Sunderland Take On Stoke In Massive Game

Sunderland take on Stoke City tonight at the Stadium of Light and we all know that if the Black Cats are going to get out of relegation trouble, then it’s Stoke that are the team most likely to replace them.

The Potters fans have seen their club slip down the table at an alarming rate and from what I can gather; there are two camps of fans. One that are happy that Tony Pulis and his boring football has gone, the other seems to be taking delight in Mark Hughes’ slip ups of the last few weeks, just so they can point out that Pulis should never have left.

Strange bunch those Stokies.
On the field, they have just one point from their last five games and on top of that, they were knocked out of the FA Cup at the weekend at Chelsea.

When the two clubs met at the Britannia Stadium in November, the home side ran out 2-0 winners, mainly down to the fact that Wes Brown was wrongly sent off.

Tonight could be a good chance for Sunderland to turn things around, and if we managed to beat Stoke, we might not see much more of them as their next games are against Man Utd at home and Southampton away and I can’t see them getting anything from either of these games.

Vital Quotes:

Gus Poyet “These three games are massive for us,” he told the Gazette. “So important, and starting with Stoke tonight.

“I think the next three games will mark the end of the season – depending on what we do in these next three games, will tell us what we face for the remainder of the campaign.

“And if we don`t do well in these next two games in four days, then the Hull one is going to absolutely huge for us.

“I don`t like to call them cup finals. I was asked a few weeks ago whether a certain game was a cup final and I said ‘no` because it is not a phrase I like to use.

“But now we are in the moment of truth and I don`t mind what people call it because these are the games and the Stoke one is the first one and so it is the most important right now.”

Mark Hughes: “Sunderland is not an easy place to go at the moment because they are understandably on a little bit of a high after reaching the final.

“I saw them against United in the semi and thought they were excellent on the night and fully deserved to go through in my opinion, irrespective of the fact that it needed a penalty shoot-out.

“They have a lot of confidence behind them at the moment but we`re going there looking to be positive. We want to get back on track in terms of accumulating points on the road; we need to do that sooner rather than later.”

Sunderland Team News:

Defender Carlos Cuellar has returned to light training after a long-term hip injury.

Full-back Andrea Dossena has shaken off an Achilles problem, although neither is likely to be involved.

Goalkeeper Keiren Westwood continues his recovery from shoulder surgery.

Player to watch: Fabio Borini.

Real threat in front of goal, can score from all over the place.

Stoke City Team News:

Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross is expected to play with protection on a wrist he has fractured.

Fellow defender Erik Pieters should be fit despite having to come off in Sunday’s FA Cup clash with Chelsea.

Robert Huth (knee), Andy Wilkinson (heel) and Matthew Etherington (calf) are set to remain sidelined, but Peter Odemwingie could make his Stoke debut.

Player to watch: Oussama Assaidi.

Very dangerous forward who can not just score goals, he scores brilliant goals. On loan from Liverpool

Match Facts & Stats

Sunderland are unbeaten in their last 11 home matches against Stoke (W6, D5). The Potters’ last away victory was a 1-0 victory at Roker Park in April 1994; Mark Walters scored the winner.

The away side has won only once (Sunderland won 1-0 in February 2012) and failed to score in eight of 11 previous Premier League meetings between the clubs.

This fixture ended 1-1 last season – Stoke’s goal was their first in the top flight at the Sunderland since October 1983.

There have been red cards in three of the last four league encounters, although Wes Brown’s sending off at the Britannia Stadium in November was later rescinded.

(BBCsport)

Match Prediction:

Got to go for a 1-0 win for the Black Cats

Next Fixture:

Sat 01 Feb 2014 Newcastle v Sunderland