Sunderland

Steve Bruce has received a lot of abuse from Sunderland fans in recent weeks.  As a fan myself, it has been embarrassing.  Steve Bruce is not a wanker, or a big-headed twat, or any of those things we’ve heard him called this past few weeks.  Far from it.  I’d go as far as saying he isn’t clueless either. 

The man player under Sir Alex Ferguson and has been a relatively consistent manager, most of his career.

His teams are not going to set the Premier League alight, and he isn’t going to win anything.  But Bruce has the ability to pick up results and keep teams safe.

At Wigan, that was fantastic. Staying in the Premier League was all that people cared about. They don’t have a big fan base, and probably never will.  It is a rugby town.

The problem with Bruce is that he was never going to be a success at Sunderland.  He isn’t the type of manager the fans need.  Supporters loved him to bits when he did exactly what we needed and kept Sunderland in the Premier League.  But now, the fans want more.

I won’t defend Bruce too much, as I have never really liked him as a manager.  I think he has a very negative style of play, and he is a little old fashioned for me.  But it is important to remember that is just my opinion.

Bruce has his philosophy and way of doing things, it is his opinion.  We need to remember he is one of only 20 men in the world who manage a Premier League team.  And he has done it for a while now.  He has earned the right to do it his way.

As a group of fans, and this goes for Blackburn fans as well, we need to think about what we are doing.  Football is a business.  Sunderland owner Ellis Short does not want a ground full of people shouting profanities.  Those people will not get to him.  In the same way they will not get to Bruce or Steve Keen.

Fans need to stop reacting to events, think about what is causing them and discuss it.  Being nice and polite about things gets you everywhere in life.  So I asked myself, just what is the problem at Sunderland?

Sunderland are not going to get into Europe. They should be sitting around eighth place, somewhere near Everton, Aston Villa and Newcastle.  They should be well away from any relegation trouble, but not really challenging for Europe.

Fans need to accept this.  That is the best they can realistically hope for.

The reason I don’t like Bruce as a manager is not because I feel he can’t do that.  It’s that I don’t think I could enjoy watching him do that.  I think that is all we really want, to enjoy watching football.

I remember last season, probably my favourite game was Sunderland versus Blackpool at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland lost, but it was a great game.  Both teams played well, but Blackpool came out with the win from an open and exciting game.  The problem at Sunderland is that kind of game is becoming very rare.

The tactics and style of play Bruce uses have not changed at all during his time at the club.  The only thing that has changed is the ability to score goals.  Sunderland still show signs of scoring, they just don’t have a player capable of finishing chances regularly.

When the team defended well and nicked a goal, everything was great: a one-all draw with Arsenal here, a last-minute win against Manchester City there. It was met with huge optimism.  But the football was not great. 

It was the same football Sunderland fans are watching now. Four slow defenders, and two very defensive central midfielders blocking everything they can.

The whole of Sunderland seems to have turned on Bruce, but why now?  He should have gone after a season; his approach has not changed since then.  Anyone who watches football for what it is can see that.

As a fan of football, as well as Sunderland, I grew up never expecting Sunderland to play in Europe or win the League.  I grew up hoping, but not expecting.  To this day that remains.

I expect Sunderland, with the Stadium of Light, a lot of support and a very rich owner, to be a safe bet in the Premier League.  Finishing eighth, ninth or tenth is fine by me and most other fans.  The reason I want to see Bruce out, and the reason I have for a long time, is simple.

I want to enjoy watching Sunderland again.

Even when the team have been in a great league position in the last two years, before the now-nnual losing streak, I couldn’t enjoy watching Sunderland play.  Yes, at the game I jumped around and celebrated like everyone else, I enjoyed that. 

But an hour after the game, looking back, I consistently found myself thinking, “Actually, that was rubbish.”

In both his seasons as manager, Steve Bruce, and we as fans, have endured long streaks of terrible performances where we couldn’t buy a win.  Yet by the end of the season, the majority of fans sang the praises of Bruce.

Why are things suddenly so different now? 

The main difference is that the annual losing streak, where things don’t go the way of Sunderland or Steve Bruce, is happening early.  In previous seasons, a good start and decent finish have disguised a poor period. 

This time that isn’t the case.  But what happens if things turn around?  If Sunderland have a good run over Christmas, and finish, say 11th in the league, does that make things alright again?

I sincerely hope not.  Sunderland need Steve Bruce to step aside.  He can’t take the club any further. He just isn’t that type of manager.  That isn’t his fault, and it certainly doesn’t warrant any abuse.

What I would love to see is a manager who can provide fans with some entertainment.  I want football I can go and enjoy.  I want to get up on a Saturday and think, “We can win this,” rather than, “I wonder if we can nick a goal and win today.”

Steve Bruce hasn’t changed, and as a result my opinion hasn’t changed.  People defended him when we went on bad runs before.  Those people need to defend him again instead of jumping on a bandwagon. 

There should be two clear camps—scrappy, defensive football and mid-table, or enjoyable and attacking football with mid-table.  No prizes for guessing which is pro-Bruce and which is not.

According to The Guardian, Steve Bruce's future at Sunderland is in doubt as the club's board will decide on his future in the next 48 hours. Here is the link to the story.

Sunderland's loss to Wigan over the weekend fueled speculation over Bruce's future as the Black Cats have now lost two of their last games, and the club is sitting in 16th place in the table as of now.

Sunderland faced a late season struggle as they had to win over Bolton and West Ham in the final weeks of the season to stay in the Premier League after losing 10 out of their last 14 games.

Bruce has been the manager of the club since 2009 when he left Wigan to become the current manager at the Stadium of Light.

Ever since that late season failure that barely saw the club survive, Bruce has been on the hot seat. Now it looks like he will not have another chance to save his job.

The former Manchester United defender was reportedly meeting with club owner Ellis Short and other chief executives at the club to discuss his future.

And along with the meeting with the board, rumors have already begun to swirl about who would be the replacement for Bruce.

The three names being rumored to replace Bruce are former Fulham and Manchester City manager Mark Hughes, former Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill and former England manager Steve McLaren. Hughes is said to be the frontrunner to take the job.

With crucial relegation battles ahead with Wolves and Blackburn in the next two weeks, Sunderland must act quickly on whether or not to replace Bruce or keep him for the time being, as the Black Cats face another relegation battle this season.

Niall Quinn is probably the most loved chairman Sunderland has ever had.   Everybody likes him, he can do no wrong, and he was the club's saviour.  But why is it that nobody has kicked up a big fuss now that he has ‘stepped down’ as chairman?

Because, it’s the right call.

Quinn seems to have finally made the decision that he can’t take the club any further as chairman, and as usual, not many fans disagree with him.  Stepping into the breach and taking the reins is owner Ellis Short. The big question is, what can he bring to the club as chairman?

First of all, he’s prepared.  For those of you thinking this is a shock, and that Short is simply plugging a gap at the last minute, you’re very wrong.  Short has been waiting for this day, and he will have had a huge influence over Quinn and his timing.

Short has spent just over three years getting to know the club, the league and football, and this season he seems to have steamrolled into action after a series of new boardroom appointments and renewed business plans. 

The American is a billionaire, and you have to be either incredibly lucky, or incredibly smart to get there.  The way he has gone about the takeover and preparations for running the club seem to suggest Short is the latter.

Sunderland's new chairman has sat patiently and learned the football way from Steve Walton and Niall Quinn, and after three years of learning, he has set up his own team and has decided it is time he took over.

Possibly the biggest advantage to having Short as chairman is his desire to be a success.  It is clear that Short is not at the club to sell it on and make a quick profit, he doesn’t need the money and he has invested too much.  He wants to be a success, he wants to have the biggest and best football club in England, and he will do anything he can to ensure that.

It’s not that Quinn doesn’t want success for the club, it’s that he has done all he can.  He was never going to develop an international marketing plan, or be ruthless with managers and staff.  Making Sunderland a stable Premier League club is all he could do, and he has done it. 

Not only has he done that, but he has stepped aside to let someone else take the club further.  That is why the fans love him.

Quinn doesn’t have a background in business or brand building, he is a football only man and that is no longer enough in football.  Short brings a vast amount of business experience to the helm, and along with his newly appointed board members Anderson and Farnan, the legal expertise of new CEO Margaret Byrne and former MP David Miliband as vice-chairman, Sunderland is fast becoming one of the most fearsome boards in the country.

With Quinn at the helm things could have been difficult, but Short has the knowledge and experience to command and rule over the board of powerful figures, something Quinn would have been less comfortable with.

Quinn has always been a popular and likeable figure in football, and as such, has many friends in the game.  He has allies in many places and as we have seen with the appointments of Bruce, Staunton and Roy Keane, he has the ability to bring in big names.

On the other hand, Short has no friends in football, and I would suggest he won’t make many. 

Good. 

Why is that an advantage you ask?  Well, he won’t appoint Steve Staunton because he’s a mate, he won’t try and persuade Roy Keane to stay when he goes off the boil, and if Steve Bruce doesn’t turn things round quickly, he will sack him. 

What does this mean for Short, what does he have that Quinn doesn’t? 

The ability to take Sunderland further.

Football is no longer just a game, it’s a business.  Quinn is not the man to run a business, Short is.  His self-appointment as chairman means the club is finally run by a hugely successful businessman. He has the resources and desire to take the team forward into a new era of success, both on and off the field.

It seems there's never been a better time to be an African soccer player. With Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o having become the highest-paid sports star on the planet following his switch to mysterious Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala last month, Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan made history when he joined UAE side Al Ain on a season-long loan last weekend.

A fee of around six million pounds—almost half the figure Sunderland paid French club Rennes to buy him outright after last summer's World Cup—makes this the most expensive loan deal ever agreed in the British game as Gyan saw his wages multiplied more than fivefold overnight.

But while the circumstances behind his departure are still causing arguments at his parent club, Al Ain and the rest of the Etisalat Pro-League are celebrating a coup that could signal the start of some major changes in football's power base.

Everyone already knows the extent of investment from the Middle East there has been in European clubs, but with the 2022 World Cup on the horizon, the focus is switching towards improving the domestic leagues in the region. And that means you can expect to see plenty more players at the height of their careers turn their backs on the tradition in favour of cash.

With a month until the new season properly begins, a list of transfer deals that have gone through so far makes interesting reading. Besides Gyan, ex-France striker David Trezeguet, 33, has signed for one season by big-spending Baniyas for a reported 1.7 million pounds after turning down approaches from Celtic among others. He joins a raft of other international stars at the club in the form of Brazilian Grafite, Chilean Luis Jimenez and Australian Lucas Neill—who West Ham fans will know doesn't come cheap.

"The deal for Trezeguet is not just for Baniyas alone—it is also for UAE football," vice-chairman Saif Khaili told the team's official website on the day the signing was announced.

Bankrolled by one of Abu Dhabi's biggest property investors, Baniyas finished runners-up last season and will enter the Asian Champions League this season. They are one of a number of teams who have invested heavily in their playing and coaching staff in the last 12 months and the trend looks set to continue.

Over in Dubai, a certain Diego Armando Maradona is preparing to make his bow as the coach of Al Wasl in the preseason Emirates Cup on Saturday. An annual salary of 3.5 million euros a year, plus the use of a personal private jet (once again financed by a wealthy benefactor—H.H Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is the owner of Emirates Airlines) certainly helped persuade the ex-Argentina boss to make the plunge, even if Maradona himself has insisted otherwise.

"We did not come here just to sunbathe," he told reporters earlier this month. However, like their new boss, Al Wasl enjoyed their glory days back in the mid 1980s when they were regular title-winners and it looks like it's going to be a long debut season for El Diego.

But the team to beat will certainly be Al Ain. Already historically the country's most successful team having become the only UAE side to have won the continental title in 2003, Gyan will join a foreign contingent that now includes Romanian Mirel Radoi and Ignacio Scocco from Argentina, plus young Ivorian striker Juma Desireh.

And having just appointed a new coach in the form of ex-Steau Bucharest boss Cosmin Olaroiu, the Romanian will know that a repeat of last season's 10th-place finish will not be tolerated.

"We are bringing in young players who are motivated to win and all the players we have signed have won competitions in the past," he told reporters this week.

"That is why we brought Gyan in because of what he has achieved in the past for his country."

Following in the footsteps of his legendary compatriot Abedi Pele, the 25-year-old joins a long list of African players to have moved to the Middle East. But while Pele joined Al Ain at the age of 34 and played two seasons in the swansong of his career, Gyan's arrival signifies that the UAE is no longer a retirement home for the stars of yesteryear.

Qatar's successful 2022 World Cup bid appears to have been the major catalyst for so much sudden investment but that's only part of the story. As part of a general ambition to turn the region into a major business and tourist hub over the next 20 years, sport is just one recreational activity playing a leading role.

Dubai has already revealed plans to bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, while the ambitious Abu Dhabi 2030 project will oversee a number of infrastructure developments "to ensure that the emirate is a modern, thriving place to live and work in the future, as its population grows to 3 million." Among those will be purpose-built Saadiyat Island - a $38 billion development that will house a number of enormous museums, with The Louvre and Guggenheim already having committed themselves to creating offshoots.

It's hoped that this will bring in around 1.5 million visitors a year to Abu Dhabi by 2015, by which time the Etisalat Pro-League could be the home of some of world football's biggest stars. Times, indeed, are a-changing.

Still recovering after last week's defeat to Chelsea and the heated departure of high-profile signing Asamoah Gyan who is now on loan at Al Ain, Sunderland got a much-needed and resounding 4-0 victory over Stoke City at the Stadium of Light.

Steve Bruce's men scored two goals in the first half-hour of the match with an own goal off Jonathan Woodgate in the 11th minute netting them a third. The first came roaring at five minutes in with Titus Bramble scoring his first goal as a Black Cat.

Craig Gardner and a Sebastian Larsson free kick drove home the last two at 28' and 58', respectively. Newcomer Nicklas Bendtner gave a strong showing with an assist on Gardner's goal and a solid, but ultimately missing, eleventh-hour goal attempt. 

Stoke City's strong start to the season was derailed after a string of costly defensive mistakes, beginning with Asmir Begovic's fumbling of the opening goal to Woodgate's own goal and Robert Huth's tripping of Stephane Sessegnon, which led to the Larsson free kick and the final goal. Peter Crouch attempted to turn the game around in the last few minutes, but failed to close on a last-attempt goal.

Steve Bruce told the BBC he is confident his Black Cats can repeat last season's top-half finish:

"I've had stick all my life, but you don't become immune to the frenzy and nothing will derail me from the job of competing around the top 10 and given my squad and a bit of time I'm confident we can do that." 

The season may be just four games old, but Steve Bruce and Sunderland's season is already on a knife edge. Having lost Asamoah Gyan to Al-Ain in one of the strangest loan moves the English Premier League has ever seen, the Black Cats have lost their focal point up front, and now face a long cold wait until the January Transfer Window opens up.

Last season, Steve Bruce guided Sunderland to 10th place in the EPL, this despite his star striker, Darren Bent, leaving for Aston Villa in January for £18 million. The sudden move by his main player left the Black Cats reeling, and it came as no surprise to see them struggle and only win three games from 12 after Bent had left.

However, when the chips were down, and at one stage Sunderland really did look like relegation contenders, Asamoah Gyan popped up with some good performances and some more important goals to stave off the drop.

Gyan had joined for a club record £13 million from Renne in September, after impressing during Ghana's ill fated run during the World Cup, and had initially struggled to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League.

Happy that the Ghanaian World Cup hero had stepped into the breach when he was needed most, Bruce happily consigned the 2010-11 season to memory and immediately set about rebuilding his team for an assault on European football in 2012.

Backed by Chairman Niall Quinn, and the money of American Ellis Short, Bruce tore into the transfer market as soon as it had opened in June, and immediately set about building his new look team around his record signing.

Ahmed Elmohamady was snapped up on a permanent deal following his impressive loan period, and was joined by fellow wide players Sebastian Larrson, James McLean and David Vaughan, as Bruce looked to inject penetration and pace into a new look 4-5-1 formation.

In came Wes Brown, John O'Shea and Craig Gardener to shore up the gaps through central midfield and central defence, while Conor Wickham, Ji Dong-Won and the much maligned Nicklas Bendtner were all brought in to back Gyan up and to offer different options.

Optimism was at an all time high at the Stadium of Light after spending almost £20 million on strengthening the squad, with many tipping Sunderland to push the established EPL teams all the way for Europe.

However, the wheels started to come off almost as soon as the Black Cats lost their first game of the season against fierce rivals Newcastle United. A shock defeat to Brighton in the Carling Cup followed, before a 0-0 draw against Swansea in Wales preceded a poor performance and home defeat to Chelsea.

The big news going into the Chelsea game, though, was the shock loan move of Asamoah Gyan to Al-Ain in the UAE after the striker forced the deal to go through. The move came as a complete shock to Bruce and Sunderland especially as the striker had just celebrated one year at the club following his £13 million transfer last summer.

The day before the Chelsea match and the subsequent transfer Bruce had actually gone public to quell the fears of Black Cats fans;

"We have had a discussion with him and he needs now to focus and get himself back on track again and be the Asamoah Gyan we know he is capable of," said the Sunderland boss.

"These things affect these players, and it has affected Asa.
 
"I had a conversation with him two days ago to say, 'Look, the window as now closed, Asa. Right, we need to see you back playing again and back the way you know you can play'."

Bruce obviously felt the matter was closed, but just 24 hours later he was back out to tell the media that Gyan had left the club on a season long loan deal. Not wanting to have a player whose mind was elsewhere, and who did not want to play for the club, Bruce reluctantly agreed to let the Ghanaian join Al-Ain. It must be said, though, that Sunderland are earning a staggering £6 million from the loan fee alone.

"I had a conversation with him 48 hours ago and he shook my hand and assured me he wanted to stay at Sunderland.

"Within a few hours things changed. It's disappointing and the whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth."

"It baffles me how he can leave the best league in the world to play in the United Arab Emirates. I'll let people make their own conclusions why."

Bruce had earlier claimed, following Gyan's impressive display against England in March, that his striker had been turned by "parasites" who wanted to earn money by engineering a transfer away from Sunderland for the player.

Speaking on the deal, Niall Quinn shed some light on the saga, "Steve Bruce, our owner and the board all found the football decision baffling, but I as chairman, with everyone's full support, decided that this deal was in the best interests of our club."

Quinn has already given Bruce his full support and has said that the £6 million loan fee will be his to do with as he wishes come the January Transfer, Window but that may come as too little too late for Black Cats fans.

As it stands, Bruce now only has three strikers to choose from at the Stadium of Light. One is an unknown entity, 20-year-old Ji Dong-Won, and in its 20 year history only two Asian players, Park Ji-Sung and Chung Yong-Lee, have flourished in the notoriously tough league, and both needed time to settle.

Though Nicklas Bendtner has played over 200 games across seven seasons, six with Arsenal and one on loan to Birmingham, he is still precocious, and plays like a player incapable of gaining experience at the highest level—often making poor decisions during the course of a game.

That leaves 18-year-old prodigy Connor Wickham. The striker joined Bruce in an £8.1 million deal that caught the rest of the EPL by surprise. The England youth international had long been courted by both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, and was also on Damian Comolli’s radar at Liverpool.

In the end he chose Sunderland, presumably because he perhaps thought first team football would come quicker in the North East than in North London.

With Gyan in his team, Bruce had the cushion of being able to carefully select when he blooded his two new recruits, with Bendtner being the link between them all. However, with Gyan leaving, all of Bruce's tactical and philosophical plans have been realistically thrown in the bin.

There is now no two ways to look at it, but Bruce now has to start with Bendtner while rotating Wickham and Won.

This is less than ideal, given the apprenticeship he had envisioned when he first signed the pair, and now both players will be allowed to make mistakes and get away with them that otherwise they would not have, as Bruce cannot drop or punish his players because he has no back up.

In the long run this could be severely detrimental to the development of both players, but Wickham in particular because he had the previous option of joining a club where all his old faults and habits would be ironed out. Now with Sunderland in their current situation, Bruce simply does not have the time or the man power to iron out the undoubted creases that will show with time.

Speaking to the Sunderland Evening Echo Bruce had this to say on the duo;

“We’ve had to look afresh at things in the wake of Asamoah leaving for the season.

“My plan was to bed the young forwards Connor and Dong-won in slowly, build up their experience and confidence and then look to get the best out of them further down the line – we have to remember that they are only 18 and 20.

“When you look at big talents in the Premier League who came into it young with big reputations, it has taken Theo Walcott to this stage to finally establish himself as a first-team regular while Gareth Bale also took a long time to settle in before we started seeing the best of him.

“It’s the same with Connor and Ji – they’re still learning – and I hadn’t wanted them too exposed too soon because inevitably if they don’t play well there’s a danger they’ll get stick from the fans and that’s going to affect them and set them back.

“Unfortunately in some ways, we are where we are in terms of perhaps having to draft them in earlier than we would have hoped, but we need everyone to get behind them and hopefully they’ll rise to the occasion.”

Sunderland's fans will have to show superhuman levels of patience as the season rolls on, not with Wickham or Won, but with the team in general. Having only taken two points from the opening four games, the Black Cats now embark upon a 15 game run, before the window opens, where they will be tested on every level.

Starting with Stoke (Sep 18),  before Norwich (Sep 26), West Brom (Oct 1), Arsenal (Oct 16), Bolton (Oct 22), Aston Villa (Oct 29), Man Utd (Nov 5), Fulham (Nov 19), Wigan (Nov 26), Wolves (Dec 3), Blackburn (Dec 10), Spurs (Dec 17), QPR (Dec 20), Everton (Dec 26), Man City (Dec 31).

At the beginning of the season, the Black Cats, with European aspirations, would have hoped to take between 20 and 25 points from the 45 on offer. That points total would have put them on target to finish in the top eight as the season turned.

However, with recent events, they could now realistically take something between 14 and 18 points, which would put them in line with a season long relegation battle. Their current run of form is abysmal, only five wins from the last 22—and losing their main striker has done nothing to ease the pressure on both Bruce and Niall Quinn.

The international break could not have come at a better time for the beleaguered Black Cats boss, and if he is to make a success of Sunderland's season he is going to have to dig deep through the depths of his playing and managing experience.

Tactically he is going to have to come up with solutions that he has never figured out before and he is going to have to bring the best out of Nicklas Bendtner, something even Arsene Wenger has failed to do.

In short, this will be a long, long season for Sunderland.

This article was previously published on Premier League Report.

You can follow me on Twitter   @WillieGannon

Sunderland and Newcastle will clash this weekend in a fierce North-East derby as both teams look to build on positive opening day results.

The Magpies were able to hold Arsenal to a goalless draw at St James’ Park in a controversial game that saw Gervinho sent off and Alex Song retrospectively banned after incidents involving Joey Barton.

Sunderland perhaps had the more impressive result coming from a goal behind to hold a rejuvenated Liverpool to a one-all draw at Anfield, with a spectacular Seb Larsson volley cancelling out an earlier Louis Suarez header.

The early arrival of the derby game has had both sets of fans watering at the mouth, with thousands of fans queuing outside the Stadium of Light to get their hands on tickets when they were released for sale little more than a month ago.

Both teams have brought in new faces as they try to improve on the mid-table obscurity that befell them both last term.

Sunderland are likely to start with a similar back-line to that seen at Anfield, although they will wait on the fitness of John O’Shea, who could be brought in to replace Kieron Richardson at left back after an unconvincing display last week. 

Newcastle are also having problems at left-back and look significantly weaker on the left after the departure of Jose Enrique to Liverpool, and wide men Ahmed El-Mohamady and Larsson will be working hard to expose Ryan Taylor down the flank.

Newcastle’s defence will not worry too much as Collocini and Stephen Taylor should have little problem dealing with the aerial threat of Sunderland’s lone front-man Asamoah Gyan, and even less problem with the 5'6" Stephanne Sessegnon, who will play ahead of the midfield to support Gyan.

The Benin international will threaten the Newcastle back-line with his ability to run with the ball and pick out the right pass, and Sunderland will be most dangerous when attacking with numbers from midfield.

Shola Ameobi will be looking to extend his record of four goals in four games against the Black Cats, although Sunderland new boy Wes Brown was in fantastic form at Liverpool last week, and the Champions League winner should have little problem dealing with Ameobi this week. 

Demba Ba will be looking to make an impression after a disappointing start in black and white, and he could use his strength and aerial ability to create opportunities for himself or others, something Sunderland will need to be weary of.

The real battle will take place in midfield, with Lee Cattermole, Chiekh Tiote, Johan Cabaya and Joey Barton all having fearsome reputations they will be looking to uphold. It is likely that fireworks could fly, and with this in mind Steve Bruce may decide to give a first start to Craig Gardner in place of youngster Jack Colback. Gardner is no stranger to derby matches, being a central part of the Birmingham team in many East Midlands derby matches. He will also provide a more attack minded approach in the centre, something many fans will deem essential when playing at home.

Both teams are likely to start the game with some caution, but Newcastle will be eager to get their noses ahead early because Sunderland are notoriously difficult to beat if they can get in at half time either ahead or with a clean sheet. In the latter stages Newcastle will be all too weary that Sunderland scored during injury time in both fixtures last season.

With a packed stadium getting behind a fresh and energetic Sunderland squad packed with new signings, Sunderland will have to go into the game as favourites.  Even though Newcastle have a far superior record in recent years, Steve Bruce seems to have finally built a Sunderland team that at least looks superior to their North-East rivals on paper, but the game is played on grass and by two o’clock on Saturday it will be a lot clearer who has the stronger team.

"Stunning. Simply stunning."

This was the call as Sunderland's Seb Larsson sent home a rocket sidekick to bring his squad level with Liverpool.

Trailing by one for much of the match, the Black Cats did just enough behind the shaky Liverpool defense and Larsson caught 18-year-old defender John Flanagan ball-watching just long enough to get open near the back post.

Larsson's effort was tremendous and keeper Pepe Reina stood no chance at getting to it as the 26-year-old Swede put tremendous pace and direction on the ball.

The equalizer was enough to hold out for the duration of the game, and Sunderland forced an uplifting 1-1 draw for their side at the expense of the Reds.

Larsson decided to call the Stadium of Light his new home after Birmingham City was relegated at the end of last campaign, and he truly couldn't have asked for a better debut with his new Premiership side.

As for Liverpool, they certainly wanted more than a share of points with their new-look squad. Luis Suarez had an opportunity to give the Reds the lead no more than five minutes into the game, but blasted the penalty attempt over the cross bar and into the crowd.

It only took him six minutes longer to finally find the net off a Charlie Adam cross, but much of the attacking ended shortly after and the Anfield giants limped away from what should have been a promising debut for a number of new stars.

The one thing that we knew would be a problem for the Reds was, in fact, their undoing today and this could be the start of things to come for the entire season.

Boss Kenny Dalglish went out and added a number of talented playmakers on the offensive end, but they have to find a way to limit opportunities from opponents if they expect to win games by reasonable scores.

Larsson's goal was tremendous though, a truly brilliant effort, and while it will live on in highlight reels early throughout the season, Liverpool hopes to get away from it as soon as possible.

Wes O'Donnell

After a busy summer in the transfer market, Sunderland and Liverpool will face each other at Anfield on the opening day of the Premier League season.

Both clubs will be looking to integrate new signings into their teams as they take respective strides towards improving on last season.

With Steven Gerrard on course to play in this weeks preseason games and Lee Cattermole at full fitness, both teams will line up with their captains in the centre of midfield.

The captains are both likely to be joined by new signings, with Craig Gardner set to take the field for Sunderland, and with Lucas spending some of the summer away with Brazil, Charlie Adam is most likely to line up alongside Gerrard.

New arrivals will populate the flanks, with both teams likely to play with two new wide men.

Sunderland will bring in new men Seb Larsson and David Vaughan to play down the left and right sides in an effort to provide for front man Asamoah Gyan, who is likely to be supported by Stephan Sessegnon, who will play just behind the Ghanaian striker.

Liverpool will have England international Stuart Downing on the left, and are likely to start with Jordan Henderson, whom they just recently signed from Sunderland, on the right.

With Luis Suarez helping Uruguay win the Copa America, he is unlikely to get a starting place on opening day, and the two wide men will target big Andy Carroll who will be supported by Dirk Kuyt.

The defensive line will be a little more familiar to the Kop, with Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel and Aurelio likely to start in front of Pepe Reina in a back line only likely to change if Dalglish is successful in bringing in a left back.

Sunderland will bring in new signings Wes Brown and John O’Shea to their defense, and they will be joined by Michael Turner and Phil Bardsley as Sunderland also search for a permanent left back.

Sunderland will go into the game on the back of a preseason trip to Germany where new faces were integrated into the squad, and the team was brought up to fitness for the start of the season as they look to prevent another injury ravaged campaign.

A heavily reinforced back line and midfield will look to make a positive start to the season for the Black Cats, but they will have their work cut out as a strong Liverpool side will be equally eager to make a solid start.

Dalglish’s men will be keen to show the title contenders that they mean business this season, and will see Sunderland as a team they should be beating comfortably at home if they are to challenge for the title.

The game at Anfield will be one of the most anticipated of the opening day as fans of both teams and neutrals alike try to gauge if Liverpool have what it takes to challenge for the title, against a Sunderland team who are desperate to break into the top eight.