Preview: Manchester City vs. Sunderland

Sunderland travel to Manchester City tomorrow night for a rehearsal of the Capital One Cup final, which will be played at Wembley later this month.

The Black Cats make the trip to the Etihad Stadium having transformed themselves of late from what appeared to be relegation certainties into a side who have a chance of retaining their status as a Premier League club.

Against City, they will have to make do without the services of centre-back Wes Brown, who is suspended following his red card last time out against Hull City.

Manager Gus Poyet can also not call upon Steven Fletcher, Carlos Cuellar and Kieron Westwood, all of whom are injured.

As for the home team, they go into the clash having collected just one point from their last two outings, which has resulted in them slipping to third in the table.

This match has come too soon for Sergio Aguero, Fernandinho and Samir Nasri, despite their reported returns to training following injury layoffs.

Sunderland last won away at Man City during a Division One fixture back in January 1998.

Recent form

Man City: WWWWLD

Sunderland: LWDWWL

Possible starting lineups

Man City: Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichelis, Kolarov; Navas, Milner, Toure, Silva; Dzeko, Negredo

Sunderland: Mannone; Bardsley, O'Shea, Vergini, Alonso; Bridcutt, Ki, Colback, Johnson; Borini, Altidore

Sports Mole says: 2-0