Brighton make the long trip to Sunderland, where they have lost on their five visits. Meanwhile, the Black Cats will be happy to return their focus to the league after last week's shock FA Cup defeat by Port Vale.
Domestic knockout competitions have been a sorry story this season for Sunderland, who have been dumped out of both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup by League One sides. However, fans can still take comfort from their top-flight status – and hope that it could even result in qualifying for a European competition next season.
The Black Cats' win over Leeds in their most recent Premier League game took them to the ‘magical’ 40-point mark. While mathematically not yet safe, relegation is very unlikely – only three teams have ever gone down at the end of a 38-game Premier League season with 40 or more points.
Sunderland were actually one of those sides in 1996-97, when they were relegated with 40 points. But the last occasion it happened was back in 2002-03 when West Ham went down with 42 points.
It is an impressive achievement by Sunderland, given all three promoted sides have been relegated in both of the past two seasons. Furthermore, the Black Cats finished 24 points behind the Championship's top two last season and required stoppage-time winners in both their play-off semi-final and final to reach the top flight.
The club weren't afraid of overhauling their squad – they recruited 15 players over the summer, spending more than £160m, a record for a Premier League promoted club – and the gamble appears to have paid off.
Since 2009-10, only two promoted teams have earned more points at this stage of the Premier League season. But the job isn't quite done, and head coach Regis le Bris admitted that his side "didn't show enough" in their abject performance against League One bottom side Port Vale last weekend.
And after only losing five of their opening 24 matches of the season, the Black Cats have since lost five of their past nine.
Brighton remain three points short of the '40' mark – it's comfortably their lowest points tally and position at this stage for the season in four years, although given the tightness in the middle of the table, even at 14th they are still nearer the European spots than the relegation zone.
Their current relatively low standing is mainly the result of a mid-season lull, during which they won just one of 13 league games. Things have improved in recent weeks, which have included two wins and three narrow 1-0 defeats, including a somewhat unlucky loss to Arsenal 10 days ago.
In that game, Brighton didn't take their chances, and lack of goals has become a familiar story – after scoring 28 in their first nine league games, the Seagulls have scored just eight in their past nine.
But at least they haven't been conceding either – only leaders Arsenal have conceded fewer than Brighton's nine in the past 10 league games.
All of which doesn't necessarily make happy reading for neutrals, with Brighton's past 15 Premier League matches having included 30 goals, fewer than any other side in this period.
