Gunners' greats an inspiration to Nosworthy

Brixton-born Nosworthy was a childhood fan of the Gunners and despite spending the last two seasons in the North-East, the Sunderland stopper retains a deep affection for the club.

He spent his formative years watching the likes of Tony Adams and Martin Keown, and continues to view Arsenal's current back four as the template for defensive excellence.

So when Black Cats boss Roy Keane asked him to shuffle into central defence a couple of months ago, the 26-year-old immediately knew who to model himself upon.

"I grew up as an Arsenal supporter, so I suppose I should know a thing or two about good defending," said Nosworthy, who has proved something of a revelation after switching from his preferred right-back berth.

"When I was a youngster, Tony Adams and Lee Dixon were the players for me. Everything about them was excellent - their tackling, their positions, their passing - and Arsenal have carried that on today.

"I love watching Kolo Toure because I think he's someone that makes even the hardest parts of defending look very easy.

"I admire Kolo a great deal and I suppose if I tried to model myself on anyone, it would be him. I watch him whenever I can and I'd like to think I was starting to copy him a bit."

Thankfully, Nosworthy is yet to resort to the fisticuffs that saw Toure dismissed in Sunday's Carling Cup final, but it is not stretching the bounds of credulity too far to suggest that comparisons between the former Gillingham full-back and Arsenal's Ivory Coast international are becoming less and less tenuous.

Nosworthy had barely played a game at centre-half when Keane asked him to partner Jonny Evans in January's 1-0 win over Ipswich but, since then, he has made the position his own with a string of impressive displays.

Last week's promotion double-header with Birmingham and Derby represented his biggest test so far, and it is to the Londoner's considerable credit that he passed it with flying colours.

"The Derby game was a good test because their strikers have been playing really well recently," said Nosworthy.

"I like defending and reading situations, so that part of being a centre-half came pretty naturally to me. It's the positioning and concentration that I've had to work on the most but, if I get that right, I know I'll help us to keep clean sheets.

"I feel at home now. I'm still learning, but I'm starting to feel comfortable. We've been playing against bigger teams recently, so I've been up against better attackers, but I think I've acquitted myself well and the partnership between myself and Jonny seems to be working."

It will have to function effectively this weekend if Sunderland are to close the gap on promotion rivals West Brom.

The Baggies might have lost top spot when Birmingham beat Leeds on Tuesday night, but Tony Mowbray's men remain one of the favourites for a top-two finish.

Sunderland have burst into the automatic promotion picture themselves following a run of nine league games without defeat, but Nosworthy admits that their chances will shrink considerably if they fail to make it ten in a row at the Hawthorns.

"I think it'll go right down to the wire," he said. "But we need to come out of this weekend's game with something.

"Obviously a win is the ideal situation, but the most important thing is that we prevent West Brom from pulling three more points ahead of us. They don't have any games in hand, so whatever we do on Saturday will impact upon them in a big way.

"They had a hard game on Tuesday night (an FA Cup replay against Middlesbrough that went to penalties) so hopefully their legs will be a lot heavier and there might be a couple of niggling injuries that will be feeling a bit worse come Saturday.

"Nathan Ellington got sent off as well, so at least that's one striker out of the way. We're going into the game full of confidence, but we won't be taking anything for granted.

* Sunderland will hold a press conference later today to reveal the identity of their new kit partner for next season.