Bristol City vs Sunderland prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2022-08-05 14:00.
It was the same old story for Bristol City on the opening day of this Championship campaign as they took a swift lead before crumbling to a familiar 2-1 defeat against Hull. The Robins have now dropped a league-high 38 points when scoring first since the start of 2021/22 (W12, D7, L8), while that gut-wrenching winner was the tenth goal scored against Bristol City in second-half stoppage time across that period too!
Returning to Ashton Gate is perhaps a good omen for Bristol City seeing as they finished last term with four straight unbeaten home games (W1, D3). Nigel Pearson’s men were unbeaten in all of their home encounters against promoted opponents last season too (W1, D2), yet his 100% draw rate in personal clashes with Sunderland suggests this could be another tight affair.
It looked certain that Sunderland were going to win their opening Championship game, yet a late moment of brilliance from Coventry’s Viktor Gyökeres meant they were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw. Manager Alex Neil was fair in his assessment that his side gave a good account of themselves following their first promotion since 2007, with every point now contributing to their survival bid.
A major contributing factor to Sunderland’s return to this division was some rock-solid away form as they are currently unbeaten in eight straight competitive away games (W3, D5). They are also enjoying their joint-longest ever unbeaten run of away H2Hs (W1, D2), but another positive result is not a given as the Black Cats have lost two of their three all-time Championship away league openers (W1).
Players to watch: Andreas Weimann bagged 22 goals last term and picked up where he left off with Bristol City’s first of the season – his last three scoring appearances have now seen him net the match opener. As for Sunderland, Jack Clarke marked his permanent move to the club with a goal, but he has now been booked in three of his last four games when scoring or assisting.
Hot stat: Sunderland boss Alex Neil is unbeaten in nine of his ten personal H2Hs with Bristol City (W5, D4).