Sunderland entertain Stoke City at the Stadium of Light in a Championship clash.
Victory would see Sunderland climb to seventh and sit just outside of the play-off spots on goal difference, whilst Stoke can go 15th with a win if they better Millwall’s result at home to Preston.
Team News
Sunderland have no fresh injury concerns following their league defeat to Hull last weekend.
Aji Alese (knock), Patrick Roberts (calf), Niall Huggins (knee), Dennis Cirkin, Bradley Dack (both hamstring) and Corry Evans (ACL) remain absent.
Stoke have no fresh injury concerns to report following their defeat to Birmingham City last weekend.
Josh Laurent (ankle) and Junior Tchamadeu (international duty) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Sunderland host Stoke at Stadium of Light on Saturday 27 January at 3pm GMT, untelevised live in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Sunderland have won one of their last five league meetings against Stoke (W1, L4).
- Stoke have won just two of their last 16 league visits to Sunderland (W2, D5, L9).
- Sunderland have kept just one clean sheet in their last four home games against Stoke, during which they scored seven goals and conceded nine goals.
- Michael Beale’s Black Cats have converted just nine of 27 shots onto target at home this month (W1, L2), of which they scored just twice – in a 2-0 win over Preston on New Year’s Day.
- Stoke have scored first in four of their last five away matches (W2, D2, L1).
Prediction
Having fallen to a frustrating defeat against Hull where their simply lacked much luck in their end product, Sunderland need to just refocus now because they need to start converting chances if wish to keep pace with their play-off rivals.
Stoke meanwhile also suffered a loss last weekend because they too had their own end product issues which cost them against Birmingham City, despite having dominated that game but do come into the game with decent momentum following two defeats in their last nine games in all competitions.
Shot conversion therefore feels destined to be the defining theme of this game and a draw might just be the fairest outcome for both teams, even if it is a dent for Sunderland’s play-off ambitions.
Prediction: Sunderland 1-1 Stoke
Result: Sunderland 3-1 Stoke
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