Sunderland vs Newcastle United Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Oct 14, 2015 @ 02:01 pm

Allardyce would’ve been fully aware of the situation he was accepting when he took the Sunderland job, a club he once served as a player and he was given a full reminder in his first game at the helm with a lacklustre defeat to 17^th placed West Brom. Sunderland were poor but they’ll be angry at the manner in which they were denied a point as it looked a blatant foul on Costel Pantilimon although the 6’8 goalkeeper should’ve shown more strength against the pint-sized Saido Berahino. Now Allardyce has the ‘small’ test of a Tynewear derby to get his players motivated for despite confidence being gazumped at Sunderland who now sit rock bottom after Newcastle’s emphatic 6-2 victory over Norwich City.

After shipping 6 goals against Manchester City in their last fixture, Newcastle hit 6 at the right end as they looked very impressive on the counter attack. They still had their moments of despair as Steve McLaren had his head in his hands at the defending on show by his side but thankfully their opposition were just as bad. It was an essential victory and it was also the first Premier League victory for McLaren as Newcastle boss and has taken them off the foot of the table and into 18^th place. It has come at the perfect time ahead of the derby and they’ll be looking to halt a run of 5 successive defeats to their arch rivals and they haven’t beaten Sunderland since 2011.

Sunderland won’t take any satisfaction from the following statistic. Sunderland have only ever failed to not win in their opening line league games in the top flight on 2 other occasions (1969/70 and 1976/77) and were relegated both times. Both sides have conceded 19 goals this season and it is their inability to stop the goal flow in the defensive thirds that sees them occupy 2 of the 3 relegation spots. Only Norwich City have a worse defence in the Premier League.

Sam Allardyce will have Jeremain Lens back in contention for selection as the Dutch winger signed from Dynamo Kiev in the summer has served a 1 match suspension for his red card against West Ham. Jack Colback, Cheick Tiote and Paul Dummett all returned from injury to start against Norwich City and came through unscathed which McLaren will breathe a sigh of relief for ahead of such a crucial game.

Sunderland

Stats: W-0 L-6 D-3

Recent Form - LLLDL

Newcastle United

Stats: W-1 L-5 D-3

Recent Form - LLDLW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Sunderland (4-5-1) – Pantilimon, Brown, O’Shea, Kaboul, B.Jones, Lens, Cattermole, M’Vila, Gomez, A.Johnson, Fletcher. 

Newcastle United  (4-4-2) – Elliot, Janmaat, Coloccini, Mbemba, Haidara, Tiote, Colback, Sissoko, Wijnaldum, Perez, Mitrovic. 

Injury List/Suspended Players

Sunderland- Toivonen (inj), Watmore (inj).
Newcastle United – Krul (inj), Mbabu (inj), Darlow (inj), S.Taylor (inj), Marveaux (inj), Aarons (inj), Obertan (inj), Riviere (inj).

Sunderland v Newcastle Head to Head

League Positions