Michael Chopra got his Sunderland career off to a dream start, coming off the bench to score a last minute winner against Spurs this afternoon.

Roy Keane was without new signing Greg Halford through injury, so Dean Whitehead started at right back, while new signings Craig Gordon, Paul McShane, Dickson Etuhu and Kieran Richardson all started. Michael Chopra had to make do with a place on the bench, while Russell Anderson and striker Roy O'Donovan missed out.

It was a tight game contested between a Sunderland side that was hoping to see their new signings gel together quickly, and a Spurs team that was trying to push into the top four after two successive fifth place finishes. Spurs pushed forward early on, but they didn't threaten Craig Gordon much, with our new central defensive pairing of Nyron Nosworthy and Paul McShane looking impressive in their first Premier League outing. Jermaine Jenas fired wide for Spurs after a Steed Malbranque cross was half cleared and fell down to the former Newcastle man on 11 minutes. Five minutes later, another Malbranque cross caught out McShane and Gordon, but it also caught out Dimitar Berbatov as Sunderland survived.

Gordon had to wait until the half hour mark until his first real save, when Berbatov teed up Robbie Keane, only for the Irish striker to see his 20 yard effort go straight into the hands of Britain's most expensive stopper. Daryl Murphy had a rare chance on 38 minutes when Antony Gardner missed Ross Wallace's left wing cross, but Murphy found his close range shot smothered by Paul Robinson at close range. The visitors continued to put the pressure on, and forced Gordon into a mistake three minutes when he came off his line, allowing Berbatov to chip the ball over him, but the ball was cleared away as the sides went into the break at 0-0.

Sunderland started brighter in the second half, with Richardson and Edwards firing in crosses from both wings, but didn't carve out any real chances, as we limited Spurs to free kicks - the first of which was curled over the bar from Berbatov, who wasn't on top form today. Both sides started to make changes, as Spurs brought on their record sisning Darren Bent, while we used up all three subs, the last of which saw the introduction of Michael Chopra for the final 20 minutes.

Spurs saw a penalty claim turned down on 76 minutes as Zokora went down under pressure from an already-booked Dean Whitehead, but referee Alan Wiley didn't see fit to award the spot kick, as Sunderland went on to miss a golden chance with two minutes of normal time remaining, when Ross Wallace's free kick caught Etuhu on the thigh, forcing a fine point-blank save from Robinson. Had Etuhu managed to control and get a shot off, then it would have been almost a certain goal.

Just as the game looked to be heading to a stalemate, Sunderland grabbed the winner, when Wallace's cross from the right found Michael Chopra in the box, and rather than lay it off to Carlos Edwards behind him, Chopra took the shot on himself and fired the ball low into the back of the net, causing the 44,000 crowd at the Stadium of Light to erupt, as we ended up winning 1-0 and going top of the league for all of two hours.

Sunderland: Gordon, Whitehead, Nosworthy, McShane, Wallace, Edwards, Etuhu, Yorke (sub 57, Miller), Richardson (sub 72, Collins), Murphy, Stokes (sub 72, Chopra). Subs: Ward, Connolly.

Spurs: Robinson, Chimbonda, Gardner, Stalteri, Kaboul, Jenas, Zokora (sub 87, Huddlestone), Malbranque, Tainio (sub 59, Bent), Berbatov (sub 77, Defoe), Keane. Subs: Cerny, Rocha.