DW Stadium, Saturday, 1500 GMT
WIGAN ATHLETIC:
They have been the butt of jokes from football fans across the country ever since last Sunday's nine goal massacre at Tottenham.
"What time is it? It's nearly 10 past Chris Kirkland," - but Roberto Martinez has not been laughing.
The manager does not expect to have to deliver much of a team talk ahead of Steve Bruce's return to the club. A week of ridicule has stung Wigan's players who are so eager to make amends for the club record 9-1 league defeat that they wanted to play on Monday, 24 hours after their White Hart Lane humiliation.
"We're actually disappointed we didn't have a game in midweek because the players have been itching to put right the things that went wrong on Sunday," said Martinez. "I think they would have played on Monday if they could."
Martinez, unsurprisingly, is demanding an immediate reaction from the team to prove to their fans that they do care.
Having offered to refund supporters who travelled to London last weekend, Wigan's players will be eager not to short change their followers again on the pitch.
Martinez has urged supporters to get behind them from the start. "We'll be relying on them again," said the Spaniard.
"We hope that after the game everyone will once again be proud of Wigan Athletic. Last Sunday was a very hurtful day, but the reaction of the players has been very good."
Strategy: To avoid conceding eight second-half goals for a start! Picking the ball out of his net so many times in 45 minutes can't have done Kirkland, whose long list of medical complaints includes a painful back, any good whatsoever, although the keeper was Wigan's best performer and pulled off several fine saves.
Thanks to 90 minutes of madness in north London, Wigan now have the worst defensive record in the top flight but 22 of the 31 goals they've conceded have been away from home.
The fact that Wigan have only lost one of their last six league meetings with Sunderland - winning four of them - may just be the little confidence booster they need.
Yet it will be interesting to see how many changes Martinez makes. However, with a thin squad to select from, don't be surprised if most of those who started at Tottenham are given a chance to restore some lost pride.
Injury Update: Erik Edman, terrorised by Aaron Lennon at Tottenham, is expected to make way if Maynor Figueroa make an earlier-than-scheduled return from a knee injury. Figueroa, who is wanted by Sunderland manager Bruce, was an unused substitute last weekend but is close to returning to left back.
SUNDERLAND:
Rather surprisingly for a man who played a central role in helping to establish Wigan as a Premier League club, courtesy of guiding them to a highly creditable 11th-place finish last season, Bruce is unsure of the welcome that awaits him from home supporters.
"I'm not sure, I'll have to sit on the fence for that one," the Sunderland manager admits, as he prepares to return to the DW Stadium for the first time since accepting advances from Wearside in the summer.
Even the 48-year-old's verbal jousting this week with Dave Whelan over the chairman's unfair intimation that the former manager's 'dodgy signings' played a significant role in the capitulation at Tottenham have not diluted the mutual respect between the two.
"I have a lot of fond memories from my time there," Bruce added. "Arguably, I assembled my best-ever side at Wigan last season so I'm looking forward to going back, there are still a lot of people there I know and respect."
Bruce faces a problem that has proved all too common following the 1-0 victory over Arsenal last week - how to ensure that an outstanding display against one of the top flight's big guns is not followed, as it has been on several occasions this season, by his side failing to turn up against less fashionable opposition.
"We've set our standards with the performances against the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool this season," Bruce added. "But it's no use doing that if we don't the follow it up in the next game, whoever that is against."
Strategy: Bruce will tempt fate by changing a winning side as he prepares to scrap his one-game employment of a single striker and five-man midfield that proved so effective against Arsene Wenger's side. With Kenwyne Jones serving the last of a three-match suspension, Fraizer Campbell, a substitute against the Gunners, returns to the starting line-up.
The England Under-21 international, who has yet to impress since his summer move from Manchester United, will partner Darren Bent, who has been given the all clear to play after suffering hamstring trouble, up front as the manager reverts to a more adventurous 4-4-2 formation. Jordan Henderson, the teenage midfielder, is likely to be the unlucky player to drop to the bench, but that is no reflection on the youngster's outstanding recent performances.
Injury Update: Lee Cattermole is ahead of schedule on his return from knee ligament surgery, but the midfielder remains three weeks away from a comeback. Goalkeeper Craig Gordon (broken arm) is sidelined until the New Year. Michael Turner is available after serving a one-match ban, and is likely to step straight back into central defence at the expense of either Paulo Da Silva or John Mensah, despite both impressing against Arsenal.
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