Sunderland host West Bromwich Albion at the Stadium of Light in the race for the Championship Play-Offs.
Victory would put Sunderland sixth ahead of the mid-afternoon kick-offs, whilst West Brom will stay fifth with a win.
Team News
Nazariy Rusyn is set to be available for Sunderland following his recovery from a groin injury.
Jewison Benette (illness) could feature but Aji Alese (thigh), Timothee Pembele, Jay Matete (both knee), Corry Evans (ACL), Dennis Cirkin (hamstring) and Elliot Embleton (ankle) remain absent
West Brom will be without Matt Phillips after he suffered a hamstring injury in their defeat to Leicester.
Kyle Bartley (hamstring) is a doubt but Okay Yokuslu (suspension) is unavailable.
Martin Kelly (knee), Adam Reach (thigh), Jed Wallace (shoulder) and Daryl Dike (Achilles) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Sunderland host West Brom at Stadium of Light in a 12:30pm GMT kick-off on Saturday 9 December, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Sunderland have won one of their last eight league meetings against West Brom (W1, D4, L3).
- West Brom have claimed six points from four of their last five visits to Sunderland (W1, D3, L1).
- Sunderland have kept clean sheets in three of their last five home matches against West Brom.
- Sunderland have conceded the opening goal in three of their last four home games (W2, L2), except for a 3-1 win over Birmingham in mid-November 2023.
- Three of West Brom’s last five away goals have been scored after half-time.
Prediction
Following Tony Mowbray’s slightly surprising departure amidst a poor run of form, Sunderland now need to just reset and produce their usual high-quality possession based play but with better end product and defending if want to start returning to winning ways.
West Brom meanwhile shouldn’t be too disappointed with their late loss to Leicester because they took the game to the Foxes in an evenly-matched contest, where clinical conversion of chances proved the difference between both teams so I would expect more of the same here.
Sunderland however should be motivated by Tony Mowbray’s departure to deliver a strong performance in front of the home crowd, but West Bromn have drawn blank just once in their last 11 games so I do expect a close battle and a draw might be a fair outcome.
Prediction: Sunderland 1-1 WBA
Result: Sunderland 2-1 WBA