Andy Welsh has highlighted the class of Arsenal under-23s’ academy ahead of tonight’s Premier League 2 fixture at Borehamwood, KO 7pm.
The young Black Cats travel to the capital with high hopes of building on back-to-back draws achieved in recent home matches to Derby County and Reading.
While Sunderland haven’t led in either of those fixtures, character and desire has shone through which has left Welsh satisfied with a further two points bagged.
And with that in mind, the under-23s coach has told safc.com he relishing a challenging match-up against an exciting Arsenal side.
“It’s going to be a really good technical test, they handle the ball well and have lots of movement,” he said.
“We are going to have to be at our best defensively and make sure we keep our defensive shape.
“If we can do that at one end of the field and look after possession when we have it, hopefully we should be able to focus on taking our chances.”
He continued: “We created a lot of chances against Reading and didn’t take them. We were on top in the second half and we didn’t manage to score.
“We have worked on that over the last few days but we are well aware they are going to be a really, really difficult test.”
