Football – England – Premier League
Wednesday 3rd December 2014 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Sunderland will go into tonight’s encounter against last season’s Premier League champions Manchester City at the Stadium of Light in very positive mood having held current league leaders Chelsea to a 0-0 draw at the weekend.
In addition, Gus Poyet’s side kept a clean sheet against in-form Chelsea who hold a commanding six point lead at the top of the league, and the Black Cats have now put together a four match unbeaten run which includes a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace and taking a point off both Everton and Chelsea in recent matches.
Sunderland have climbed away from the bottom three as a result of their solid results in the past few weeks and they now occupy the relatively safe position of 13th ahead of tonight’s clash with City. Sunderland’s home record stands at 1-5-1 7/7 which has obviously been dominated by stalemates but they’ve lost just once on home turf this season which may well be a factor again tonight as they look to frustrate yet another top half side visiting the Stadium of Light.
Manchester City registered a slightly surprising 3-0 win away at the then second placed Southampton who had been in fine form prior to the weekend’s round of fixtures. For City to have won by 3 goals was a bit of a surprise, but they now face a stubborn Sunderland outfit tonight.
The win at Southampton meant that Manchester City have swapped places with Southampton and now hold second place as they look to reduce the six-point deficit on league leaders Chelsea. City’s away record stands at 4-2-1 16/8 which is solid enough, but they have experienced problems on the road at West Ham and QPR recently where they lost 1-2 and drew 2-2 respectively.
Given Sunderland’s improvement in recent weeks, not least of all at the back where they’ve conceded just 2 goals in their last four matches, I’ll back them to avoid a thrashing at the hands of visitors Manchester City and use the asian handicap to my advantage; City may well win but I reckon by just a margin of 1 goal, while Sunderland might even sneak another point.
Pick: Sunderland AH+1.25 @ 1.80 bet365
