Sunderland welcome Blackburn Rovers to Stadium of Light in a festive Boxing Day Clash in the Sky Bet Championship.
Victory would see Sunderland climb to seventh ahead of the 3pm kick-offs if Millwall fail to win elsewhere in the other lunchtime kick-off, whilst Blackburn will stay third with a win.
Team News
Danny Batth is ruled out for Sunderland after he suffered a calf injury during their 1-1 draw at Hull City.
Elliot Embleton is also sidelined after he suffered a serious ankle injury during that same match.
Blackburn could welcome Sam Gallagher and Tyler Morton back into contention after the pair sat out Rovers’ Carabao Cup exit against Nottingham Forest with respective knocks, as manager – Jon Dahl Tomasson rotated his squad.
Daniel Ayala (ankle) and Tyrhys Dolan (groin) are doubts but Ben Brereton Diaz and Bradley Dack feature amongst first-team regulars looking for a recall, having also been rested last time out.
Callum Brittain (medial ligament), Jack Vale (calf), Sam Barnes (knee) and Jake Batty (ankle) are ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Sunderland are unbeaten in five of their last seven league meetings against Blackburn (W3, D2, L2).
- Blackburn are winless in their last four league visits to Sunderland (D1, L3).
- Sunderland have lost each of their last two meetings against Blackburn by 2-0 results – albeit away at Ewood Park.
- Tony Mowbray’s Mackems have scored the opening goal in each of their last four matches (W2, D1, L1).
- Daniel Ayala has been red carded in each of Blackburn’s three away matches, of which two of his three bookings came after half-time.
Prediction
Currently engaged in a tight battle for the play-off positions, Sunderland know that this is a must-win match especially after a contrastable display at Hull where their first-half was poor whilst they failed to cling onto their lead after a stronger second-half effort.
Blackburn meanwhile were just outclassed by Forest following mass squad rotation for their Carabao Cup tie, underlining just how serious they’re now taking their promotion fight as evidenced by a clinical win at Norwich last weekend with excellent defending to boot.
Tony Mowbray though knows this Rovers squad well from his time in charge there in recent seasons so will know how to set Sunderland up tactically to counteract Blackburn’s attacking threats, yet Sunderland have defensively struggled with just two clean sheets since mid-October.
On that note, I am going for a tight away win if Rovers turn up and play like they did at Norwich despite having a poor away record on Wearside.
Prediction: Sunderland 1-2 Blackburn
Result: Sunderland 2-1 Blackburn