Sunderland ready to push up table

It has been all change at the Stadium of Light this summer and not the first time in recent years the team has had a makeover.

Sunderland fans have become accustomed to periods of upheaval that started when Roy Keane took charge.

That tradition has been continued by Steve Bruce who has seen nearly 60 players join the club since 2006.

But whereas Keane was building a squad fit for a purpose (promotion and, latterly, Premier League survival), Bruce now appears to be building a balanced, settled squad that can be built upon, rather than rebuilt next summer.

Ellis Short hasn't handed out cash readily in 2011, Bruce has had to earn it.

Indeed it's a new age of relative prudence at the Stadium of Light - reducing the wage bill and profiting from player sales all in the name of balancing the books is the priority.

Expect players such as Nyron Nosworthy, Matthew Killgallon and George McCartney to move on. Marcos Angeleri has done little to get into Bruce's good books and may also find himself leaving.

The sale of Darren Bent in January caused upset among fans but the money raised from the sale - and Bent's salary being taken off the wage bill - has allowed Bruce to move quickly and decisively in the transfer market.

Jordan Henderson soon followed Bent out of Wearside as he headed to Anfield in a sale which made the club a huge profit on a player who came up from the youth team.

Henderson's exit led to people questioning the vision and ambition of the club - selling two prized assets leaving behind a rather thin squad, they said, didn't seem like the actions of a club wanting to grow.

Bruce was quick to rectify that.

His first move was to make Ahmed Elmohammedy's loan deal permanent while Kieran Westwood was signed in a move that seemingly pushes Craig Gordon, who has one year left on his contract, towards the exit.

Craig Gardner signed for £6 million with Sebastian Larsson and David Vaughan both joining on free transfers.

All rather solid signings so far, but the real star attractions were still to come.

Sunderland beat Liverpool to the signing of starlet Connor Wickham from Ipswich, who joins South Korean Dong-Won Ji in the new-look attack and at the back, John O'Shea and Wes Brown were persuaded to swap Manchester for Wearside.

Along with the influx of new signings, the emergence of academy talent has caused excitement in the club.

Jack Colback impressed in midfield towards the end of last season, while centre-back Louis Laing has caught the eye during the team's pre-season tour of Germany.

Sunderland had one of the youngest squads in the Premier League last season, and they've now added experience.

A nice blend of flair and steel should see them improve on last season's 10th place finish.

Avoiding the perennial disastrous mid-season losing streak will also be high on their wish list.

Prediction: Seventh - this team should be good enough to better recent finishes of 13th and 10th, with added steel to their spine in Gardner, Vaughan, Brown and O'Shea, a finish of seventh should be achievable.

Key man: Stephane Sessegnon. Linking midfield and attack, the Benin international could help take the pressure off the Sunderland forwards.

Defensive lapse sees Wenger’s boys hand trophy to Henry and co

Arsenal finished their last Premier League campaign with a run of two wins in ten games, perfecting the habit of snatching draws and defeats from the jaws of victory.

With the new season just two weeks away, Arsene Wenger’s side seem to have taken that form into the Emirates Cup, conceding a late own goal to draw 1-1 against New York Red Bulls and hand the Americans the trophy in the process.

The build-up to the game wasn’t about winning the competition however, or Arsenal’s form, it was all about the return of Thierry Henry.

The Frenchman ran out on the pitch on his own and was met with a standing ovation and rapturous applause from the stands.

Rumours were abound before kick off that Henry was going to appear in an Arsenal shirt for a portion of the match and Wenger, who expressed his delight at seeing Henry again, confirmed that he had planned a ‘surprise’ for his former striker in the form of a five minute cameo.

“He was desperate for it,” he admitted. “But the referee stubbornly turned it down.

“They say great clubs never die and great players never die as well because Thierry has shown us today that he’s still top quality with his feet and with his head.”

Henry himself claimed that he was disappointed not to appear in an Arsenal shirt once more because of the "stupid rules" of the competition.

The game itself was a turgid affair with Arsenal failing to find a way to turn their dominance into a win against New York, a team Robbie Savage compared to a "pub team.”

Arsenal were forced into an early change when Jack Wilshere was taken off with a minor knock to his ankle to be replaced by youth player Benik Afobe.

The substitution was merely a precaution though, with Wenger confirming Wilshere will be out for a week.

“He’s a quick healer usually and a tough boy,” he said.

The first half was played almost exclusively in the American half as Arsenal kept hold of the ball like a greedy child in a playground.

Their usual trait of edge-of-the-box tentativeness was on show once more, though with van Persie flanked by Afobe and Gervinho, they did look somewhat more direct than at times last season.

The home side eventually took the lead after 41 minutes when Tomas Rosicky floated a free-kick into the penalty area and Robin van Persie, carrying on his tremendous goal-scoring record in 2011, leapt in front of Roy Miller to head past Frank Rost in the New York goal.

The Emirates had to wait until the 85th minute for the next goal, however. Henry slipped a precision pass through to Juan Agudelo who ran to the by-line fired a cross across goal which was duly smashed into his own net by substitute Kyle Bartley.

Wenger admitted that he was frustrated that the game was “forwards against defence” though said that he was happy with the competition as in pre-season, the “most important thing is to prepare.”

“Overall I am very happy with the two days because we were confronted with two teams who played very committed, very physical and very strong defensively and both days we played for an hour and we have not more to offer at the moment, hopefully that will change in the next two weeks.”

With his side booed off the pitch at full-time, and the futures of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas still in doubt, Wenger will be hoping that any possible moves for Phil Jagielka, Juan Mata and Christopher Samba are concluded sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile in the earlier kick off a youthful Paris Saint-Germain team swept aside Boca Juniors in a tepid 3-0 win.

It took Leonardo’s men only eight minutes to take the lead, with Jean-Eudes Maurice beating Boca goalkeeper Augustin Orion to the ball and diverting the ball into the net with an acrobatic karate kick. Half an hour later, the lead was doubled.

An unmarked Guillaume Hoarau ran in-between Boca centre-backs Gaston Sauro and Matias Caruzzo to get on the end of Maurice’s cross and head past Orion with ease.

The game was wrapped up with twelve minutes to go when Marcos Ceara curled in a delightful free-kick from 30 yards.

It swerved majestically over the wall and into the top left corner of Orion’s goal with little anyone could do about it.

Spurs sweep aside Werder Bremen to qualify for last 16

It was a momentous night for Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane; not only did they secure a spot in the knock-out stages of the Champions League, eliminating a dire Werder Bremen side in the process, but Harry Redknapp’s men achieved their first clean sheet since August.

Spurs bossed the game from the start and took the lead after just six minutes. Bremen failed to clear a simple corner and Aaron Lennon picked up the loose ball before dribbling past Dominik Schmidt and pulling a cross back for the unmarked, and in-form, Younes Kaboul to sweep home with ease.

Their lead was doubled at the end of the first half as Luka Modric filled the void left by the injured Rafael van der Vaart and latched on to the end of a Peter Crouch knockdown. The Croatian delightfully fooled Sebastian Prodl and smashed a right-footed shot past the helpless Tim Wiesse.

Despite their half time lead, Redknapp wasn’t overly impressed with his side’s first half performance.

"I thought we played within ourselves in the first half to be honest," he admitted.

"It was difficult. They filled up the midfield but every time we got it out to Gareth or Aaron it looked as though we were going to create a chance."
Spurs started the second half as they finished the first as they sought a third goal with Gareth Bale crashing a free-kick against the crossbar in the 51st minute after Prodl was booked for a foul on Lennon.

Minutes later, a penalty was awarded for a trip by Felix Kroos on Modric. Regular penalty taker Roman Pavlyuchenko handed the responsibility to Bale but the Welshman’s powerful effort was saved with ease by the busy Wiese.

"I don’t know why he [Pavlyuchenko] didn’t take the penalty," the Spurs manager said afterwards.

"He normally takes them but he gave it to Gareth. He didn’t fancy it tonight, he missed one last week."

Wiese’s opposite number, Heurelho Gomes, was rarely troubled. Marko Marin was trapped in isolation on the left wing and Sandro Wagner, so impressive in the U21 European Championship final against England in 2009, could only contribute a spectacular ‘air-kick’ as he missed the ball completely.

The home side secured the win in the 79th minute with Lennon, back to his dribbling best, added a touch of flair to proceedings before laying the ball off to Peter Crouch to score his twelfth Champions League goal in 29 appearances, rounding off a miserable night, and a torrid campaign for Thomas Schaaf's team.

Despite securing safe passage to the knockout rounds, Redknapp stated his intent to end the stage at the top of Group A.

"We’ve enjoyed it so far and hopefully if we can get a result at Twente and win the group.

"I’d like to progress as far as we can. The crowd love it, I love it, it’s great for the football club to be back in Europe again and we want it every year."

Redknapp and co. travel to Holland in two weeks time as they look to beat Rafael Benitez’s Inter Milan in the race to the summit of Group A and will be hoping Werder put in a better performance in Germany to help them succeed.

The Hangover

After one of the most disappointed derby days in Tyne-Wear history for Sunderland fans and one of the most humiliating, I thought I'd share this, I know I'm feeling a lot like this...

Wenger struck by irony as Wilshere sees red

The irony was lost on no one at the Emirates on Saturday. Arsène Wenger wrote in his programme notes about the demise of the “technique of the tackle” before his Arsenal side’s 2-1 win over Birmingham City, but it was his team that ended the game with ten men.

Jack Wilshere, who put in an otherwise outstanding performance, was sent off in the 92nd minute for an ugly one-footed tackle on Birmingham striker Nikola Zigic.

The 18-year-old slid in over the top of the ball with the studs on his left boot raised and connected with the Serbian’s right ankle.

“He mistimed his tackle, he got a red card he deserved but it was his first tackle in the game,” admitted Wenger.

“He didn’t spend his whole game trying to kick people, he played football and was one of the best players on the football pitch today.”

Birmingham City manager, Alex McLeish, claimed Zigic was lucky not to get a “badly damaged leg” as he was reminded of Martin Taylor’s challenged on Eduardo da Silva two years ago.

“You know, we’ve had to put up with the Eduardo stuff for the last couple of years, every time we play Arsenal. In the programme today the interviewer is saying he’s going to go and interview Eduardo on ‘that’ tackle. It’s scandalous,” admitted the former Rangers manager.

“Martin Taylor, as we said at the time is not a dirty player but it was a mistimed tackle and it caused terrible damage to Eduardo, but that tackle could have caused Zigic a lot of damage but we know Jack Wilshere is not a dirty player, but it does show you that players can mis-time in this hurly burly game of football.”

Wenger was happy with the result, as goals from Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh rescued the three points after Zigic had put the away side ahead, though the Frenchman admitted that his team played with nerves.

“It was never comfortable today and you could see that and feel that in the way we played.”

Spurs comeback ensures no European hangover

Raphael van der Vaart scored his first goal for Spurs as Harry Redknapp’s side came from behind to avoid another European hangover and overcome a spirited Wolves side.

Redknapp sought to avoid a repeat performance of the home defeat against Wigan but he made only two changes from the side that started in Bremen with Robbie Keane and Younes Kaboul replacing Aaron Lennon and Vedran Corluka.

The away side started well and should have had a penalty when Matt Jarvis was brought to the ground by William Gallas though referee Michael Jones dismissed the fervent appeals.

Wolves took the lead in the 45th minute as Kevin Foley, played onside by a hobbling Kaboul, crossed for Steven Fletcher to nip in front of William Gallas and tap the ball past Carlo Cudicini.

The home side equalised in the 77th minute when Raphael van der Vaart scored a penalty after Alan Hutton was felled by Stephen Ward.

The home side took the lead 10 minutes later. Ward’s attempted pass hit the referee and the loose ball was played to Aaron Lennon. His cross deflected into the path of the previously anonymous Roman Pavlyuchenko finished emphatically.

The comeback was completed in the 90th minute as Hutton raced into the box and lost control of the ball. Richard Stearman’s attempted clearance deflected off the Scot and lobbed Hahnemann to make it 3-1.

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy admitted he was disappointed with the nature the defeat but wasn‘t surprised by losing to a team in the Champions League.

“We’ve contrived to give that away. We were the architects of our own downfall by allowing them to open us up and then get the pen.

“I think it fabulous that we’ve come to Spurs and took a one goal lead and I’m disappointed we’ve lost, but they are Champions League, aren’t they?”

Harry Redknapp was happy with the way his side came back from a goal down.

“I came in at half time and I wasn’t at all disappointed at how we played, I was disappointed to be one nil down obviously, but I couldn’t come in and criticise the players.

“It was always going to be difficult…but overall it was a great result for us.”

A Wembley Double Bill

I'd never been to Wembley before. I was too young as a Sunderland fan to attend the 1998 Play Off Final and had never made an England international before. So, when I was offered a complementary ticket for the Championship final on Saturday, I was delighted to accept.

I was sat in the Cardiff end, looking out over a sea of tangerine flags bathed in sunlight. It was a spectacular sight as the contrast between the blue of Cardiff and organs of Ian Holloway's side both dominated one end of the stadium.

It was certainly an event which matched it's surroundings as Blackpool won promotion to the Premier League and, along with a free sandwich or two, a thoroughly enjoyable day.

I also made the trip to North West London to see England take on Mexico on Monday. Sat along with some old uni friends, we watched the game from Gods at the back of the stand behind the goal.

With the England fans clad in free t-shirts, the effect was impressive. If only the team could have obliged with a performance that matched.

Watching from a height, it gave me a chance to look at the positioning of players, the runs made and the tactical discipline of Fabio Capello's charges.

It is for that reason, that I was so surprised by the reaction to Steven Gerrard's performance. He had a poor first half, leaving Leighton Baines open to attacks from the right flank meaning Wayne Rooney was forced to help defend.

In the second half, the Liverpool captain was shifted to a more central role where he looked more comfortable but far from the player we know he can be. On occasion.

Two trips to Wembley in three days have left me impressed with the home of English football. Inside, the cauldron-esque shape of the stands echoes a Roman amphitheatre and the atmosphere on both occasions was highly impressive.