darren bent

While a lot of the attention this week has been about the novel methods used to treat Robin van Persie's ankle, the effect of his injury will really be felt when Arsenal head north for a tricky game with Sunderland on Saturday. He's going to be a huge loss. His form for the Gunners has been nothing short of outstanding this season.  

OVER the years there have not been too many occasions when Sunderland supporters can boast to have had more players in the England squad than Arsenal. Last weekend, however, was one of those such occasions. When Darren Bent started against Brazil in Qatar to earn his fifth international cap for his country last Saturday, it was a proud moment for Wearside .  

STEVE BRUCE believes it is high time Sunderland's luck changed. The Black Cats take on Arsenal at the Stadium of Light tomorrow looking for their first win in five games. Boss Bruce has been full of praise for his side's recent performances.  

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has been delighted with Darren Bent's contribution in recent weeks - but knows the striker has not. Bent is one of the Barclays Premier League's leading goalscorers this term with eight but has not found the net in his last three club outings. Bruce expects that will rankle with the 25-year-old, and said: "A goalscorer like Darren is never happy unless he scores a goal. Other centre forwards are happy to contribute and take a big pride in making goals for other people. Darr  

We've made our predictions for the full season at TEAMtalk Towers but we know you can't wait that long to prove us wrong so we're giving you the chance to do it once a week. We'll pick out one of the big Premier League games every weekend and one of our 'experts' will attempt to predict the result and scoreline. But we'll also get a prediction from a fan of each club to find out who knows the most about the beautiful game - TEAMtalk or the fans.  

Rival team bosses are tipping Manchester City to break into the top four of the Premier League this season. A survey of all 20 Premier League managers found that 80% believe Mark Hughes' side will end the stranglehold of Manchester United, Chelsea Arsenal and Liverpool, reports The Sun . No team has managed to break this domination since Everton grabbed fourth spot in the 2004-05 season. Barclays, sponsor of the Premier League and title sponsor of the League Managers' Association, asked the 20 men i  

Marton Fulop, John Mensah and Bolo Zenden are all in contention as Sunderland prepare to host Arsenal on Saturday. Fulop will take over in goal from Craig Gordon who is facing a lengthy spell out with a broken arm, while Mensah and Gordon are back in the reckoning after recovering from calf and hip problems. Fraizer Campbell is favourite to partner Darren Bent in attack with Kenwyne Jones serving the second game of a three-match ban while defender Michael Turner is also suspended.  

WITH just one more friendly to play before Fabio Capello names his provisional 23-man squad for the World Cup finals, the clock is ticking. March's friendly, which is expected to be against African opposition, may help Capello to check on the form and fitness of some of his fringe performers, but by the time his side next takes to the field, the Italian's mind is likely to be made up. So assuming that everyone is fit and available for South Africa, who are the 23 players that are likely to be donning  

Rival team bosses are tipping Manchester City to break into the top four of the Premier League this season. A survey of all 20 Premier League managers found that 80 per cent believe Mark Hughes' side will end the stranglehold of Manchester United, Chelsea Arsenal and Liverpool, reports The Sun. No team has managed to break this domination since Everton grabbed fourth spot in the 2004-05 season. Barclays, sponsor of the Premier League and title sponsor of the League Managers' Association, asked the 2