Sunderland-Tottenham Hotspur Preview

NEIL RICHARDS,

(AP) -- LONDON (SE) - Darren Bent returns to White Hart Lane with Sunderland on Saturday eager to prove a point to Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp and catch the eye of England manager Fabio Capello.

Then Spurs striker Bent was famously criticised for missing an easy chance against Portsmouth back in January, with Redknapp famously saying "my missus could have scored that one."

No-one has ever ascertained how good Sandra Redknapp is in front of goal, but it certainly angered Bent and the throwaway line marked the beginning of the end of this time in North London.

He joined Sunderland for 10 million pounds in August, having been fined for criticising Spurs chairman Darren Levy on the social networking site Twitter for the delay over completing the move.

"It was the worst two years of my career," Bent said after leaving Spurs. "Even last year, when I was the club's top scorer, I never actually felt wanted. I didn't feel Redknapp wanted me there."

Understandably, Black Cats boss Steve Bruce this week tried to play down the significance of the fixture for his leading scorer. He told the Sunderland Echo: "We shouldn't make too much of something which was something out of nothing. Harry knows Darren's a good player - sometimes comments just get blown out of proportion."

Bruce added: "And Darren isn't the only one going back - as well as him, there's Andy Reid, Steed Malbranque and Fraizer Campbell.

"Obviously Darren is going to be the most high profile but they have all been good players; good players for Tottenham and certainly very, very decent for us."

While the likeable Bent is not the vengeful type, he has special reason for wanting to do well. England manager Capello is due to announce his squad for the prestigious friendly against Brazil in Qatar after the match and will be looking for an additional striker with West Ham's Carlton Cole having injured a hamstring in Wednesday night's win over Aston Villa.

Bent has scored eight goals in 11 games, behind only Liverpool's Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba of Chelsea in the quest for the Premier League golden boot. But he will have to do without strike partner Kenwyne Jones on Saturday as the Trinidad & Tobago forward starts a three-match ban after being sent off for violent conduct against West Ham.

Dutch midfielder Bolo Zenden is hopeful of recovering from a hamstring problem in time, but defender John Mensah (calf) is still sidelined.

Sunderland will be missing both their hard-working central midfield partnership of Lee Cattermole and Lorik Cana. Former Wigan player Cattermole is still recovering from a knee injury while captain Cana is suspended having picked up his fifth booking of the season in last week's 2-2 draw with West Ham.

Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon is still out with a sprained ankle and defender Sebastien Bassong faces up to five weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring problem. But Jonathan Woodgate is in line for a recall after recovering from a head injury and the home side will be boosted by the return of leading scorer Jermain Defoe, who is available after completing a three-match ban.

Spurs suffered a damaging 3-0 defeat at Arsenal in the North London derby last weekend and need to get back to winning ways to keep pace with the leaders having lost their last two in the Premier League.

"We now have to pick ourselves up," striker Peter Crouch told the official Tottenham website. "We've had a good season so far and we can't let that result knock us back down because we've got enough ability here to kick on again, starting against Sunderland.

"There are fixtures ahead that look winnable and if we're organised and make sure we do our jobs we can get those points to push us right back into the mix again."

Sunderland took four points out of six from Spurs last season, including a 2-1 win at White Hart Lane on Aug. 23 2008, with on-loan Djibril Cisse getting the winner. Prior to that Spurs had won their last seven in a row at home against the Black Cats.

Updated November 5, 2009