Nevertheless, if the visitors' side was packed with some of the most promising young players in world football, Sunderland's had an equally youthful, if mainly British feel, including Justin Hoyte, the defender on a season's loan from Arsenal.Hoyte and Sunderland began brightly, but gradually Arsenal's cosmopolitan outfit began to take control, Sunderland's England Youth goalkeeper Ben Alnwick twice denying van Persie, the second an excellent low save to his right.They were isolated highlights in a turgid first 45 minutes and the game only came alive when Eboue, the 22-year-old Ivory Coast international, picked the ball up 30 yards from goal and thumped it into the top corner.Five minutes later Arsenal were virtually assured of their place in the next round, Van Persie shooting and scoring from the penalty spot after Hoyte was judged to have brought down Arturo Lupoli.Lupoli might have added his name to the score sheet as the Stadium of Light rapidly emptied, but instead Van Persie claimed his second of the evening with a cool finish from Sebastian Larsson's cute pass.Sunderland (4-4-2): Alnwick; Nosworthy, Collins (Smith, 48), Caldwell, Hoyte; Lawrence, Robinson (Whitehead, 75), Woods, Welsh (Murphy, 69); Stead, Le Tallec. Substitutes not used: Davis (gk), Gray.Arsenal (4-4-2): Almunia; Eboue, Cygan, Campbell, Senderos; Larsson (Stokes, 90), Muamba, Song, Owusu-Abeyie (Bendtner, 90); Van Persie, Lupoli (Cregg, 89). Substitutes not used: Poom (gk), Connolly.Referee: M Messias (S Yorkshire).. To many, he is the silent force encouraging Sir Alex Ferguson to abandon adventure for efficiency but, to Carlos Queiroz, the primary objective for Manchester United is to mount a credible challenge to Chelsea, and it is one he is convinced will arrive this season. Old Trafford's assistant manager remains the staunchest defender of United's tactical development in recent years, a style that attracted further scrutiny on Saturday when they dropped their seventh home point of the season to Tottenham and were therefore unable to capitalise on Chelsea's unexpected draw at bottom club Everton 24 hours later. Although Ferguson admitted last week that the reigning champions would have to err for United to re-enter the title race, his assistant is adamant they can do so of their own accord when Chelsea arrive at Old Trafford on 6 November.Queiroz said: "We know how many points there are between us but we also know there are a lot of games to play and in football it only takes one game to change everything."We trust ourselves and our strategy and we believe that we will be there at the end. If there is one team that has a duty, an obligation, to open up the championship it is Manchester United. We still have six points to play for with Chelsea and if we perform as we expect we will get them and the championship will open again."The most disappointing thing at the weekend was that we could not get the second goal to kill the game off against Spurs, not that Chelsea dropped points at the same time.
You don't succeed because of other teams, you only become champions by performing well and getting the points to finish top yourself."Queiroz's foresight is not shared by Gary Neville, however, who believes United must overtake Wigan, Tottenham and Charlton before entertaining thoughts of a first title in three years."At the moment, we should not be talking about catching the top team, we should be talking about the three teams directly above us," said the injured full-back. "Chelsea are in a strong position and, after 10 games, we didn't want to be talking about having to win our game in hand, and also to beat them to get back to four points There is no point talking about it, we have to do it. We have dropped a lot of points at home already and it is not good enough. It is a worry because you expect to build a championship challenge round your home form."United face Barnet in the third round of the Carling Cup tonight with Queiroz warning there can be no repeat of the complacency that produced an embarrassing home draw with Exeter City in the FA Cup last season."We have reminded the lads about Exeter," he said. "No matter what research and knowledge we have on Barnet it will be a totally different team we face in terms of motivation and attitude, and we must be ready for that.".
Graeme Souness heads for Grimsby and possible Carling Cup embarrassment tonight well aware of the pressure he is under at St James' Park. The Newcastle United manager has been lifted by Sunday's derby victory over Sunderland but knows the fans will not be happy should their team fail to win the third round tie at Blundell Park. But Souness took it all philosophically, saying yesterday: "That's the price on the ticket It's only 25 October and yes, we have been dodgy lately But I am not a muppet. I know the type of football I want us to play and we have not been able to play it because we have been without some of our most creative players."One of those creative players, Kieron Dyer, is back in the Newcastle squad for the first time since the end of August because of groin and hamstring problems.But two others, Emre (hamstring) and Scott Parker (dead leg), are doubtful and five more players - Michael Owen, Stephen Carr, Lee Bowyer, Steve Harper and Craig Moore - are already ruled out through injury.Newcastle have often been on the wrong end of cup upsets against smaller clubs but Souness knows the Carling Cup provides one of his routes into Europe and he stressed that unlike some other Premiership managers he could not be taking the competition more seriously.The Newcastle boss added: "This competition is important to us because if we can get through tomorrow night and then get a home tie we will be in business."However, Grimsby are doing well in their League and they will cause us problems There is no doubt of that. But how we do will depend on how quickly we deal with those problems and we can get to play our own game.One of the first players on the Newcastle team sheet tonight will be Peter Ramage after the young full-back's display on Sunday.Souness said: "Obviously Ramage is not used to playing at left-back, but if we don't need him elsewhere that's where he will play at Grimsby tomorrow night He is the type of guy you want to work with.
