Sam Allardyce has revealed that both Jack Rodwell and Jermain Lens will return to the fold for Sunday’s game against Arsenal.
The duo missed Saturday’s 3-0 win over Norwich City at Carrow Road, with Rodwell suffering from illness and Lens missing out due to injury.
Duncan Watmore and Ola Toivonen replaced the duo in the matchday squad and the former had a big impact, with Watmore replacing Wahbi Khazri at the interval before scoring Sunderland’s third goal in emphatic fashion.
“Both players are back in the squad there is no doubt about that,” said Allardyce.
“Having a fully-fit squad leaves me with the problem of leaving people out and players who don’t even get on the bench, but it does give me good options in terms of selection or making substitutions.
"This is something we can do throughout the game when I feel the players on the bench can make a difference to the team and make it better.”
He added: “Sometimes you get injury problems that are that bad you think the players on the bench might not be able to influence the game as much as you wanted, but you can see by the substitute we made on Saturday that Duncan had a big influence on the game.
“Seb also produced the pass for Duncan and John O’Shea did a job in front of the back four when Norwich threw everything at us, particularly at the end when they had the two big men up top and a big centre back.
“Good options on the bench are very important.”
