What time is Arsenal vs Sunderland in the FA Cup third round, what TV channel is it on and what's the team news?

When's the game?

Arsenal begin the defence of their FA Cup crown on Saturday afternoon at the Emirates, in one of four all-Premier League ties in the third round. The game starts at 3pm.

What TV channel is it on?

None. Arsenal have been passed over for live TV coverage, but there are highlights on BBC1 at 10.25pm.

Team news

Arsenal will still be missing long-term absentees Danny Welbeck (knee), Francis Coquelin (knee), Jack Wilshere (broken leg), Tomas Rosicky (knee), Mikel Arteta (calf) and Santi Cazorla (knee).

Alex Sanchez is also not ready to return after a hamstring injury, so Wenger could field a young team as he seeks to protect his senior players with crucial Premier League games looming. Calum Chambers, Alex Iwobi and Jeff Reine-Adelaide could all start.

Sunderland are not expected to field new signing Jan Kirchhoff after his arrival from Bayern Munich. Young goalkeeper Jordan Pickford is likely to make his club debut as manager Sam Allardyce prepares to make wholesale changes.

Head to head record

Result	Number of times
Arsenal win	59
Sunderland win	49
Draw	40

What are they saying?

“I always say it is a special competition. The atmosphere and everything surrounding the game [underlines] the fact that this could be history for the club you play against. Even if you play a club in the Premier League, the elements of the away fans changes for FA Cup games." - Petr Cech, Arsenal

"If the Premier League decides to put a stupid fixture midweek when they don’t bloody need to then I haven’t got much choice about making changes. That’s diabolical. For me, if you want us to respect the FA Cup then you don’t put a Premier League fixture [on the following midweek], do you? We’ve got the rest of the season after that and we’ve just done six games in 24 days. We’re flogging the lads." Sam Allardyce, Sunderland

Sam Allardyce is unhappy at Sunderland's schedule

Who is the referee?

Martin Atkinson will take charge of the game. He has shown 69 yellow cards in his 19 Premier League games this season, but no red cards.

He has taken charge of just one Arsenal match this season - the opening weekend defeat by West Ham at the Emirates - and has overseen two Sunderland matches: a 1-0 defeat to West Brom, and the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace.

Martin Atkinson is in charge at the Emirates

Latest odds

Arsenal win: 1/4
Sunderland win: 9/1
Draw: 11/2

Our prediction

Arsenal to win 2-0.

Wenger in FA Cup

Share on Google Plus

About Quang

My blog is the place to update the latest information on sports, science and technology ... If you found this article good, useful please the share for others to see, even if you want to design a ecommerce website or web edit or set a special plugin functionality, please contact us now (Information in the footer)