TONY MOWBRAY has assured Elliot Embleton that he will get plenty of chances to impress in Sunderland’s first team this season.

Embleton’s last start came in the win at Stoke in the middle of last month, and he has found himself on the substitutes’ bench for each of the last four matches.

He was introduced in the first half of Wednesday’s 3-0 win at Reading, replacing the injured Ellis Simms, and made an immediate impact as he set up both of Patrick Roberts’ goals before the break.

The 23-year-old finds himself facing increased competition in Sunderland’s attacking-midfield area, with Amad Diallo, Jewison Bennette and Edouard Michut all having signed in the final week of the transfer window, but Mowbray is well aware of his talents and is confident he will get opportunities to force his way into the starting side.

“I talk to Elliot a lot, and he’s a lad with lots of talent,” said the Black Cats boss, who has remained in the south with his squad this week as they prepare for Saturday’s game at Watford. “He needs to know the manager has faith in talent and wants to play talented footballers.

“Yet football is a balance. I can’t just stick six or seven of them in the team and we get beat 5-4 every week. Football’s a balance. I go back to soldiers and artists, and you can only put so many artists in the team, especially away from a home at a team that were second or third in the league like Reading were. I like good footballers and they’ll get plenty of opportunities to play.”

There will almost certainly be changes to Sunderland’s starting line-up this weekend, with the Black Cats facing a quick turnaround ahead of their second game in the space of less than four days.

Simms is almost certain to miss out at Vicarage Road, with the Black Cats’ medical staff still assessing the extent of toe injury that forced him off against Reading.

And Mowbray has revealed that a number of other members of his squad are also nursing aches and pains in the wake of their endeavours on Wednesday night.

“There’s plenty of aches and pains in the dressing room,” he said. “A lot of people have cramp and we could have taken another two or three off the pitch. Football is hard, and they’ve got to go again in a couple of days’ time.”