Manchester City maintained their push for the English Premier League title by scoring a last-gasp 1-0 win over an unlucky reading side Saturday, and the defending champions will look to maintain the pressure on Manchester United with a win at Sunderland.
City closed the gap on their rivals to four points, after United could only pick up a point against Swansea, with Roberto Mancini's side currently in second having picked up 39 points from 18 games.
Sunderland, on the other hand, are in the bottom half of the table, in 15th on 19 points. Martin O'Neill's men picked up a much-needed victory over fellow strugglers Southampton at the weekend, and Sunderland will look to salvage at least a point against the resolute champions.
City do not have great memories at the Stadium of Light, having lost 1-0 twice in the past two seasons, and O'Neill wants a hat-trick of victories.
"It was a terrific effort last season -- the spirit was fantastic and there's still plenty of that here, as we showed at the weekend," he said. "We'll need spirit and plenty more besides to prevent Manchester City from getting on the scoresheet.
"They are a top-quality team who won the title last season and will be there or thereabouts again. City have some great players at their disposal and we'll have to utilise everything we have here to try and eke out a result.
"We did well to win here last season and then played probably our best football of the season in the 3-3 draw down there. That said, they beat us convincingly early in the season after getting an early goal. That settled them down. They played very well that day and are capable of dominating for long periods."
City lost to two last-minute goals in the past two seasons at Sunderland, and Mancini, while admitting it would be another tough outing, is expecting to come away with all three points. "Always in the last minute," Mancini said. "It's better that we don't think about what happened last time.
"Both games up there we've played very well and had lots of chances to score. But we lost both because we were trying to win in the last second. We were attacking and conceded on two counter attacks.
"That is our mentality. If we can play like we did last year we have a big chance, but we know it will be a tough game."
Adam Johnson is a doubt to take on his former side, while Sebastian Larsson faces a late fitness test. O'Neil is hopeful both players will be available for selection.
Skipper Vincent Kompany should return to the starting lineup, while Gael Clichy, Mario Balotelli and Aleksandr Kolarov are also expected to feature after missing the game against Reading. Samir Nasri, though, remains, ruled out.
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Expected lineups: Sunderland: Mignolet; Cuellar, Colback, O'Shea, Bardsley; Larsson, Gardner, Johnson, McClean, Sessegnon; Fletcher.
Manchester City: Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy; Garcia, Barry, Toure; Silva, Aguero, Tevez.
Prediction: 2-0 to City
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