Arsenal's medical room is fuller than their trophy cabinet right now. Saka, Odegaard, Merino, Dowman, Timber. Some of it minor, some of it not, all of it landing in the same week Arteta has to find a way past Sunderland.
This is not the same Sunderland that got promoted and everyone assumed would just absorb points on the way to safety. They already took something off Arsenal once this season, a draw that looked like a wake up call at the time and now looks like a preview. Arteta built this squad to survive exactly this kind of week, the kind where the first XI on paper is not the first XI on the pitch. Whether that depth is real or just a nice idea gets tested in front of everyone.
So the question is not really about Sunderland's ceiling. It is about how much of Arsenal's floor depends on the names currently in the treatment room. Arsenal to beat Sunderland, or does the patchwork show up on the scoreboard too.