But the skipper is confident that his side can do a good job against a side which led the Premier League for so long this season.

Arsene Wenger brings his side to the North East looking for them to record a last day of the season victory over Sunderland for the third time in 10 years.

But Whitehead is determined the Gunners will not be calling all the shots this weekend.

"We're not daft and we know Arsenal are a very, very good side," he told SportMail.

"It's probably going to be the case that we will not see much of the ball at times because Arsenal are exceptional when it comes to keeping possession.

"That means that we're going to have to be patient and the fans are going to have be patient on matchday.

"But I believe that we can give them a good game and look to end our season on a positive note."

Whitehead says Sunderland's defeat at Bolton Wanderers is still fresh in players' minds but does not see that having a bearing on this weekend's game.

He said: "Bolton was very disappointing for all of us because we just didn't perform on the day.

"It's hard to put your finger on exactly what went wrong but I don't think it was for want of trying, I don't think it was a case of taking our foot off the gas.

"I think that this weekend the Bolton game is forgotten.

"It's not like we're going to be dwelling on it, I think we just have to put it down to one of those days that everyone can have in football sometimes and we look to move on."