Charlie Daniels is in contention to return having recovered from a knee injury, but Bournemouth remain without summer signings Christian Atsu, Max Gradel and Tyrone Mings, the latter two being long-term absentees. But I won’t have spoken to either of them before the game.
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Meanwhile, Steven Fletcher, Adam Johnson and Adam Matthews, who all missed the defeat against Spurs, are rated as doubtful for this weekend’s match.
Unfortunately for Dick Advocaat’s side though, the Black Cats have really struggled over the past couple of years when taking on newly promoted sides. It’s our fairytale that must start on Saturday.
We have met Sunderland in the League Cup at Dean Court, it was in a third round replay after a 1-1 draw at Roker Park, again we failed to score against them at home and lost by 1-0 again.
“We need to put in some good training and turn it around against Sunderland on Saturday”.
He added: “I can’t say that last weekend’s starting XI is necessarily my best XI”.
However, Bournemouth have shown that they have quality attacking players that can make the difference, with Callum Wilson being tipped for an England call up after scoring four goals already this season. We know that. I don’t think we are looking at Sunderland. At this stage the league table is irrelevant.
So if we don’t want to see the possibility of us dropping into a relegation spot, we need to break the duck by beating them.
“They were unlucky to lose to Tottenham last week”.
“I played a good few games under Mel Machin, who was the manager at Bournemouth and Sean O’Driscoll was the coach, the assistant manager at Liverpool now. They will pose a big threat on Saturday”. With just two points on the board from five supposedly favourable fixtures, this game takes on extra significance – even this early in the season.
“Honestly, if you would have asked me at the time, then no I didn’t ever envisage playing against them in the Barclays Premier League, because, although teams can develop, at that time the facilities around the place were not Premier League so huge credit must go to the staff and the fans at the club”.
Defoe spent some time on loan at Bournemouth in 2000-01 and netted 18 goals in 29 league appearances for the club.
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Sunderland are now on an eight-game winless streak in the Premier League (D4 L4); the longest current run in the competition.
