Boss hopes for end to injury woes

The Black Cats head for Arsenal on Saturday desperate to bring an end to a run of four successive Premier League defeats in the most trying of circumstances. Arsene Wenger's men will be in no mood to surrender the ground they regained in the title race in midweek when leaders Manchester United lost at Chelsea as they attempt to further repair the damage of last weekend's shock Carling Cup final defeat by Birmingham. In addition, Bruce and his players head for the Emirates Stadium with key men once again left behind in the treatment room. The Black Cats have been without the likes of Michael Turner, Lee Cattermole, David Meyler, Fraizer Campbell and Danny Welbeck for months, and with Nedum Onuoha and Bolo Zenden having joined them on the casualty list and keeper Craig Gordon heading for Sweden to consult a specialist over his niggling knee problem on Monday, the manager's options are severely limited. Welbeck could make the squad on Saturday after returning to full training after his own knee injury and Turner, Cattermole and Campbell are expected to be available within weeks, and that would come as a welcome relief in the face of a costly run of defeats. Bruce said: "The thing you look for is that resilience to get you out of it. We have got to try to get over the next two or three games and get over March if we can. "After that, we have got eight or nine games where you look, on paper anyway, and think we have still got an outstanding chance. "The eight or nine coming back will freshen us up. They will be champing at the bit and we will need that. "It will give the whole place a lift when we get them back training again. "I don't think I have been involved in anything like now when we have got nine - and probably six of them have been out for three months or more, and some of them have been out for six months, which is cruel, it really, really is." That list of casualties has piled the pressure on Bruce's remaining fit players, and he admits that is starting to tell. A 4-2 home defeat by Chelsea was not unexpected, but the Black Cats twice squandered leads at Stoke to lose 3-2 and allowed Tottenham to come from behind to win 2-1 at the Stadium of Light before last weekend's disappointing 2-0 reverse at Everton. Bruce said: "There have been times over the last month or so when I have known I have needed to freshen it up and change it around. "That's normal. I saw [United boss] Sir Alex [Ferguson] pick the same side back-to-back for the first time in two and a half years, so it just shows you what needs to be done in this Premier League. "At the moment, we can't do that, so we have to knuckle down and get on with it and hope we can get out of this run we are in." Sunderland have slipped from sixth place to eighth as a result of their recent form, and on Saturday face a team lying in second, just four points adrift of the leaders. However, Bruce is taking some comfort from the fact that West Brom, Newcastle and Tottenham have all won at the Emirates this season. He said: "It doesn't happen very often, you have to say, at the Emirates, but teams have won there, so we have got to make sure we go and produce a performance and see where it takes us."