeat to Stroke City recently, Sunderland’s Irish manager Roy Keane believes Sunderland needs to improve against Chelsea. However, he still feels the premier league title of this season is going to Chelsea because he thinks Chelsea has got a good manager as well as some good players.

Times Online reported:

"I was asked at the start of the season who would win it [the Premier League] and I said Chelsea. They've got a brilliant manager and brilliant players and they know what it takes to win the league.

"I know Liverpool are top and doing really well at the moment and [Manchester] United and Arsenal are top teams but I just fancy Chelsea, I'm sticking to my guns.

"We know it is a hugely difficult game but we've got to believe we can do something."

"We need to respond from Wednesday because it was not good enough," he said. "I hope I don't regret saying this but I think Chelsea is a good game for us.

Chelsea recently suffered their first defeat of the season as they were beaten by Liverpool 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in what it was an end to Chelsea’s undefeated home run of 86 matches in premier league. Chelsea finished second last season behind Manchester United in the premier league. The Blues are now very much active in the title race with 3 points clear of Liverpool at the top. Chelsea regained their lost confidence with a 3-0 victory over Hull City recently. Now, let us see if Roy Keane’s side can surprise Chelsea once again after they last defeated Chelsea in 2001. However, Chelsea is favorite in the match, considering their physical fitness and strength, while Sunderland might play inspirational football against Chelsea, considering the fact that they have nothing to lose against Chelsea.

Manchester United vs. Sunderland Preview: EPL 2007-08

English Premier League 2007-2008 season was started on 11 August. Three weeks have already gone in English Premier League 2007-2008 season. However, the favorite teams could not start the season in style. Defending champion Manchester United’s performance was really very poor in the season and after playing four matches, Manchester United is now in 10^th position in the table. Arsenal stands in no. 6 and Liverpool stands in no. 4 in the league table. However, last season’s runner up Chelsea is now leading the league table.

Manchester United and Sunderland are going to face each other on next Saturday on 1 September 2007. Both teams have already played four matches of the ongoing season of English Premier League (EPL). Sunderland could earn only 4 points yet whereas Manchester United could earn 5 points. Sunderland is now at 16^th position in the league table. It seems that they have to think about avoiding relegation from now on. On the other hand, for Manchester United, every match is now very vital because they have already lost many points and if they want to defend the Premiership title then they have to achieve almost all the points as much as possible. Otherwise, the points they have lost yet will be vital to defend their title.

Manchester United started the season with an ordinary draw against the newly promoted Derby County. Manchester United followed their poor performance in the second match as well. Manchester United could make a 1-1 draw against Portsmouth. However, the defending champion Manchester United got a big struck in the third match against their cross town rival Manchester City. ManU suffered a 0-1 defeat against Manchester City in the first Manchester Derby of the season. If these bring bad feeling to you then the worst is that Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has fallen in injury and he has to be out of the field for several weeks. In addition, Cristiano Ronaldo, another ManU star, is now in his three match suspension which will last till the upcoming match against Sunderland. Manchester United got their first victory of the season in their fourth match against Tottenham Hotspur in Old Traford last Sunday.

Manchester United is undoubtedly one of the strongest contenders of English Premier League 2007. On other hand, Sunderland is struggling to stay in Premier League. They have been promoted to Premier League this season. Sunderland was relegated after the 2005-2006 season. However, they could return the elite league just after one season.

Sunderland started the 2007-2008 season in style. In the first match, they got a 1-0 win over the Tottenham Hotspur. Sunderland could draw against Birmingham City in the second match. However, the last two matches they could not perform well. In the third match they suffered a crushing defeat by Wigan Athletic. Sunderland’s fourth match was against league favorite Liverpool. They lost the match by 0-2. So, it is easily understandable that the recent performance of Sunderland is not satisfactory and that is why, coach Roy Keane now might be worry about the next match against his former club Manchester United.

In terms of strength, Manchester is far more ahead of Sunderland. Though Manchester lost two of their key players, they still have some players who can recover the lost of those two players. Captain Gary Neville, midfielder Owen Hargreaves, Anderson are playing well. Newly recruit Portuguese midfielder Nani is in form. In striking position, they have Argentine star Carlos Tévez, Louis Saha of France who can fill the gap of Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

On the other hand, Sunderland coach former Irish footballer Roy Keane might be the biggest star. Roy Keane spent his golden time of his career in Manchester United and he also led the side for several years. Former ManU footballer Dwight Yorke is now the most important player of Sunderland. English striker Andy Cole is the striking partner of Yorke in Sunderland.

So, you can easily understand that Manchester United is favorite in the Saturday match and I think Manchester United will try not to lose point any point. However, it is also true that football is a team game and here to get some success almost all the players need to play well and need some help from fate. So, I will not be surprised if Sunderland causes another upset in English Premier League 2007-2008 season.

Online Live Score

I know that many of you will not be able to manage time to go to Old Trafford to see the Manchester United vs Sunderland match. Even, to many of you will not be able to stick to your TV set to watch the match because of your personal and professional works. So, thinking of those busy but die hearted fans, I am going to give some website links that provide online live score. The links of the websites are as follows:

Goalzz

Live Football Scores

Live Score

Footie Scorez

Goal.com

Sportpress