Sunderland have reasons to be positive ahead of Sunday's trip to Arsenal, according to assistant manager Eric Black. Steve Bruce's men came from two goals down to claim a draw against West Brom before the international break and return to action at the Emirates Stadium this weekend. The Gunners remain formidable on home turf but Black says his side's comeback against the Baggies last time out shows they have the mental strength to deal with difficult situations. "When you look back on the West Brom game, the response was fabulous," said Black. "Most teams would have suffered but the players responded very well. "Obviously with the two goals coming so quickly we were disappointed with a draw in the end because we had one or two chances to win the game. "Looking at the way we played and what we'd worked on, there were signs that we were more like the old Sunderland. "Gelling the squad together takes a little bit of time - it doesn't happen overnight because you're bringing in players who have been told to do different things at different clubs. "That's not an excuse, it's just the reality. The quality of the squad is superior to any other team I've been here, both mentally and in terms of the way they play. "I'm sure that, like us, Arsenal will be saying there are things they need to rectify, but there are positive signs." The Gunners sit just a point ahead of Sunderland in the Barclays Premier League having endured a mixed start to the season. The perennial top-four challengers have won two, drawn one and lost four of their opening seven games and went down 2-1 at Spurs last time out. Manager Arsene Wenger parted company with key midfielders Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri over the summer and spent big on reinforcements at the transfer deadline. The Frenchman has come in for criticism in some quarters of late - wholeheartedly rejected by Black - and Sunderland's number two says the Arsenal chief won't be swayed from his time-proven strategy of bringing young talent through the ranks. "If you look back on what Arsene has achieved at Arsenal, it's breathtaking in terms of the trophies he's won and players he's brought through," he said. "Arsene will be true his beliefs and certainly won't be swayed - he's far too intelligent a man for that. I don't have any doubt his team will return to being very competitive. "Fabregas and Nasri are two top world players who contribute massively to the outcome of games, so of course it's a massive loss. "Arsene will be working furiously to ensure he brings through the next Fabregas or Nasri. "Those players are not just waiting in the training ground to play, they need to be given experience and sometimes that can alter the way your team plays. "Arsene is an exceptionally experienced coach who will stick to his beliefs and has brought in certain types of players to enhance his system." Meanwhile, Sunderland's assistant boss says his players must be patient against a home side noted for their ability to keep possession. "We have to try and prepare the players for what they're going to experience - it's likely Arsenal will have much more possession that we will," he explained. "That's almost certain. Arsenal's average number of passes per game is around 600; their ball retention is exceptional. "We will focus on one or two areas we believe will help the players, both in terms of Arsenal's strengths and their weaknesses, which we believe all teams have." And Black believes Connor Wickham and Ji Dong-won can both step into the breach in the absence of Nicklas Bendtner, who is ineligible to play against his parent club. Dong-won has made seven substitute appearances so far, scoring once, since joining from Chunnam Dragons in the summer. Meanwhile Wickham is also yet to start a game but has featured off the bench on six occasions. "Obviously Nicklas won't be able to start but we have options there in Connor and Ji," he said. "They can both play that role. We'll be disappointed to lose Nick but there are others who are capable of stepping up." None the wiser...
none the wiser apart from black states the new players played in different positions for there old clubs that most likly means we now play them out of position
"They were told to do different things" What like pass to players wearing the same colours as you with the ultimate aim of putting the ball in the oppositions goal. I wonder what B & B are telling them?
I wish Bruce and Black would stop saying things like "Obviously Nicklas won't be able to start but we have options there in Connor and Ji". It gets my hopes up that we might actually ****ing play one of our new strikers for a full match, and go there to attack and harrass arsenal's defence, and least try for the win. Deep down, though, I know the reality is they will be thrown on in the last 20 minutes to try and turn a game that we're losing because 1 up front has, yet again, failed miserably.
Who to play up front?, he will go 4-5-1 with Sessegnon as a striker. I doubt Bruce will play Connor for 90 mins because the defeat at Bolton next week should be his last game in charge, we have players like Henderson saying he will turn it around but how? I will back Bruce every game for us to win and the players but get Sessegnon back on the right in midfield and tell the players to hold the ball and fiegn injury like other teams do, take the ball to the corner flag etc if we are drawing.
I think he refers to the style of footie he wants them to play, not the basics. I think Bruce is trying to get us to play "european" football - focusing on possession and passing. When it has worked it has been bloody good (stoke, and after the 1st 20 mins against WBA). Out of the new players, it seems that Gardner is finding it the most difficult to adapt, but that crown goes to Catts overall. Sess, Larsson and Vaughan will have the easiest time imo as their previous clubs have played like that previously (PSG, Arsenal and Blackpool respectively). When it hasnt worked it has been dire though.
Lets be honest here for a second if we had any mental strength we wouldnt have been 2 goals down after 5 mins and if we had sufficient quality in the team we would have scored a winner in the 64 minutes that came after the equaliser I mean for ****s sake it was only west brom a draw at home was in my opinion a massive failure and let down. The 2 goal comeback simply gave Bruce a reason to justify the ****e result with some kind of positivity.
life - are you basically saying there were no positives from West Brom? I saw quite a lot of positive stuff after the first 15 or so minutes and we completely dominated the game for 70+ minutes. Agreed that a draw was a poor result but get rid of the first 5 minutes and, like has been said above, we played some really good football - just that we played Bendtner on his own up top and Sessegnon hasn't looked the part sinbce the first few games this season so the hold up play is pointless when your supporting attacking midfielder isn't playing well. Stoke and West Brom had a lot of positive things to come out of them - regardless of the WBA result it was a good team performance - this was kind of echoed by the team getting applauded from the field (the boo's for the result immediately at full time whistle, I believe, were likely to be aimed at Bruce rather than the players) As for "enough quality in the team" - we all know it doesn't work like that - Man Utd couldn't beat Stoke - they certainly had enough quality in the side but they still only managed a draw - Liverpool got beaten by Stoke - again with an abundance of quality - but couldn't put the ball in the net on the day
