"We are in reasonable form going into the match, but as we saw with Wigan last week we cannot afford to drop our standards at all or we will get punished. I am hopeful we can pick up some points."
"Sunderland are a good side and that is why they are up the top end of the league. But I still feel that we are capable of beating anyone in the Championship and our intention is to win the game."
"There are not many stadiums that we go to in this league that are better than ours, but Sunderland's has a bigger capacity. It is a fairly new stadium as well.
"It will be unusual because the opposition get a lift when they visit the Walkers Stadium, but this weekend I expect us to be motivated by playing at the Stadium of Light."
Levein has also indicated that the players who performed well against Cardiff in midweek will retain their places in the starting line up on merit.
"We have to pick the players in form. There were too many players who under performed on the day against Wigan so we had to change it. There were people who had been waiting patiently to start, so they did.
"I thought that we played better against Cardiff, but we will look at Saturday's game on merit. The guys that played well on Tuesday evening will play again on Saturday."
Nikos Dabizas’ suspension poses a defensive conundrum for Levein. With Dion Dublin performing well upfront for City against Cardiff, Levein may be reluctant to draft the former Villa man back in to defence.