The dial is cast it is manchester united against lengend killers as they are fondly referred to reports reaching us suggest that the match is set to kick off at old trafford at 15:00BST.
Second placed manchester united are set to return to league action for the secnd of three consecutive home games, looking to keep up the pressure at the top of the table on leaders Manchester City, who are expected to already have played Tottenham Hotspur in the day's early kick - off by the time the Reds play. The black cats are struggling at the bottom so far this term coming against League Two club Exeter City in the Capital one Cup.
Form guide: United followed up last weekend's entertaining 3-2 win at Southampton with a comfortable 3-0 triumph over Ipswich Town in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday night. Sunderland exited the competition at the hands of Man City, who were 4-0 up inside 36 minutes at the Stadium of Light and eventually won 4-1. That was the Wearsiders' third successive defeat, following a 2-0 reversal at Bournemouth and a 1-0 home loss to Tottenham.
Team news: After giving first starts of the season to Antonio Valencia and Andreas Pereira - the latter scoring on his full debut - against Ipswich, Louis van Gaal could bring the likes of Matteo Darmian and Memphis back into his line-up. Marcos Rojo and Paddy McNair missed the cup tie through injury but the recovering Phil Jones gained 21 valuable minutes as a substitute. Sunderland boss Dick Advocaat also made changes in midweek, so Costel Pantilimon, Billy Jones, Jordi Gomez and Jermain Defoe could return. Younes Kaboul is available after suspension and John O'Shea is poised for another outing against his former club. Adam Matthews (ankle) is out but USA international DeAndre Yedlin is likely to start after an encouraging debut in the defeat to City.
Star man: Defoe is now in his thirties and it seemed his successful time in English football's top flight was over when he joined Major League Soccer side Toronto FC in January 2014. But a year later, the former Tottenham and West Ham United striker moved back to the Stadium of Light and he is still banging in the goals, including two so far in the league this season and a hat-trick against Exeter.
Sub-plot: Van Gaal comes up against a fellow Dutchman for the second weekend in a row and his rivalry with Advocaat goes back a long way. The Sunderland boss has only lost once to a van Gaal side in nine meetings between the pair, and replaced him as manager of the Netherlands national side in January 2002.
Will Manchester United concede or will they have the better part of their opponents, is a story for tomorrow ?
