Van der Vaart back for Spurs

Tottenham v Sunderland

David Bentley made his first Barclays Premier League start for more than six months and Rafael van der Vaart recovered from a hamstring strain as Tottenham made four changes for tonight’s clash with Sunderland.

Roman Pavlyuchenko was preferred to Peter Crouch as Van der Vaart’s partner, while Tom Huddlestone was recalled as captain after being rested to the bench for Saturday’s 4-2 defeat at Bolton.

Craig Gordon made his first appearance of the season for Sunderland after recovering from a broken arm, while the visitors made five further changes, recalling Titus Bramble, Anton Ferdinand, Kieran Richardson, Boudewijn Zenden and Cristian Riveros.