Sunderland v Man City preview

Keane head-to-head with Eriksson

PREDICTIONS:

Skysports.com predicts:
Sunderland 3 Man City 2

SKY BET odds:
Sunderland 11/10 Draw 9/4 Man City 2/1

One to Watch:
Kenwyne Jones

Bet on the match

Related links

Teams

• Manchester City
• Sunderland

Also see

• Sky Sports experts
• Transfer Centre
• Paper Talk

Sunderland could make it four Premier League wins in a row against Manchester City at The Stadium of Light.

After securing a 1-0 win at Aston Villa last month Roy Keane's men have gone on to beat West Ham and lowly Fulham to all but assure their top flight status for next season.

City have no worries over relegation this season, although their campaign is fizzling out fast following a blistering start under Sven Goran Eriksson that promised so much.

The Eastlands club have won just one of their last seven league outings and have found the back of the net only once in their last three league encounters.

Duo out

Black Cats boss Keane will again be without midfielders Dwight Yorke and Dickson Etuhu for the visit of Eriksson's side.

Former Manchester United striker Yorke missed last weekend's 3-1 win at Fulham with a knee problem, while Etuhu has been out for several weeks with a similar injury.

However, Keane has no fresh injury concerns, so he could well name an unchanged starting XI, although Michael Chopra will be hoping for the nod after a goal off the bench against The Cottagers.

Defensive worries

Former England boss Eriksson has defensive worries for their trip to the North East, with Nedum Onuoha ruled out for the rest of the season with a dislocated shoulder.

Onuoha had been partnering Richard Dunne at the heart of City's defence, but as he and Micah Richards are both unavailable Vedran Corluka is likely to move alongside Dunne.

Richards is likely to step closer to returning when he returns to training next week, although he is still a few weeks from first-team football.

Benjani is likely to lead the line again for Eriksson's troops, however, Darius Vassell could well be given the nod ahead of out-of-sorts Elano.