Sunderland will begin their 2016-17 Premier League campaign on Saturday travelling to the Etihad Stadium to take on Manchester City (KO 5.30pm).
The match will usher in a new era for both clubs with David Moyes and Pep Guardiola both taking charge of their first competitive games.
Moyes, 53, replaced Sam Allardyce at the helm just over two weeks ago and he’s already stamped his footprint on the team, signing Papy Dijilobodji, Paddy McNair and Donald Love.
On Friday afternoon the Sunderland manager confirmed his fourth signing with highly-rated youngster Adnan Januzaj signing from Manchester United on a season-long loan.
All four of Moyes’ new recruits will be in the squad for Saturday’s game against the Citizens, but a number of familiar faces will miss out due to injury.
Billy Jones, Lee Cattermole and Jan Kirchhoff are expected to be absent, as is Seb Larsson who is facing up to six months on the sidelines following surgery.
City will also be without a number of key players including captain Vincent Kompany who is expected to miss the opening month of the campaign.
New signings Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane are set to be unavailable with John Stones, who arrived from Everton earlier this week, expected to make his debut.
Sunderland are without a win in seven against the Citizens but they have scored eight goals in those games, with their last win coming in November 2013 when Phil Bardsley scored the only goal.
This is not the first encounter between Moyes and Guardiola with the managerial duo going head to head during the 2013-14 season in the UEFA Champions League.
The first leg saw Guardiola’s Bayern Munich net an away goal at Old Trafford against Moyes’ United, with current Red Devil Bastian Schweinsteiger cancelling out Nemanja Vidic’s opener.
And despite taking the lead in the second leg at the Allianz Arena, United were eventually undone as Mario Mandzukic, Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben struck in the second period to seal a semi-final berth.
Saturday's match will take place at 5.30pm with comprehensive coverage available on safc.com and on Twitter by following @SunderlandAFC.
Supporters can also listen live via the official website with Nick Barnes and Gary Bennett taking you through all the action.
