The Sky Bet Championship weekend kicks off on Friday night and it does so with a promotion battle between two sides who are heavily involved in the mix when Burnley welcome Sunderland to Turf Moor.
Burnley have the chance to move to the top of the table here but Sunderland will go above the Clarets if they are able to come away with the victory so there is plenty at stake on what should be a tasty Friday night showdown.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels with the build-up beginning at 7pm ahead of the kick off at 8pm.
Burnley
It has been a decent season for Burnley so far. There has been times where there has been criticism of them in terms of maybe not being as fluent as supporters would like in attacking areas but if promotions are won based on defence then Burnley fans can have few complaints. We are 26 matches into the Championship campaign and only nine goals have ended up in the Burnley net which is a crazily impressive record.
The other thing that has been impressive about Burnley so far this term is they have only been beaten twice in the Championship. One of the teams who have beaten them though is the one that they face in this match which adds an interesting dynamic to things. The Clarets are unbeaten in 13 matches but they have only scored 14 goals in that time so you do wonder if they can get anything out of a match when they do concede a goal.
Sunderland
That is exactly what Sunderland will be hoping to find out. They are enjoying a wonderful season. I don’t think we can suggest it is a surprise that Sunderland are in the position that they are, even though this is only their third season back in the Championship, because they are one of the biggest clubs in the division, but given the mess they made of the previous campaign, they are going along quite nicely this term and might even be ahead of schedule.
Sunderland aren’t quite as tight at the back as Burnley are but only three teams have scored more goals in the Championship this season than the Black Cats so it will be interesting to see if they can penetrate this Burnley defence. They did it in the reverse meeting when Sunderland won 1-0 so that will give them plenty of confidence. The other thing that will give them confidence is that they have only lost one in their last eight matches in the league.
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Team News
Burnley boss Scott Parker remains without Hannibal Mejbri who completes his three-match suspension in this game. Parker will also be missing the injured Manuel Benson and Aaron Ramsey for this Friday night clash.
Sunderland are hoping to give a debut to Enzo Le Fee who joined on loan from Roma earlier in the transfer window but they will be without the likes of Dan Ballard and Alan Browne, while Aaron Connolly has now left the club.
Betting
I get that Burnley don’t score a great amount of goals and concede even fewer than that but I’m a little surprised that both teams to score is odds against here. Although the Clarets don’t concede many, two of the three highest scoring teams in the division have scored against them relatively recently in Norwich City and Middlesbrough and now Sunderland will be hoping to do likewise and I think they can do that with the attacking personnel that they have.
Sunderland are missing one or two in the back areas of the pitch or they are just coming back from injury so that would open the door up to a Burnley attack that has started to look a little better in recent times to deliver the goods. Both teams scored in both that away match at Norwich and the home game with Middlesbrough and I fancy a similar type of game here. This is one time where I think we can ignore the statistics and use our knowledge of the styles of the teams involved to land a both teams to score punt at a very juicy price.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
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