Arsenal warmed up for Double Gameweek 26 in convincing fashion, dispatching Sunderland 3-0 to pull nine points clear – even if it’s only for 24 hours.
Here are the key takeaways from the Emirates.
TROSSARD INJURED?
Arsenal did it all without Bukayo Saka (£9.9m) and Martin Odegaard (£7.8m), not that their absences were a surprise.
Close to the end of the game, the Gunners suffered another scare.
Leandro Trossard (£6.8m), who had been impressive against the Black Cats, seemed to be struggling in as the clocked ticked down, walking off – unaided, at least – soon after.
There was no fitness update on Trossard from Mikel Arteta after full-time. Arteta did discuss the winger in the post-match interviews, hailing his contribution but not mentioning any issue.
With the Gunners now not playing till Thursday, there’s a good chance Arteta may not face the media until after Tuesday’s Gameweek 26 deadline. So, there may be plenty unknown about Trossard, Saka and Odegaard heading into 2025/26’s first Double Gameweek.
Our biggest hope? Probably some early-week training footage from the Sky Sports cameras, like we had last Thursday. Even then, that may simply unearth a red herring like Jurrien Timber (£6.4m). The Dutchman not only started on Saturday but also finished the game.
GYOKERES’ STOCK RISES FOR DOUBLE GAMEWEEK?
Bar Declan Rice (£7.5m) and Martin Zubimendi (£5.2m), one of the biggest sticks to beat Arsenal midfielders and forwards with is their lack of guaranteed minutes in the Double Gameweek. Anything from 60-160 minutes is possible.
Viktor Gyokeres‘ (£8.7m) xMins probably got a boost here, mind. A substitute against Sunderland (thus proving the point about rotation fears), he emerged off the bench to score a second-half brace. His goals owed much to game-state and to his teammates: Trossard’s fine slide-rule ball and Kai Havertz‘s (£7.3m) square pass found him in the centre of the box for the opener, while his injury-time second goal was a tap-in after fine work on the counter-attack from Gabriel Martinelli (£6.8m).
Six of the Swede’s eight Premier League goals have come against the newly promoted clubs.
Still, you’d expect Gyokeres to now start over Gabriel Jesus (£6.4m) on Thursday, consequently get a rest against Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup, and then potentially return for the Gameweek 26 finale at Molineux. A north London derby goes follow four days after that, of course.
“[Confidence] is the magic word, I think. When you feel confident, when you feel important, when you feel at your best, that’s when you can really take your game to the highest level. We all try, the first one, the teammates, but all the staff, obviously, really behind him in every moment to try to help him, to try to support him, and he’s delivering and he’s in a really good moment now.” – Mikel Arteta on Viktor Gyokeres
A Trossard injury would boost Martinelli’s game-time potential, but we’ve actually seen the Brazilian finishing the game on the right flank in the last three matches. On each occasion, Saka deputy Noni Madueke (£6.8m) has been hooked early. You may get two starts out of Madueke in Gameweek 26, but you’ll always be clock-watching:
| Match | Noni Madueke’s minutes |
|---|---|
| v Leeds (Gameweek 24) | 60 |
| v Chelsea (EFL Cup semi-final) | 68 |
| v Sunderland (Gameweek 25) | 59 |
Madueke was largely unproductive, although he did nearly force an own-goal and won possession for Arsenal’s first strike.
RARE SALIBA + RAYA ‘EXTRAS’
There has been much pre-Gameweek 26 discussion about how little David Raya (£5.9m) and William Saliba (£6.0m) offer bar clean sheets. Ironic, then, that the pair delivered ‘extras’ on Saturday.
Saliba, locked in a physical battle with the impressive Brian Brobbey (£5.5m), banked DefCon points for the first time since Gameweek 1. Raya, meanwhile, pocketed more than six FPL points in a match for just the second time since the opening weekend.
It was even more incongruous that Raya delivered a bonus point as a) he only made two stops and b) he was pretty ropey. Both saves came from efforts taken outside the area, the second one unconvincingly parried away. Raya also dropped a cross at Brobbey’s feet for Sunderland’s one and only big chance, and had to be bailed out by Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.1m) on another occasion.
Despite Raya’s efforts and a rusty display from Riccardo Calafiori (£5.6m) at left-back, this was another commanding defensive performance in which the opposition xG was kept way, way down:
RICE’S DEFCON ENDS DROUGHT
Rice’s four-match run of blanks ended, sort of, with DefCon returns.
He was also inches away from scoring with a shot from the edge of the area, while he teed up substitute Eberechi Eze (£7.2m) for a very presentable chance after the break.
Zubimendi scored from a similar position to where Rice missed from; both chances were set up by the influential Trossard. While Rice’s effort went agonisingly wide, Zubimendi’s hit the post and went in. Fine margins.
Remarkably, the unheralded (in FPL terms) Zubimendi is now Arsenal’s joint-second-top league scorer in 2025/26!
Statistically speaking, the Spaniard creates, shoots and racks up defensive contributions less often than Rice – but he’s not doing too badly at all for a £5.2m midfielder. Back-to-back 10-point hauls have brought up his century of FPL points.
FORGET AND MOVE ON FOR SUNDERLAND
There’s no shame in losing to one of the best teams in Europe.
Sunderland actually did pretty well for long parts of this contest, limiting their hosts to few clear-cut chances. After Havertz’s first-minute header drifted wide, the Gunners didn’t really have a good opening until Gyokeres’ 66th-minute goal.
It’s a third straight away defeat for Sunderland, and they’ve conceded three goals in each of them. This was different to the surrenders at Brentford and West Ham United, however.
“The score is the same but it wasn’t the same game.” – Regis Le Bris on the recent away losses
The Mackems are also crucially now back on home soil, where they’re unbeaten in 2025/26, in Gameweeks 26 and 27.
