Tony Mowbray welcomes Blackpool to the Stadium of Light on Tuesday evening, when a win for the home side could see Sunderland end the day in the playoffs.
Blackpool are on a dismal run, and defeat here could plunge them into the relegation zone if other results do not go their way.
Match preview
© Reuters
Sunderland's return to the second tier has been a largely successful one so far, with Mowbray's side sitting in seventh and pushing for a place in the playoffs.
Impressive victories at Bristol City and Reading show Sunderland's quality on their day, while narrow defeats to the likes of Norwich City and Sheffield United are nothing to be too disheartened by.
All in all, it has been an impressive start to the campaign for the Black Cats, despite having to deal with the loss of manager Alex Neil to Stoke City.
Mowbray's men have drawn their last two league games though, most recently a 0-0 stalemate at home to Preston North End on Saturday.
Despite having over 60% of the ball and numerous chances to take all three points, The Black Cats were left frustrated to only take a point from a game they dominated.
Despite that result, goals have not been hard to come by for Sunderland, with Ross Stewart, Jack Clarke, Ellis Simms and Patrick Roberts all contributing to what is looking to be a formidable front line.
© Reuters
For Blackpool though, the start of their season has been a much more testing affair, and they are currently winless in three and sit just one point above the relegation zone.
The most recent of Blackpool's defeats came at the hands of promotion hopefuls Norwich City, in a narrow 1-0 home loss.
It was a game that could have gone either way, perhaps offering some consolation to the home fans that their side can remain in the division with a bit more potency in attack.
The Seasiders have won just three games so far, two of those coming away from home against Queens Park Rangers and Huddersfield Town.
Michael Appleton also saw his side draw 3-3 at Burnley back in August too, showing that Blackpool can be a tricky opponent on the road.
The Seasiders will need to be more clinical if they are to take anything from the Stadium of Light on Tuesday though, as they have only scored two goals in their last five games.
Team News
© Reuters
Abdoullah Ba returned from injury to make the bench for Sunderland on Saturday, after the Frenchman suffered a dead leg on international duty the week before.
Elsewhere, Dan Ballard is still out of action after fracturing his foot against QPR back in August, but aside from that, Tony Mowbray has the rest of his squad to pick from.
For Blackpool, Ian Poveda should reclaim his spot on the right wing and join Shayne Lavery and Jerry Yates in attack.
In terms of injuries, Michael Appleton does have a few injury concerns going into this game on Tuesday evening.
Keshi Anderson has suffered a setback in training following a medial collateral ligament injury, but the 27-year-old is only expected to miss the next couple of weeks.
Elsewhere, Kevin Stewart, Lewis Fiorini, Jake Beesley and Rhys Williams are expected to miss out here, although Gary Madine will be pushing for a start having come off the bench against Norwich at the weekend.
Sunderland possible starting lineup:
Patterson; Gooch, O'Nien, Batth, Alese; Roberts, Evans, Neil, Clarke; Embleton, Pritchard
Blackpool possible starting lineup:
Maxwell; Lawrence-Gabriel, Thorniley, Husband; Connolly, Dougall, Patino, Thompson; Poveda, Lavery, Yates
We say: Sunderland 2-0 Blackpool
Sunderland are coming into the game on the back of two draws, but have shown enough quality in recent performances to suggest they can get back to winning ways here.
For Blackpool, they do have a resolute spirit about them, but their lack of cutting edge in attack puts a lot of pressure on their defence to keep the opposition out and Sunderland should have too much quality to be kept out here.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
