With the international break now over attention turns back to the Premier League as Sunderland take on Tottenham at the Stadium of Light this Saturday. 

 By Paul Lipscombe

Sunderland find themselves on two points from their opening three games, but look a more solid side than the one that struggled for most of last season. A source of frustration however for the Black Cats was their failure to re-sign Fabio Borini from Liverpool last season. Although a fee was agreed over the summer, Borini opted to decline a move north.

Tottenham on the other hand have started the season off brightly with six points from the nine available. Last time out they were outplayed at home to Liverpool and lost 3-0, which once again highlighted Spurs’ inferior record against the league’s top sides. The club were relatively quiet in the transfer window with no marquee signing in particular after failing to sign Morgan Schniederlin and Danny Welbeck, who instead opted for bitter rivals Arsenal.

Going into this game, Spurs have had the better of the last few meetings against Sunderland and are unbeaten on their last four trips to the Stadium of Light, winning three of those. Last season Spurs won both meetings, with a 2-1 away win and a 5-1 home win and Sunderland will no doubt be looking to put this right this time around.

The game should be an exciting one as we expect to see a few new faces making their debuts. Sunderland may hand out debuts to new additions Ricky Alvarez and Sebastian Coates, whilst Spurs may start new centre back Federico Fazio and Benjamin Stambouli.

Last five meetings between the games

7th April 2012- Sunderland 0-0 Tottenham
29th December 2012- Sunderland 1-2 Tottenham
19th May 2013- Tottenham 1-0 Sunderland
7th December 2013- Sunderland 1-2 Tottenham
7th April 2014- Tottenham 5-1 Sunderland