Sunderland are back in action when they face Brentford in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night

Chemsdine Talbi is set for a big opportunity to impress when Sunderland face Brentford in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Wednesday night.

The Black Cats welcome their Premier League rivals to the Stadium of Light with a place in the quarter final up for grabs, and having starred in the previous round against Hull City the Moroccan winger is expected to be in the starting XI again here. Talbi picked up his first minutes since the international break in the 0-0 draw with Leeds United from the bench, with Sunderland head coach Régis Le Bris expressing his frustration afterwards with the Europa League registration rules that have prevented him featuring in that competition.

Le Bris confirmed that Talbi was set to be involved here with a number of changes expected from Sunday's league game.

"Yeah, the list is less restrictive for the Carabao Cup so we'll have more players available," Le Bris said.

"We'll take it with a strong mindset. We want to be competitive in this competition as well. It's going to be a good opportunity for our players to get minutes."

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While significant rotation appears certain, the Sunderland head coach insisted that the club were keen to progress in the cup.

"We'll see how many changes we make," he said.

"It's important because I believe that you need experiences in strong competitions to get better so we'll take this game like this. It won't be a friendly game at all, we want to win it with the players available and to get ready for the next fixture in the Premier League against Coventry."

Sunderland are hopeful that Thomas Meunier will be able to return from a hamstring injury to get some minutes from the bench ahead of this weekend's trip to Coventry, though a final call was set to be made after training in the early part of this week. Wilson Isidor could also return to the squad, though Le Bris did hint after the Leeds United draw that his involvement for this game was less likely than Meunier's.

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The game continues a relentless schedule for the Black Cats and Le Bris said it was a perfect opportunity for players in his squad to show they are all in for the challenge ahead.

"It's a new challenge managing Premier League, Europa League, Carabao Cup, the schedule is busy," he said.

"We are new in this journey, Premier League and Europa League of course, so we still need to learn and I think I really enjoy this period. When it's tough you see who is connected with the club, with the project, and I see many players, the coaching staff, the club, we'll embrace the challenge. We know that it's tough but we'll learn and we'll get better through this challenge."

As with the fourth round, there will be no extra time and the game will go straight to penalties if level after ninety minutes. Should Sunderland progress, they will discover their quarter final opponents later on Wednesday evening when the draw is made live on Sky Sports.

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