Source: Team_Talk
Bent backs Cats for top 10 spot
Darren Bent says Sunderland should have done better last season and are determined to make up for it with a top-half finish this term.[LNB] Bent plundered 25 goals during his first campaign on Wearside to put the Black Cats within touching distance of a top-10 Premier League finish.[LNB]However, a winter slump and a tame conclusion to the season saw them end up in 13th place, an improvement on the previous two but significantly short of where they felt they should have been.[LNB]But they do not intend to miss out a second time, despite a lukewarm start to the new campaign which saw them surrender a 2-0 lead to take just a point from Birmingham in their opening fixture and lost 1-0 at West Brom last Saturday.[LNB]Bent, who will test his potency against Manchester City at the Stadium of Light on Sunday, said: "It's funny because we should have finished so much higher than we did.[LNB]"Some of our performances last season - Arsenal at home, we were brilliant, Liverpool at home, Manchester United away, they were all big, big performances we put in.[LNB]"But we just let ourselves down at times with silly sending-offs and maybe a lack of concentration towards the end of games and conceding late goals.[LNB]"After what happened to us last season, we are definitely capable of a top-10 finish.[LNB]"A lot of people last season maybe got a bit carried away when we had played six games and won three out of the six.[LNB]"Everyone was saying, 'They have got to finish in the top seven, the top eight' - and that for a team that had nearly been relegated the season before was a bit much.[LNB]"But this season, we have got expectations. We want to finish in the top 10 and I am sure we can do that."[LNB]Bent could be forgiven for setting his own personal targets for the season after relaunching his career in spectacular style after last summer's £10million switch from Tottenham.[LNB]However, while his England career and another glut of goals will be high on the agenda, he insists his objectives are collective rather than individual.[LNB]Bent said: "Last season, there were a lot of personal goals to set because coming to a new area, I thought I had a point to prove.[LNB]"But for me, it is probably the same as everyone else - for Sunderland to finish in the top 10, to have a really good season and maybe have a cup run if possible.[LNB]"If we could do that, it would be a really, really good season."[LNB]Manager Steve Bruce has spent the summer trying to strengthen his squad once again and as the transfer window prepares to close, that work is continuing.[LNB]There have been several new arrivals - Titus Bramble, Cristian Riveros, Simon Mignolet, Marcos Angeleri on permanent deals and John Mensah, Nedum Onuoha, Ahmed Elmohamady and Danny Welbeck on loan - and the recruitment of former Ipswich defender Bramble has renewed a relationship which began many years ago at Portman Road.[LNB]Bramble and Bent came through the ranks at the Suffolk club, where their careers briefly overlapped, and the striker knows just how redoubtable an opponent the defender, who rebuilt his reputation at Wigan after a difficult spell at Newcastle, can be.[LNB]He said: "I remember when I was coming through the ranks at Ipswich and I first got into the first team and trained against Titus, thinking, 'wow, this guy is just phenomenal'.[LNB]"He got a big move to Newcastle and did really well there. Towards the end he had his problems, but he seems to have come back strongly.[LNB]"I think he was Wigan's Player of the Year two years in a row and he has come here and started off on fire again, so that's only going to help us."
