It’s set to be a massively exciting occasion on Sunday afternoon as Sunderland welcome Middlesbrough back to the Premier League in the Tees-Wear derby.
Both teams head into the game and head into the season with one thing on their mind – top-flight consolidation.
Sunderland have had a summer of transition, with David Moyes coming in to replace Sam Allardyce as manager and hurriedly making a new batch of signings, whilst Middlesbrough appear to have just moved from strength to strength.
Both sides did, of course, open their Premier League campaigns last weekend. Sunderland were desperately unlucky not to take anything from the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City grabbed a late goal to see off The Black Cats in a 2-1 win. Boro, on the other hand, managed to claim a draw at home to Stoke upon their return to Premier League football.
Of course, Sunderland will be looking to get going this weekend with a big win in front of their excellent home support but it’s certain that Aitor Karanka’s men have more than enough about them to give Moyes’ boys a test.
But if Sunderland are to get a result out of the tie, they will have to do so whilst encountering plenty of injury problems.
Sebastian Larsson will miss out due to a frayed ligament in his knee, Lee Cattermole will not feature due to a groin problem and to cap Sunderland’s midfield injury woes, Jan Kirchhoff will still be sidelined through a hamstring injury. Billy Jones will also miss out through his hip injury.
Boro also have some injury concerns, but not of as much significance as Sunderland do. Daniel Ayala is set to miss out due to a lack of match fitness, whilst new signing Marten de Roon will be sidelined with a hamstring problem.
David Moyes could hand a first start to new loan signing Adnan Januzaj in front of the Sunderland faithful after his cameo introduction against City last weekend, also.
It’s still early days in the season but Moyes and his men will be hoping to get off to a good start against Boro – every point counts and Sunderland will want to impress.
