Preview: S'land vs Villa

Sunderland and Aston Villa go head to head at the Stadium of Light with the Black Cats looking to pick up points to help ease them off the bottom end of the table, whilst Villa will be looking for a recovery after their 3-1 home defeat to Portsmouth last weekend.

Injuries and Suspensions

Liam Miller will miss out through suspension, Kieran Richardson (back) has returned to training but Nyron Nosworthy (hamstring) and Carlos Edwards (broken leg) are still weeks from a return.

Petrov is still not ready for return, but there are no other worries for the Villains.

O'Neill: Keane's done well

"Roy Keane has already done a good job at Sunderland. He got them promotion after they made a sticky start to the season.

"Sunderland have a knack of scoring late on in games. It is testament to their energy, enthusiasm and never-say-die spirit. All of those things you would encapsulate in a Roy Keane team.

"He quickly got a grip of things and sometimes that is not easy. Sometimes it takes a bit of time. He improved the team in the transfer market and Sunderland just took off."

Squad

Sunderland (from): Gordon, Ward, McShane, Halford, Harte, Higginbotham, Collins, Yorke, Etuhu, Leadbitter, Wallace, Whitehead, Kavanagh, O'Donovan, Jones, Chopra, Connolly, Murphy, Stokes, Cole.

Villa (from): Carson, Taylor, Sorensen, Mellberg, Laursen, Knight, Davies, Bouma, O'Halloran, Gardner, Barry, Osbourne, Reo-Coker, Moore, Carew, Berger, Harewood, Agbonlahor.

Eyefootball Premiership Predictor

Sunderland 1-2 Aston Villa

This game did have the potential for a home win, but Villa will be looking to recover from last weekend's loss and Martin O'Neill is probably the best man to do that.

Goalscorer: Gabriel Agbonlahor