Sunderland are set to face Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday evening.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has admitted that he is expecting an “unbelievable atmosphere” at the Stadium of Light on Saturday night as his side travel to face Sunderland in the Premier League.

The defending champions were held to a 2-2 draw on Wearside last season, with a late Brian Brobbey equaliser snatching a hard-fought point for their newly promoted hosts in an entertaining encounter. This term, the Gunners have started at a canter, recording five consecutive victories across all competitions, but despite their electric run of form, Arteta has insisted that his team must take things one game at a time - beginning with an 8pm kick-off this weekend.

Speaking in a press conference on Friday morning, he said: “We have to focus on the next match. We experienced last season how tough it’s going to be tomorrow night. It’s an unbelievable atmosphere, and it’s great to play in these kinds of games. We know how ready they’re going to be, we have prepared the game, we’re going to finalise the game today. We know the importance of it and we’ll be ready tomorrow to be on that pitch. We’ll compete like we always do, we’ll try to be better than the opponent and win the game.

“Last year, we dropped points there, especially in the last minutes. We experienced and learned a lot from that game for the previous one. Tomorrow, again, we'll discuss many things that we need to be aware of and where we want to take the game, what their qualities are and how we’ll try to nullify them.”

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Asked for the lessons that his side have learnt from their last away game at Sunderland, the Arsenal boss continued: “Plenty of things. Plenty of things to improve, to be alert of, and some others that we have to continue to do because we did some great things that night and other things that we will discuss to prepare the game.”

With regards to team news, Arteta suggested that Ben White is fit enough to feature, while fellow defenders Cristhian Mosquera and Jurrien Timber are both closing in on returns to action as well.

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