Sunderland V Tottenham Hotspur at Stadium of Light - Match Preview

Sunderland V Tottenham Hotspur - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.Poyet lauds inherited "new signing"Sunderland head coach Gus Poyet is hoping one of the men he inherited can be his most important "new signing".Italy international Emanuele Giaccherini was already at the Stadium of Light in October last year when Poyet was parachuted in and charged with the task of dragging the Black Cats out of desperate relegation trouble.However, the B#6.5million signing from Juventus struggled to command a place in the Uruguayan's team as he gradually plotted a route to Barclays Premier League safety.But far from sulk and look for a way out of Wearside, Giaccherini has returned and redoubled his efforts to catch the head coach's eye, and has done just that.Poyet said: "I see him as a new player, a totally new player

It was difficult for him to play with us last year for different reasons, not only because of him, me picking the team in a certain way, not finding that position for him in the team regularly."He did well for a period in November, December when he was playing wide, but he didn't score and we needed something else, and it didn't work."Then he came back in pre-season in an incredible way - he was outstanding, one of the top three players in everything

He was playing well, he was pushing for a start, and he got injured."Then he came back sooner than expected

He has played two 90 minutes with Italy, which is very difficult - only 11 players can start for Italy, a great national team, and he is one of them, which is fantastic."The idea is to use him and to make sure that if he picks himself, that will be to the benefit of the team

I am very happy with Giaccherini, he looks like a totally new player."Sunderland remain a work in progress after yet another significant rebuilding programme with nine new faces having arrived during the summer transfer window and by Poyet's own admission, gaps still to plug.In the circumstances, he is still working to forge a coherent method with his new-look team, although he insists there is nothing complicated about the bottom line.He said: "It's quite simple: the goalkeeper needs to make saves and if he saves every ball, we don't concede; and the striker, if he puts the ball in the net, we are going to win plenty of games."Those two roles are clear

They are unfair, sometimes - the goalkeeper saves every single ball, but makes one mistake and it's a bad one, and the striker, the opposite - but it's simple."The rest, they have got different responsibilities

It's a great challenge for the offensive players at this club to become the top scorer, the one who is going to score double figures and is going to be the important one week in, week out."Sebastian Coates and Ricky Alvarez will hope to make their Sunderland debuts

Liverpool defender Coates and Inter Milan midfielder Alvarez both joined the club on season-long loan deals on deadline day and are both included in the squad for the first time this weekend.Mauricio Pochettino is hoping that Tottenham's defeat to Liverpool before the international break can serve as a lesson for the next time his club come up against one of the Premier League elite.Following an impressive start to his reign at White Hart Lane, ex-Southampton boss Pochettino saw Spurs beaten 3-0 at home to a rampant Liverpool.It continues Liverpool's impressive run against Tottenham, with Brendan Rodgers' side dishing out 4-0 and 5-0 thrashings in the league last year.In fact, Spurs only managed to take one point against last season's top four sides, with Manchester City and Chelsea also recording big wins at their expense.But Pochettino, who oversaw victories over West Ham and QPR in his opening two league games, wants his players to take the positives from their latest defeat - with a tricky trip to Sunderland coming on Saturday."We need to learn and we need to improve," he said."We need to build a strong team, a confident team and a solid team

In the 90 minutes, 3-0 is impossible to put forward an excuse, but when you analyse the game we get a lot of situations to improve on."In the future this is a good game to learn from for us when we need to compete with a big team and we need to improve our game

The fans watch and see that we need to improve and the changes from the past two months."You always need time and you need passion

You also need results and I think we are heading in the right way."Tottenham new boys Federico Fazio and Benjamin Stambouli could be in line to play some part against Sunderland.Both could make their debuts at the Stadium of Light after Pochettino confirmed he expects them to travel following their arrivals towards the end of the transfer window.Roberto Soldado (neck) and Kyle Walker (hip) will definitely miss out and, while no Spurs players came back injured from international duty, Nabil Bentaleb is unlikely to feature having only returned to London late on Thursday

Source : PA

Source: PA