SUNDERLAND will be without Craig Gordon and Michael Turner when they face Arsenal a week on Saturday, but Andy Reid and Fraizer Campbell have joined forces to insist there is no need to worry about the state of Darren Bent’s wellbeing in the build-up to the Black Cats’ next game.

Gordon broke his arm in the second half of Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Tottenham, while Turner picked up his fifth booking of the season shortly after the interval, and the pair have joined an absentee list that will also include the injured Lee Cattermole and the suspended Kenwyne Jones when Arsene Wenger brings his in-form Arsenal side to the Stadium of Light.

Bent suffered some secondhalf misery of his own at the weekend, with Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes saving his 52nd-minute spot kick in front of watching England boss Fabio Capello, who nevertheless handed the striker a surprise international recall last night.

And while Reid admits his team-mate was all but inconsolable after the game, he does not expect there to be a hangover when Bent next takes the field.

“Darren will be the same as he always is,” said the Black Cats midfielder. “You don’t have to worry about that.

He’ll be desperate to score goals in the next game, but he’s desperate to score in every game he plays, that’s why he’s one of the best strikers in the Premier League.

“There’ll be no need to lift him or anything like that.

He’s had a great start to the season, and missing one penalty does not change a thing.

“He’ll be feeling as though he wants to put it right, but anybody can miss a penalty.

There’s no blame attached to Darren at all.”

Like Bent, fellow Sunderland striker Fraizer Campbell is also a former Tottenham player, and while the latter fully expected the former to score on his eagerly-awaited return to White Hart Lane, he was also willing to accept that even the greatest strikers occasionally miss a spot kick.

“Nine times out of ten, Darren will score that,” said Campbell. “He bangs them in left, right and centre in training, but you can’t score all the time. His penaltytaking record in matches is brilliant, but anyone in the world can miss a penalty every now and then.

“It was just one of those things and one of those days.

We needed a bit of luck, but didn’t get it. Things were stacked against us, and the penalty miss sums that up.

“We threw a lot of things at their keeper but he just seemed to save everything that came his way. He denied us the chance to pull the game back level, and the penalty save stopped the momentum we were building.”

Bent’s penalty miss came just six minutes before Gordon suffered the arm injury that is likely to sideline him for more than a month.

The Scotsman, who has only just returned from a serious knee injury that forced him to miss the majority of last season, was injured in an innocuouslooking challenge with Jermain Defoe.

The Spurs striker kicked Gordon in the arm after failing to reach the ball as he threatened to break through, and while the Sunderland goalkeeper remained on the floor after the incident, he initially tried to continue.

He was forced off the field soon after though, and after travelling straight to a London hospital for exploratory X-rays, doctors were able to confirm a fracture of the shot-stopper’s forearm.

As a result, Marton Fulop will enjoy an extended run in the first team after being dropped to accommodate Gordon’s return in late August.