United will head for the Stadium of Light after Wednesday's trip to Valencia in the UEFA Champions League in what will be their third away game in a week and the Red Devils can expect another tough encounter against Steve Bruce's side.
The Black Cats' confidence has blossomed of late after last Saturday's point at Liverpool and the draw at home to Arsenal the previous week, which came via Bent's injury-time equaliser.
And the in-form striker has warned Sir Alex Ferguson's side they will not enjoy an easy day up in the North East.
Bent told SAFC TV: "As long as we take the great positives from what we did against Liverpool into the Manchester United game, I am sure we will be okay because at home against the big boys, we have been playing so, so well.
"Everyone seems to lift their game and the crowd lifts us and we seem to get the results we want to get, so if we can continue with the performance from Liverpool and take it into the United game, then it should be a good, good game.
"I can't remember the last time we lost to a so-called big team at home."
The answer to Bent's poser is that United were the last member of the Premier League's aristocracy to win at the Stadium of Light when Nani's 28th-minute strike secured a narrow 1-0 victory on 2nd May this year, although it has been something of a rare occurrence during Bruce's reign as manager.
Chelsea's 3-1 success on Wearside in August last year was followed by 1-0 wins over both Liverpool and Arsenal, while Tottenham, who finished fourth last season, lost 3-1 in April.
Bent is fully aware of the talent at United boss Ferguson's disposal even without the injured and out of form Wayne Rooney.
However, he is confident that Sunderland will more than give them a game if they perform as they have done to date on their own pitch this season.
He said: "United have got some top, top players - they have got Rooney, [Dimitar] Berbatov, who has been on fire this year, [Paul] Scholes, [Ryan] Giggs, Nani...the names are endless with the talent they have in their team.
"But at the same time, on Saturday they have got to come and play on the same pitch we have got to play on.
"The main thing is that we set our stall out and make it hard for them to beat us, and then we go from there and make sure we play our game and cause them a few problems."
England international Bent goes into the game with eight goals to his name for the new campaign, seven of them for Sunderland and five of those in the league, a return which leaves him just one behind Berbatov and Chelsea's Florent Malouda and level with Didier Drogba.
Meanwhile, Bruce has confirmed that keeper Simon Mignolet will keep his place this weekend despite Craig Gordon's return to fitness.
View the original article here
No comments:
Post a Comment