Sunderland v Manchester City preview: Sergio Aguero set to start

Sergio Aguero is in line to return for Manchester City's trip to Sunderland on Tuesday night after the in-form striker was rested against Aston Villa at the weekend.

Fellow frontman Kelechi Iheanacho scored a hat-trick as City cruised into the FA Cup fifth round with a 4-0 win at Villa Park on Saturday, allowing manager Manuel Pellegrini the luxury of leaving both Aguero and playmaker David Silva on the bench.

City travel to Wearside sitting second in the table, just three points behind surprise leaders Leicester City, who entertain Liverpool on the same night.

Meanwhile, Sunderland - second bottom of the Premier League - can climb out of the relegation zone if results go their way, with fellow strugglers Newcastle United taking on Everton 24 hours later.

However, Sam Allardyce's side face some tough fixtures over the course of the next month, travelling to Anfield after hosting City. And the Black Cats then welcome Manchester United to the Stadium of Light on February 13, before rounding off February with a visit to east London to face high-flying West Ham United.

Team news

New boys Lamine Kone and Wahbi Khazri could go straight into the squad for Sunderland.

Former Lorient defender Kone and midfielder Khazri, who joined the club in a £9m move from Bordeaux over the weekend, have both received international clearance and could be involved, along with striker Dame N'Doye, who is yet to make his debut after sealing his loan switch earlier this month.

Boss Allardyce, who has allowed central defender Sebastian Coates to join Sporting Lisbon on loan for the rest of the campaign, is without defender Younes Kaboul (hamstring) and midfielder Sebastian Larsson (knee) through injury.

Though Aguero is fit, the visitors are missing the likes of Eliaquim Mangala and Samir Nasri (hamstring), Vincent Kompany and Samir Nasri (calf), as well as Kevin De Bruyne, who is out for 10 weeks after injuring his knee in City's Capital One Cup semi-final win over Everton last week.

Opta stats

Sunderland have won five Premier League home games against City - only against Stoke City (6) have they won more often.

City have scored a league-high 11 goals from outside the box in the Premier League this season.

Former City player Adam Johnson has more Premier League assists than any other player in 2016 so far (3).

On average, City complete a league-high 149 passes per game in the final third of the pitch this season while Sunderland complete the lowest on average (57 per game).

Of all current Premier League teams, Sunderland have the lowest points per game record in the month of February (0.64 - P47 W6 D12 L29).

Jermain Defoe has scored 30 per cent of his shots (excl. blocked) in the Premier League this season (9/30); double his ratio in 2014/15 (15 per cent - 4/26).

Merson's prediction

I remember when Sunderland beat City 1-0 back in 2012 when Ji Dong-won went round Joe Hart to score the winner in injury time. However, it could have been 100-0 to City. It was one of the most one-sided games I've seen but Sunderland popped up with the winner.

Allardyce is in a bit of a tricky position at the moment. He's got four incredibly hard games coming up against some of the top teams in the league. They have to pick up a couple of points here or there and sweat on a few other teams down their dropping points otherwise they could be well adrift by the end of this month.

Anything is a bonus here for the Black Cats, but with Aguero, who I am backing for the first goal, rested at the weekend, I will have to side with City in a 3-1 win.

PAUL PREDICTS: 1-3 (Sky Bet, 11/1)

Betting

Sunderland are up against odds of 6/1 to beat Manchester City, who are Sky Bet's shortest-priced favourites of the night at just 4/9 for the victory. The visitors head east as 6/5 Premier League favourites, while the Black Cats, in contrast, are just 2/9 to face relegation. Sergio Aguero heads the first goalscorer betting at 11/4 as is being back to do so by all of the Soccer Saturday pundits and Jamie Redknapp in their Sky Bet tips.