Sunday’s Carling Cup final against Birmingham represented a straightforward opportunity for Arsenal to land their first piece of silverware since 2005, although the Gunners slipped up both in terms of producing a sub-standard performance and a defensive mistake which led to the City winner.

Since then, they have thrashed Leyton Orient 5-0, with Arsene Wenger making wholesale changes to the team that lost the final and the likes of Marouane Chamakh and Nicklas Bendtner will be hoping to start this match, especially now that Robin van Persie has been ruled out.

Cesc Fabregas and Alex Song will also miss out as Arsenal look to close the gap on Manchester United to a point after the Red Devils lost at Chelsea on Tuesday.

Wenger wants his team to forget about the Barcelona clash next week and focus on landing three points against the Black Cats.

“We will go for that game without thinking about anything else. To pick the team, I will consider the games we have played recently with some players who played many games but the focus is on the Sunderland game and the championship is our massive target”.

Steve Bruce’s team have lost their way in recent weeks, losing four games on the bounce which has seen the Wearside team drop to eighth place and the manager is looking for his team to stand up and be counted.

He is hopeful that Danny Welbeck might return for the match at the Emirates against an Arsenal team who will clearly be thinking about the Barca game.

Match betting odds:

Arsenal, 1/2 with Paddy Power

Draw, 17/5 with Victor Chandler

Sunderland, 15/2 with Stan James