Arsenal vs Sunderland EFL Cup preview: How to watch, lineups, Covid concerns & prediction

Arsenal return to midweek action on Tuesday as they welcome Sunderland to the Emirates Stadium for their Carabao Cup quarter-final tie. Here is the match preview.

Basking in the glory of the previous three wins, you’d have been forgiven for forgetting that Arsenal have a wonderful opportunity to seal their place in the last four of a domestic cup competition coming up.

The manic festive period, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang situation and brilliance of the young talent at Arsenal has taken centre stage of late. Understandably so.

But while the primary goal this season was to return to European football in some capacity, silverware wouldn’t go amiss. It never does.

https://twitter.com/Carabao_Cup/status/1455837161702322180

Arsenal vs Sunderland EFL Cup quarter-final preview: Arteta to make multiple changes with semi-finals in sight

There is also no shying away from how kind the draw has been to Arsenal. Seven of the remaining eight sides in the Carabao Cup are Premier League opposition and not only did the Gunners get matched up with a League One side, they also get to play them on home soil.

Vying for a return to the Championship this season under Lee Johnson, the Black Cats currently sit third in League One after a recent 1-1 draw away at Ipswich and are firmly in the hunt to win the division with just four points separating them from league leaders Rotherham.

Nonetheless, this is a fixture Arsenal are runaway favourites to win.

Having fielded the same starting lineup for four straight Premier League matches against Leeds, the first time since May 2015, Arteta is expected to make wholesale changes to his team and still have a side on the pitch expected to secure the victory.

As for Sunderland, they don’t play again until December 27 so Johnson and his men have every reason to throw all they’ve got at Arsenal with their promotion ambitions taking a temporary back seat on Tuesday.

Does a semi-final berth beckon? You feel like it should do, although everyone waits anxiously to find out of the game will even go ahead due to the rising amount of COVID-19 cases across the country.

How to Watch on TV

When Is Kick Off? Tuesday 21 December
What Time Is Kick Off? 19:45 (GMT)
Where Is it Played? Emirates Stadium
TV Channel/Live Stream? Sky Sports (UK) fuboTV (USA)
Referee? Simon Hooper

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Arsenal Team News vs Sunderland – Tomiyasu Injury

The only injury scare for Arsenal in their 4-1 win over Leeds was the worrying withdrawal of Takehiro Tomiyasu in the second half.

"“It was more of a muscular injury,” Arteta said post-match. “He’s got a big load on him because he’s played every single minute since he’s joined us and even this week he’s been struggling a little bit. We decided to take him off, he wasn’t 100 per cent confident to continue in the game, and hopefully he’s not injured.”"

His substitution being more of a precaution that anything is reassuring, although it’s highly unlikely he would have been playing in this game anyway.

There will certainly be no Aubameyang, who continues to train away from the rest of the group and isn’t due to be involved with the first team until after AFCON concludes.

Other certain absentees for Arsenal are duo Sambi Lokonga and Pablo Mari. The pair would have been in the frame to start this match were it not for COVID-19, with Arteta confirming that the pair contracted the virus in the build-up to Saturday.

As for Sunderland, Leon Dajaku looks set to miss out after picking up an injury away at Ipswich last time out, although the club welcomed back Denver Hume in that match after he recovered from an injury that left him out of action since October.

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Arsenal Predicted Lineup to Face Sunderland – Entirely New XI?

Arsenal: Leno; Cedric, Holding, Gabriel, Tavares; Elneny, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles, Smith Rowe, Pepe; Nketiah

Sunderland: Hoffmann; Wright, Flanagan, Doyle; Gooch Winchester, Neil, Hume; Pritchard, Broadhead, Stewart

Arsenal vs Sunderland Score Prediction

Part of the reason Arteta will have been confident to field the same team three times in a week against Leeds is that he knows he can make multiple changes against Sunderland and still have a team more than capable of securing the win.

The gulf in class is vast. There is no two ways about it.

Wholesale changes are expected although the squad will be tough to manage and players who featured at Leeds are sure to see action again on Tuesday. Pablo Mari being unavailable, for example, is likely to result in Gabriel keeping his place with White having played more minutes than anyone else this season.

But Arsenal should still win, and you’d like to think relatively comfortably, too.

A spot in the semi-finals is begging to be taken, which not only acts as one step closer towards lifting a trophy, but also presents two more matches to keep rotating around the squad and handing minutes to those who couldn’t buy them (Pepe et al).

Sunderland have nothing to lose with their next fixture for a week, and with 5,000 Mackems there to support them they’ll be eyeing an almighty shock.

Score Prediction: Arsenal 3-0 Sunderland