Bring on Arsenal!
If there's one place you don't want to go when you're looking to bounce back, it's Arsenal away.
I think of all the top four sides, they play the most attractive football and they've got the ability to just steamroller you with a couple of minutes of brilliant play.
I'm not speaking with the benefit of hindsight when I say that I thought Arsenal would do just fine without Thierry Henry this season.
He was only a peripheral character for them last season and we could see ourselves just how good the Gunners' youngsters looked.
Last season, Arsene Wenger took his youngsters all the way to the Carling Cup final and no-one does that unless they've got a phenomenally gifted young squad.
I saw that youthful Arsenal side take Sunderland apart at the Stadium of Light in that competition and was amazed when I looked at the team sheet to realise that I recognised hardly any of the names in their line-up.
That's when I felt that the Londoners would have some team coming through in the next few years and the signs are, that's exactly what's happening now.
Daunting as it is, let's not forget that going to places like the Emirates Stadium is what last season was all about.
Roy Keane, Niall Quinn and Sunderland worked desperately hard to get the club back in the top flight so we could have days like these.
And instead of approaching the match with fear and foreboding, we should relish the prospect of days like these.
I watched the new stadium emerging from the sidings at King Cross over the last couple of years and every time we made a trip to London, the emerging ground was getting bigger, shinier and ever more impressive.
I'm really looking forward to going.
And if you can't look forward to fixtures like these, you shouldn't be in the Premier League – you should be back in the comfort zone of the Championship where you're winning games more regularly but are playing against the Colchesters and Scunthorpes rather than the Arsenals and Chelseas of the world.
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South west
