Tottenham travel north to face a Sunderland side who are equally as desperate to pick up an invaluable three points.

Stuttering starts

After four rounds of fixtures in the 2015-16 Barclays Premier League season, Sunderland find themselves bottom of the standings with two points from their opening matches.

Just one point, and four places, ahead of the Black Cats are Tottenham with three draws from their opening fixtures, to go with an opening day defeat at the hands of Manchester United

Sunderland had been hoping to build on last season's heroics under the guidance of Dick Advocaat but have found form a struggle to come by so far. Defeats to Leicester City and Norwich City respectively in their opening two fixtures had put early pressure on Advocaat after coming out of retirement early in the summer. 

More encouraging performances against Swansea City and Aston Villa in their previous two matches, however, have given Sunderland hope that their first league victory is around the corner. 

Tottenham, on the other hand, followed up a positive performance at Old Trafford with lacklustre draws at home to Stoke City and then away at Leicester. 

In a similar fashion to Sunderland, Tottenham put in a far more encouraging performance last time out at home to Everton, having a number of opportunities to score but ultimately finding the Toffees' goalkeeper, Tim Howard, on top form.

Last time out

In the last meeting between the two sides, at White Hart Lane in January, Spurs ran out 2-1 victors on the day following a John O’Shea own goal and a late Christian Eriksen strike. The match saw former Tottenham favourite, and record European goalscorer, Jermain Defoe return to his old stomping ground to make his Sunderland debut.

The match on Sunday comes almost a year to the day since Tottenham last visited the Stadium of Light in a 2-2 draw last September - a late Harry Kane own goal gave the Black Cats an unlikely point.

There will be a number of familiar faces for both sets of fans this time around in the North East. As mentioned, Defoe spent nine hugely successful years in North London with Tottenham and established himself as an England international in the process.

Danny Rose spent one year on loan at Sunderland from Tottenham, once again helping the club avoid relegation to the Championship whilst Younes Kaboul made the move up to Sunderland in the recent transfer window having been club captain at Tottenham last season.

Team News

Sunderland have Steven Fletcher and Adam Matthews both ruled out of the fixture on Sunday, whilst DeAndre Yedlin is ineligible to make his debut against parent side Tottenham following his season long loan move on deadline day. 

Fellow deadline day signing Fabio Borini, however, could be set to make his second debut for Advocaat’s men following his move from Liverpool.

Probable lineup - Pantillimon; Jones, Kaboul, O’Shea, Van Aanholt; Rodwell, Cattermole, M’Vila; Lens, Borini, Defoe

Tottenham have close to a fully fit squad as they make the long trip up North in the coming days. Eriksen is the only player to have been ruled out of the game by Pochettino in his weekly press conference whilst Mousa Dembele and Clinton N’Jie may take some part in the fixture having overcome slight injuries in recent weeks.

Son Heung-Min could be set to make his Tottenham debut following his recent £22 million move from Bayer Leverkusen, especially with fellow attacking midfielder Eriksen unlike to take part. 

Probable lineup - Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Dier, Bentaleb; Son, Mason, Chadli; Kane

Must win for both sides

Having just returned to training after the international break, both Pochettino and Advocaat will be hoping their respective sides get their first three points on the board.  Whilst one set of fans may travel home happy once the match is concluded, their counterparts may be left with a sense of dread ahead of a potentially long and tedious season. 

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