Keane and Hughes pulled no punches as players and the Black Cats boss expects a feisty game when their respective teams go into Premier League battle.

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"Sparky's teams are strong, tough and have a great will to win - they reflect the way he used to play football," said Keane.

"Maybe my personality rubs off on my team as well; I'm looking forward to a good old battle.

"Mark is proving to be a very, very good manager and City have big ambitions - but so have we. Maybe we can do better than last season, when City beat us twice."

Sunderland started this season with an opening-day defeat by Liverpool but have followed it up by beating Tottenham at White Hart Lane and winning at Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup.

The victory at the City Ground came after extra-time while City had to come through a tough UEFA Cup game against FC Midtjylland yesterday, which went to penalties.

But Keane is not expecting to see any tired legs at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.

"These are the challenges you face in football," he said. "I'd like it if we had played in Europe this week - you can't complain too much because that's a sign that you're making progress.

"City have had enough time to get back, had plenty of time to recover and prepare for Sunday, so there'll be no excuses for both sides in terms of tiredness.

"I watched City against West Ham last week and they were the dominant side, even before West Ham had a man sent off. They scored three goals, and they have some talented boys."

City did the double over Sunderland last season - and the games are still fresh in Keane's memory.

But after making significant changes to his squad this summer - with nine new signings - Keane believes Sunderland can make a better fist of things this time around.

"The defeats to City last season were hugely disappointing," said the Black Cats boss. "There were a lot of games last season where we should have drawn or could have won and we ended up losing. We hope that changes.

"The two games against City were like that - games where there was very little in it, games where we were often the better side but didn't have what it took to get over the finishing line."

Newest recruit Anton Ferdinand will miss tomorrow's game with a hamstring injury but at least four of Teemu Tainio, Pascal Chimbonda, Steed Malbranque, El-Hadji Diouf, David Healy and Djibril Cisse will be in Sunderland's team against City.

"We have a stronger team with more pace in it," said Keane. "And it was nice to get a couple of wins under our belt before we go into the City game.

"We've had a decent start but need to keep it going. It would be good to put together a winning run - we only managed to do it once last season."