Aguero
Reuters

Manchester City travel to the Stadium of Light to play Sunderland on Sunday as the Citizens look to close the gap on league leaders Arsenal.

Where to Watch Live

Kick-off is set for 2:05pm GMT. Live coverage will be available on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 1 HD.

Overview

Sunderland failed to make a push on following their 2-1 win over Newcastle a couple of weeks back and are currently placed 19<sup>th in the league, four points behind 18<sup>th placed Norwich City. Gus Poyet's side will be boosted following their encouraging win over Southampton in the League Cup. However, they will have one eye on the result that City managed against Norwich and hope that their players are able to restrict a rampaging attack which brushed past the Canaries while shipping seven goals.

City have scored 12 goals in their last two games including a 5-2 battering of CSKA Moscow in the Champions League in midweek. However, they have been underwhelming away from home, winning only one game on their travels. Anything less than three points here will be catastrophic to their hopes of challenging for the Premier League title, with Arsenal or Manchester United set to drop points today.

They will be worried by their recent form at the Stadium of Light where they have lost by a similar scoreline of 1-0 in each of their last three visits to Tyneside. Manuel Pellegrini will be looking at Alvaro Negredo and Sergio Aguero to provide the firepower up front with the Argentinian currently top of the charts in terms of goals scored in the league.

What the Managers Say

Gus Poyet: "If we give it away to Manchester City we are not going to get it back. We are not going to take silly risks but we are going to try and pass the ball and keep it and essentially do better than we have done in two games recently. The most important thing for me is to see us continuing to improve when the players go on the pitch. I want to see that against Manchester City. "

Manuel Pellegrini: "We have a strong team, the minimum target is to qualify for the next round but it is not our only target. We have a strong squad, we will see who we will play in February, but I can assure you they will not be very happy to play against us."

Form Guide

Sunderland

    • Last Five(all competitions, most recent first):W L W L L
    • Last Result: Sunderland 2-1 Southampton

Manchester City

    • Last Five(all competitions, most recent first): W W W L W
    • Last Result: Manchester City 5-2 CSKA Moscow

Team Guide

Sunderland

    • Injured: N/A
    • Doubtful: N/A
    • Suspended: Lee Cattermole, Andrea Dossena

Probable Line-Up: Westwood; Bardsley, O'Shea, Brown, Colback; Johnson, Ki, Gardner, Giaccherini; Altidore, Fletcher.

Manchester City

    • Injured: Vincent Kompany (thigh), Stefan Jovetic (calf), David Silva (calf)
    • Doubtful: N/A
    • Suspended: N/A

Probable Line-Up: Pantilimon; Zabaleta, Demichelis, Lescott, Clichy; Fernandinho, Touré; Milner, Agüero, Nasri; Negdredo.

Manchester United FC