Good afternoon and welcome to LIVE coverage of Sunderland versus Southampton. A win can take Sunderland out of the relegation zone while Southampton are looking to stop a poor run of form and distance themselves from the drop zone.

A big cross-field ball almost sets Jones away but Bertrand makes a vital interception.

We're underway.

As the home side Sunderland are the ones in red and white stripes, with Southampton in black and grey, as the sides make their way onto the pitch.

Sunderland have only won one of the last eight league meetings between these two.

Paul Tierney will be today's referee, by the way.

If he does he'll be only the second Saints player to score in his first two Premier League games for the club. The first was Henri Camara in the ill-fated 04/05 season.

With kick-off 15 minutes away, here is a reminder of the two teams in full. SUNDERLAND: Mannone, Jones, Denayer, O’Shea, Kone, Oviedo, Ndong, Gibson, Larsson, Januzaj, Defoe. Subs: Mika, Lescott, Manquillo, Khazri, Pienarr, Honeymna, Borini. SOUTHAMPTON: Forster, Cedric, Stephens, Yoshida, Bertrand, Romeu, Davis, Ward-Prowse, Redmond, Tadic, Gabbiadini. Subs: Hassan, Gardos, McQueen, Hojbjerg, Sims, Rodriguez, Long.

Southampton have lost six of their last seven league matches.

This is Southampton's last match before the EFL Cup Final, but Claude Puel has insisted that all of his focus is on today. "The final is a long way away. The priority is this game against Sunderland, and just this," he said. "After this, we will have 15 days to prepare for the final, and that is a long time. We have had many losses and it's important to have a good reaction and a good answer. We have trained very well this week. I know we are going to make a good game, with a good attitude and good play.”

Sunderland have kept back-to-back clean sheets, matching the number they kept in their first 22 league games.

Sunderland have their top striker, it's been at the other end that they've struggled mostly but there are signs of improvement.

That win in 2003 was also 1-0, and how Saints could do with a 23-goal-a-season striker right now. The hope is that Manolo Gabbiadini, who has scored in his last four games including his debut last time out, can become that figure.

Southampton won this fixture 1-0 last season thanks to a Dusan Tadic penalty, their first win at the Stadium of Light since 2003.

The win over Palace breathed life back into Sunderland's survival bid and seems to have cheered David Moyes up a bit. "We had a great result last week and the players showed exactly what they can do," he said. "It was a very good all-round team performance both in terms of scoring goals and, more importantly, keeping a clean sheet and cutting out mistakes. If we continue to play at that level we’ll give ourselves every chance of moving off the bottom of the league, but if we don’t then we’ll still be there so we need to do the right things. We have to be positive and we have to win."

Southampton meanwhile make two changes from their defeat at the hands of West Ham. Nathan Redmond and Dusan Tadic come into the side at the expense of Sofiane Boufal, who is injured, and Jay Rodriguez, who drops to the bench.

The hosts make one change to the side that demolished Crystal Palace last time out, with Darron Gibson in for the injured Jack Rodwell.