Black Cats Travel To Leicester

Sunderland take on Leicester City on Saturday with both sides looking for the full quota of points from the game.

Sunderland’s form has improved since the mauling at Southampton and the home defeat to Arsenal, they have just had a very good 3-1 win at Crystal Palace and that was followed up with a 1-1 draw with Everton.

Leicester beat Manchester United 5-1 and since then it has been downhill after taking just one point from a possible 18. The Foxes are in the bottom three but only on goal difference, they are on nine points the same as Crystal Palace.

Should be a cracking game with both clubs going for it and the players will be chomping at the bit after the international break.

Vital Quotes:

Gus Poyet: ‘Normally when you finish the season in the Championship well, you normally start well because of the adrenaline and the craziness of having the chance to play there, and if one or two results go for you, you get a little bit longer.

‘I think that’s what happened to Leicester in the beginning. Everything was going well for them. But you can’t maintain adrenaline for 25 games. You get one, two, three, four or whatever and then you just feel that you are a Premier League team.

‘Then you need to maintain that, and that’s when it’s a little bit tougher. That’s why it’s maybe a little bit downhill at the moment.

‘But I don’t think there’s a difference between Leicester and the rest of the bottom 10, there are ups and downs in there. Like any other manager, the sooner they get it up again, the better for them.

‘Of course when they play against us, we will try not to let that happen, but I think that’s what Nigel is going to be looking to, to use this game as a comeback to the feeling at the beginning of the season.’

Leicester City Team News:

Leicester (from):

Schmeichel, Hamer, Morgan, Moore, De Laet, Konchesky, Wasilewski, Drinkwater, James, King, Cambiasso, Albrighton, Mahrez, Knockaert, Vardy, Ulloa, Nugent, Schlupp, Wood, Powell.

Player to watch: Leonardo Ulloa

Top scorer with five goals and will be wanting to show Gus Poyet what he could have had.

Sunderland Team News:

Sunderland (from):

Pantilimon, Mannone, Reveillere, Brown, O’Shea, Vergini, Coates, Cattermole, Rodwell, Bridcutt, Gomez, Larsson, Johnson, Buckley, Alvarez, Mavrias, Fletcher, Wickham, Altidore.

Player to watch: Seb Larsson

Been in good form for the last couple of games and has been talking about scoring more goals.

Match Facts & Stats

This is the first meeting of the two clubs since New Year’s Day 2007, when Sunderland won 2-0 at Leicester in the Championship.

Sunderland have won four of the last five league meetings, with the other game drawn.

Leicester are unbeaten in eight top-flight home matches against the Black Cats since a 2-0 defeat 30 years ago.

Ref Watch:

Robert Madley is the ref.

H Lennard and R Ganfield are the two assistants while the fourth official is C Pawson

Match Prediction:

0-2 win for Sunderland

Next Fixtures:

PREM – Sat 29 Nov – Sunderland v Chelsea
PREM – Weds 03 Dec – Sunderland v Man City