Spurs Preview

Sunderland travel to White Hart Lane today looking for their first away victory since the opening day win over Bolton. Manager Steve Bruce has admitted that his team need to address their form away from home, if they are to progress to that 'next level'.

One man who will be determined to put that right for the Black Cats is striker Darren Bent, who has hit eight league goals this season and is the top scoring Englishman in the Premier League. Bent signed for Sunderland from Tottenham Hotspur over the summer, after his infamous post on Twitter criticising Spurs chairman Daniel Levy forced the transfer.

But it will be the North London boss Harry Redknapp who Bent will really want to get one over. The Sunderland number 11 was never given a fair chance at Tottenham and played a bit part role behind other strikers, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe amongst others. Though it was comments made by Redknapp which were the final blow and that really dinted Bent's confidence, after their game against Portsmouth when Bent missed a very good chance, Redknapp turned to his coaching staff and said, "How the f***ing hell did he miss that?" then later stated, "My missus could have scored that."

According to recent reports, Bent claimed that he does not see this game about him, which many could understand if you watch him week in, week out, where he always works hard for the team, the goals just come because of his fantastic ability.

There are also a number of other players involved today who have past Spurs connections. Frazier Campbell was on loan their last season, whilst Andy Reid, Marton Fulop and Steed Malbranque have all played their trade at some point in the Capital.

Sunderland will be missing a number of key players this afternoon. Kenwyne Jones is suspended after his push on Herita Ilunga last week against West Ham, as is captain Lorik Cana who has a one match suspension since collecting five yellow cards. Lee Cattermole is still out for a couple more weeks. Bolo Zenden and John Mensah are carrying minor knocks and are likely to miss out.

Keep a look out for Tottenham's David Bentley who has been linked with a move North for as long as I can remember, he is set to play if winger Aaron Lennon does not recover in time.

Finally on another note, can I say well done and good luck to ex-safc striker Kevin Kyle who has gained another call up to the Scotland squad, he always worked very hard as a Sunderland striker and deserves his chance, hopefully he gets it this time.