The first round of three sets of matches in the Sky Bet Championship over the next week concludes on Sunday afternoon when two sides chasing play-off spots meet at Carrow Road when Norwich City entertain Sunderland.
Both teams have been in and out of the top six this season and both will begin this match outside that zone and looking in. With matches just beginning to run out this is one both will be eager to win but certainly won’t want to lose.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Football channel with the second half also on the Sky Sports Main Event channel. The build-up begins at 11.30am with kick off coming at 12 noon.
Norwich City
This has been a bumpy ride for Norwich City in their first season back down in the Championship. They threatened to do something under Dean Smith but never actually did and I guess you could say the same about them under his replacement David Wagner. To be fair to Wagner, he is relatively new in the job and will steadily improve this team because time on the training ground is few and far between with the crazy schedule that the Championship endures.
While they have had up and down periods this season, we should point out that Norwich are very much on an upward curve at the minute. They have won four and drawn the other of their last five matches so it might be that they are about to launch their charge towards the play-offs. We know there is always a team who gets in late in good form who go very well in the postseason and Norwich will hope they are that team.
Sunderland
When you consider that this is the first season back in the Championship for Sunderland as well, albeit from the division below rather than the one above which was the route Norwich took back to this league, then they should be happy with what they have come up with but they are an ambitious club who will be looking to make the next step at the earliest opportunity. Sunderland were going very well around Christmas time but you sensed the injury to Ross Stewart would be significant to their season.
Things have just gone a little pear-shaped in the last few matches. They had made their way into the top six but three defeats on the spin has seen them come out of that position. They have slid eight points off the play-offs now and you sense if this is to be their year they are going to have to win this match. If they are going to do that then they will need to tighten up defensively, especially as goals have stopped flowing all of a sudden.
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Team News
David Wagner has confirmed that forward Josh Sargent will be available to return to the squad for this match after he has overcome injury. Gabriel Sara is expected to be fit even though he missed training at the beginning of the week.
Sunderland have no shortage of injury problems to deal with ahead of this match. They were already without the likes of Elliot Embleton, Ross Stewart and Corry Evans and now Aji Alese has been ruled out for the season. The game comes too soon for Dennis Cirkin too.
Betting
I find it hard to believe goals won’t come along in this match. Sunderland have just shipped five of them to a largely average Stoke City side and now they go up against an attacking unit which has no shortage of goals in them even if they don’t always bring them out but against a Sunderland defence which is beginning to struggle and isn’t getting a lot of protection I just don’t see how this isn’t an open game with plenty of goal chances.
The other thing to factor into the equation is that this is a match where a draw doesn’t do either of them any good so they should both be pushing for a winner right through to the end. Norwich have scored eight in their last three while Sunderland head to Norfolk having scored in their last 16 matches. Neither of these teams are renowned for clean sheets so I’m very happy to be on over 2.5 goals in this one.
Tips
Back Over 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.98 with Bet365
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