Team News: Sunderland unchanged for huge match at home to Everton

Sam Allardyce has named an unchanged Sunderland XI for tonight's match against Everton as the Black Cats try to secure their Premier League safety.

Centre-back Lamine Kone has passed a fitness test as Allardyce unsurprisingly goes with the same side that fought back to beat Chelsea 3-2 on Saturday.

It is the seventh game in a row where Allardyce has named the same XI, and victory for the home side tonight would see them move four points clear of Newcastle United and relegate their North-East rivals as well as 19th-placed Norwich City.

Visitors Everton, meanwhile, show three changes from Saturday evening's 3-1 defeat at champions Leicester City.

Ramiro Funes Mori returns from a three-match ban to take Bryan Oviedo's place in the backline, while further forward Gareth Barry and Kevin Mirallas are preferred to Aaron Lennon and Oumar Niasse.

Sunderland: Mannone; Yedlin, Kaboul, Kone, Van Aanholt; Kirchhoff, Cattermole, M'Vila; Borini, Khazri; Defoe Subs: Pickford, Jones, Larsson, Rodwell, N'Doye, O'Shea, Watmore

Everton: Robles; Pennington, Stones Funes-Mori, Baines; McCarthy, Barry; Mirallas, Barkley, Cleverley; Lukaku Subs: Howard, Gibson, Oviedo, Lennon, Niasse, Besic, Osman

Find out if Sunderland can relegate both Norwich City and Newcastle United with Sports Mole's minute-by-minute updates.