Sunderland vs Stoke prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2023-03-03 15:00.
With no midweek football to distract them, Sunderland might appreciate having a full week to dedicate themselves to ensuring their second batch of back-to-back Championship losses this season doesnât destroy their push for the promotion. Manager Tony Mowbray is refusing to panic about surprise 2-1 defeats away to Coventry and Rotherham, even if it sent his side tumbling out of the playoff positions to ninth at the end of last weekend.
Mowbray expects his side to âgo up and downâ over the remainder of the season, and pointed to those two losses as indicators of how quickly a side can gain or lose a few places in the standings. He also spoke of âa level of consistencyâ that has seen them suffer no more than two consecutive Championship defeats in 2022/23, and if they continue to improve on what was a previously ordinary home league record (W4, D4, L5) before their current three-game unbeaten run at home (W2, D1), they may be back in the top six in no time.
Standing in their way on this occasion is one of the six clubs to end the previous round with a better points per game average on the road (1.24) than at home (1.12). Stoke City continue to battle through one of their worst seasons of the last five years, and they can now focus their efforts on ensuring the nine-point gap to the relegation zone they began this round with does not shrink further after sustaining a home loss to Millwall.
There might not be any man in Staffordshire more eager to win this fixture than Stoke boss Alex Neil, who disdainfully abandoned his role as Sunderland manager in August to join Stoke and is yet to vindicate his decision with on-field success. Sunderland newspapers have not been shy in sharing the online wrath that Neil has faced from Stoke fans in recent weeks, so he can be expected to passionately demand what would be their seventh away league win against clubs above them in the standings going into this round (D1, L6).
Players to watch: The hosts need an earlier impact from last roundâs âconsolationâ goal scorer Amad Diallo, who is one of just three Sunderland players to score before half-time at home in a Championship game since October. Another contender for a late strike is Lewis Baker who posted 90th-minute goals in Stokeâs last two league victories.
Hot stat: All but two of Stokeâs last ten Championship matches saw one or neither team score on the day.