Sunderland look to get back to winning ways in front of a sold out Stadium of Light on Boxing Day. Bruce will be hoping that his C Unit of Cana and Cattermole will be the big turning point in a spell of 1 point in the last 15 available.
Everton are also in a very bad run of form and need to look to their fringe players due to the amount of injuries they have at the moment.
This is a perfect time for the Black Cats to get back to a winning result as they have two games in three days.
Vital Quotes: Steve Bruce
Bruce said: ‘It’s five weeks ago since we beat Arsenal and everybody was absolutely delirious.
‘You looked at the fixtures before then with Liverpools and Tottenhams and Manchester Uniteds in there and you think, ‘This is going to be tough’.
‘You get through that and get over Arsenal and look on paper and think – but the Premier League is unforgiving and if you just make individual errors, you come two, three, four, five per cent off your maximum, you get punished by any team, and we have learnt a harsh lesson.’
Sunderland Team News:
Michael Turner will start his unbelievable four game ban this fixture as Bruce looks to Da Silva and Mensah in the centre of defence again.
Cana returns from his one game suspension to play with Cattermole. Steed Malbranque is a doubt with a dead leg but Bolo Zenden comes back into contention.
Player to watch: Lee Cattermole
Cattermole looked as though he had never been out for 6 weeks with an injured knee last weekend. He will also be relishing the return of his hard man side kick Lorik Cana as we look to get back to winning ways.
If these two combine a great performance together we should be good enough for the Merseyside men.
Everton Team News:
Phil Neville is close to fitness but this game will come to soon for the skipper. Rodwell is out for a month and grows to the very long injury list for the Toffee’s.
Anichebe,Arteta,Jagielka,Neville (all knee),Osman(foot),Yobo (hamstring)all miss tomorrows game.
Player to watch: Tim Cahill
Cahill broke Sunderland’s hearts in the FA Cup Semi Final to knock us out of Europe. He has a knack of popping up and scrapping with the corner flag nearly every time he appears against us. We need to make sure we continue his awful form this season on Saturday.
Match Facts & Stats
Steve Bruce’s side have taken one point from a possible 15.
A loss to Everton could see Sunderland slip in to the bottom half of the table for the first time this season.
Leading scorer Darren Bent has only scored two goals in his last nine games
Ref Watch:
M Atkinson
Match Prediction:
2-0
We need this win to get things back on track for the season. With Everton having massive injury problems and Sunderland being in front of a full house we have to be confident going into this clash.
Next Fixtures:
Sunderland face Blackburn away on the 28th December for the last game of 2009.
