Sunderland vs Swansea prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2023-01-13 15:00.
A little slice of history was created in Sunderland’s FA Cup win over Shrewsbury last weekend when Chris Rigg became the club’s youngest ever starter at just 15 years of age. Whilst worthy of celebration, that alone highlights the major selection headaches that manager Tony Mowbray has been facing, recently exacerbated by the recall of second-leading goalscorer Ellis Simms (seven) to Everton alongside some damaging injuries.
Despite those concerns, Sunderland continue to march through the Championship season positively and productively, with their four-game unbeaten run (W2, D2) ahead of this round placing them within striking distance of the top six. The task now is to correct some unwanted history, by winning back-to-back Championship home games for the first time since ascending to the Premier League in the mid-2000s, which would also defy many years of troubles against Swansea (W2, D8, L9 from the last 19 H2Hs).
After winning just one of their last 11 competitive matches (D6, L4), Swansea would certainly much rather continue their five-game unbeaten run at the Stadium of Light to break out of the bottom half of the standings. Swirling rumours around the immediate future of Swansea’s influential pair Michael Obafemi and Jamie Paterson aren’t helping matters either, with boss Russell Martin conceding that more players will leave this month.
Now without an away league win since early October, a tendency to draw on their travels has been frustrating for the Swans (W3, D6, L4). Write the visitors off at your peril, though: Swansea have avoided defeat in two-thirds of their away league games when beginning as the underdogs (W3, D3, L3), which is amongst the best win/draw rates of any side in the division.
Players to watch: Sunderland’s Ross Stewart, currently in the news for ongoing contract extension talks, has impressively averaged one goal every 96 minutes this season with nine goals from his 11 league appearances. Often battling in vain for Swansea, Joël Piroe was on the winning side in just three of his eight competitive scoring appearances this term (W3, D4, L1).
Hot stat: Swansea have scored 63% of their away league goals beyond the one-hour mark (10/16) – the highest such percentage of all Championship clubs going into the round.