Battle For The Bench

Glenn Roeder has plenty of options this weekend as he weighs up his team selection for the game against Sunderland on Saturday.

Indeed, some senior players will be disappointed at not even making the subs' bench as Glenn now has an trio of forwards who weren't involved last week to call upon.

"Everyone has enjoyed training this week and has worked hard as they always do," he says.

"There is no doubt about it, the last three results have given them the confidence you want them to have and the self-belief again.

"That is going to be very important in these final eight games and we have to keep it going against Sunderland, we really do.

"We all know how important it is for us to stay in the Premiership this year and go on from there."

Although without a conventional striker on the bench last weekend - with Christian Dailly playing up front when he came on in the final 10 minutes at Everton - Glenn now can call upon the services of Fredi Kanoute, Paolo Di Canio, and Don Hutchison, back from suspension, illness, and injury respectively.

"Fredi is back from a three match suspension and has worked well this week," says Glenn.

"Paolo has been back and trained all week, as well as Wednesday when the boys that have been playing had a day off.

"He worked in the gym, and has been out playing all week, so Fredi and Paolo have had a good week of training.

"Hutch did well in the reserves on Wednesday evening. We ask him to play different positions but on Wednesday he was a striker, and he held the ball up well.

"He saw the clever pass when there needed to be a clever pass and played a simple pass when that was required.

"Don Hutchison is a very intelligent footballer, as we know.

"We have got good players available for the bench and I must mention Nigel Winterburn, who came back to training in the middle of this week after recovering from a minor virus.

"He feels a lot better in himself as far as the virus is concerned and he has a lot of protection on his wrist which means he can train properly.

"We decided to keep him out of the reserves last night even though he wanted to play as I feel the best way to keep him fit is through training.

"It will be a strong bench and of course the players who have played so well in these last three games will be desperate to retain their shirts."

Meanwhile, Dennis Bergkamp has been fined £7,500 by the Football Association after admitting elbowing West Ham's Lee Bowyer.

He was charged with improper conduct after the incident during the Gunners' victory over West Ham at Highbury on 19 January.

The Dutchman did not request a personal hearing, so the FA handed out its punishment after studying video evidence.