The Black Cats have the chance to close the gap on the play-offs against Stoke City, as they look to turn their recent awful form around.
Since Michael Beale’s arrival, Sunderland have won just 2 in 7 matches and the fans have already turned on the head coach.
In a press conference this week, Beale stated that he is: “Perplexed and bemused by the outside noise”, which did not go down well with the Sunderland faithful.
Stoke City have lost just 1 league Match since Steven Schumacher took charge, winning 2 and drawing 3.
Former Sunderland favourite, Lynden Gooch could step out at The Stadium of Light for the first time since leaving the club last summer.
Gooch played his first games for Sunderland in the Premier League, but he stuck by the club following their back-to-back relegations, and helped the club get out of League One, and even ended their Wembley hoodoo with the winning goal against Tranmere Rovers in the EFL Cup final back in 2021.
With just 3 Championship games going ahead this weekend, due to the FA Cup, if Sunderland were to win, they’d move up to 7th, and be outside of the top 6 on goal difference.
If Stoke were to take all 3 points, they could move up as high as 15th in the table.
Team News
Aji Alese will miss the next 5 weeks, after picking up an injury in training.
Patrick Roberts and Bradley Dack are still missing with their respective injuries.
Prediction
Sunderland 1-1 Stoke City
Scorer – Alex Pritchard