Preview: S'land vs Fulham

Roy Keane's Sunderland host Lawrie Sanchez's Fulham in the Premiership at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. Both sides are on eight points each having played 10 games, and the trip will be difficult for Fulham who are desperate to pick up points.

Anthony Stokes is also expected to be ruled out with a hamstring strain and defender Paul McShane is suspended.

Fulham are without suspended defender Paul Konchesky following his red card against Derby and Hameur Bouazza is missing with a shoulder injury.

Kasey Keller, Brian McBride, Jimmy Bullard, Philippe Christanval, Moritz Volz, Simon Elliott, Ian Pearce and Lee Cook are all still sidelined.

Chopra eager to start

"We're conceding sloppy goals. I thought against Arsenal, we deserved to get something out the game. Against Blackburn at home we deserved to get something, and on Sunday when we pulled it back to 1-1, I thought we would go on to win it (at West Ham), but it wasn't to be, and we've got to put it right on Saturday."

Roy Keane's thoughts

"I would like to be higher but when we have got a few senior players back I'm more than confident we will get enough points to have a successful season."

Sanchez: Jones will be a threat

"I saw Kenwyne Jones play a lot at Southampton. He had something about him.

"Over the last couple of games he's looked a handful. He looks like he'll be a big test for our centre-halves.

"He's shown over the last couple of games how good he is in the air and our defenders must compete with that."

Squads

Sunderland (from): Gordon, Ward, Nosworthy, Halford, Kay, Higginbotham, Collins, Harte, Etuhu, Wallace, Yorke, Miller, Leadbitter, Chopra, Jones, Stokes, Murphy, Connolly, O'Donovan.

Fulham (from): Niemi, Warner, Baird, Stefanovic, Bocanegra, Hughes, Davis, Smertin, Murphy, Seol, Davies, John, Healy, Dempsey, Kamara, Kuqi.

Eyefootball Premiership Predictor

Sunderland 2-0 Fulham

You have to wonder how on earth Fulham are going to go to Sunderland and pick up anything from this game. Sunderland aren't a bad team and are desperate to get some points - this is the perfect opportunity. The danger man is Kenwyne Jones - can Fulham's lightweight defence stop him?

Prediction: 2-0 to Sunderland

Goalscorer: Kenwyne Jones