Preview: Man City v Sunderland

This game will be a good one. You heard it here first. We are going to see the kind of ass-whooping that Sunderland so richly deserve. I'm fired up after the loss to Liverpool, and I bet that the team is too. I went through all the stages of grief the next few days after the game, and ended back up at anger. As in, I'm angry and ready to whoop up on some teams.

Fact of the matter is Liverpool are not going to win all of their games. They will drop points, and we will be ready to pounce. With only one truly tough match left this season, I expect us to win out, putting all of the pressure on Liverpool and Chelsea. It's going to start today with a goal fest against a limping Sunderland.

Team news: Yaya Toure is out for a minimum of 2 weeks, although hopefully he'll come back a little sooner. We need our elephant in the middle to dominate teams.

Projected lineup: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichelis, Kolarov, Garcia, Fernandinho, Milner, Silva, Nasri, Aguero.

This is a tough lineup to pick. Sunderland will surely look to pack the midfield, as they are missing some key players up front and at the back. Their game plan worked pretty well against us in the cup final, and only some amazing goals from Yaya and Nasri gave us enough to beat them.

I would definitely pick only one striker, and let our creative smalls unlock the defense, but I suspect that Pellegrini will be feeling the pressure to go back to the 2 striker system that produced such great results. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Dzeko and Aguero start together up front.

Predicted scoreline: Man City 4 - Sunderland 1. Adam Johnson will once again do his thing, but with no real striker option up front, Sunderland will only get half-decent chances. If we can keep them out of the net on set pieces, all the shots will be going one direction.