Sunderland V Newcastle - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.Fabio Borini seeks Wear-Tyne derby tonic for Sunderland's illsFabio Borini is hoping derby victory over Newcastle can belatedly kick-start Sunderland's season.The 24-year-old Italian knows only too well how much of an impact a win against the club's arch-rivals can have having fired them to a 2-1 success over the Magpies in October 2013 during his season-long loan spell on Wearside.That was the Black Cats' first win of that Barclays Premier League campaign at the ninth attempt and two years on they are in a similar position, winless after nine matches following last weekend's 1-0 defeat at West Brom.Ahead of Newcastle's visit on Sunday, Borini - who must overcome an ankle problem to keep his place in the side - said: "The three points are always important every week because that's what we need to get up the leagueThe first time I was here, it was an even worse situation."Obviously, we need to worry because we haven't won yet, but to have a derby in this situation and to have the possibility to win the derby is a great chance to take."Sam Allardyce accepted chairman Ellis Short's offer of employment earlier this month partly because he had 30 games in which to turn the season around.But while the new manager has only been in charge for one match, Borini knows the pressure is on with the season already nine matches old. "It's not early days because we have played already nine games," he said
"We now have 29 games to go but if we think it is always early days we will get to the end and we won't have many more games to recover, so the early days are finished."Newcastle ended their own wait for a first league win of the campaign with a 6-2 thrashing of Norwich last weekend but with Sunderland having triumphed in each of the last five derbies, Allardyce believes they will have a psychological advantage.The 61-year-old said: "Yes, I would say that, but I would say there's a big boost of confidence to Newcastle's team based on last week's performance against Norwich and we still haven't managed to secure our first win."But in the past, poor form hasn't counted for anything
I don't think Sunderland were in the best of form, certainly the last three times they played Newcastle and still managed to pull off a famous victory."Sebastian Coates and Jeremain Lens are back from suspension for Sunderland while Sweden midfielder Ola Toivonen is fit after a groin problem.Steve McClaren will not even allow himself to look at the Barclays Premier League table until Newcastle start winning on a regular basis.The Magpies lifted themselves off the bottom as a result of last weekend's victory over Norwich.But while a derby win at the Stadium of Light could ease Newcastle closer to safety, head coach McClaren will not be casting an eye over the standings for some time yet.He said: "I'm not even looking at the table at the present moment
It's been a head-down week, focusing on the game
We won't look at the league table until we get a few wins
There's a long way to go in the season."If the Magpies are to make the short journey back from Wearside with a positive result, they will have to break a losing streak against their neighbours which was extended to five games home and away by Jermain Defoe's lone strike on Wearside in April.However, McClaren, who arrived at St James' Park during the summer, will not look back to that game as he prepares his new-look team for a game in which form is often irrelevant.He said: "We don't do that on any other game, so we are not preparing for this any differently and why should we? Why should we put any more importance on this? That would be saying that we are not putting important on any other game."In this Premier League, every game is vital and Sunday is no different
It's a little bit special because the fans are also competing against each other."McClaren has no fresh injury concerns after defenders Paul Dummett and Massadio Haidara and midfielder Cheick Tiote emerged from the Norwich game unscathed on their return from injury.He has also been boosted by the sight of defender Kevin Mbabu and midfielder Rolando Aarons to training after hamstring and calf problems respectively, although the game could come too soon for them
Source : DSG
Source: DSG