Manchester City enjoyed a very fruitful start to 2016 winning five, drawing twice and only losing once in all competitions - as they now look to keep the heat on Premier League leaders Leicester City, kicking off February at the Stadium of Light. Sam Allardyce's Black Cats however didn't enjoy such form as they won two, drew once and lost twice in all competitions across the month of January.
Team news
There are no fresh injuries to report, Samir Nasri and Kevin de Bruyne are out with long-term injuries respectively, whilst Eliaquim Mangala, Vincent Kompany and Wilfried Bony are all absent but face much sooner return dates than the aforementioned midfield duo. Fabian Delph has picked up a small knock and consequently will not be travelling in the matchday squad. Serbian fullback Aleksandar Kolarov is fit for the clash after recovering from an ankle injury sustained at home to Crystal Palace.
Sunderland on the other hand could hand new boys Lamine Koné and Wahbi Khazri their debuts, arriving from FC Lorient and FC Bordeaux respectively. With regards to injuries, Sunderland are only hit with two, central defender Younes Kaboul (hamstring) and midfielder Sebastian Larsson (knee).
What they're saying
The biggest news of the January window broke in Manuel Pellegrini's pre-match press conference, the Chilean confirming he will leave Manchester City on the 30th June 2016, following this the club then released a statement stating what the footballing world had been waiting to hear, Pep Guardiola will assume control of Manchester City at the beginning of the 2016/17 campaign.
Gäel Clichy meanwhile spoke about how Saturday's introduction of youth and rotation of the squad puts them in good stead for Tuesday's trip to Sunderland.
Speaking to the club's official website, he said the game was "good" because they were able to "rotate a little bit", in order to make the team fresher ahead of their clash tomorrow.
The Frenchman also spoke about how this was a 'make-or-break' month for them with clashes against Leicester and Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham side in the league, the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 against Dynamo Kyiv and the Capital One Cup final against Liverpool this month, City face a gruelling schedule of high-profile games – four of which are away from home.
Sam Allardyce meanwhile has made stopping Sergio Agüero their number one priority on Tuesday, saying that the side have to be "capable of trying to smother and stifle" him, seeing as he's one of the world's best strikers.
"That has to be our first priority and I think our attention needs to be on the fact that he's the big difference between what Man City have been doing in terms of results."
A potential tactic has already been identified by the former West Ham boss, who admitted Sergio seems to be the man who "turns games" in City's favour consistently, so they need to avoid the same happening to them tomorrow evening. Stopping the threat he has, isolating him and thus proving his presence ineffective during the game, will go a long way to snatching an encouraging result from the fixture itself.
The verdict
If the two previous encounters this season are anything to go by, it suggests a comfortable City victory will be on the cards - seeing as they've scored eight in the last two meetings, only conceding one in the Cup and League respectively. Given the scintillating form of late from Aguero and Kelechi Iheanacho buoyed by his hat-trick at the weekend the pair will fancy their chances, even without the likes of de Bruyne, City will be too hot to handle as you'd expect the Citizens to be travelling back to Eastlands with all three points.