Sunderland vs Aston Villa prediction, expected line-ups, how to watch and stats
Regis Le Bris is certainly the toast of Wearside at the moment, as his in-form Sunderland side take on goal-shy Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.
Sunderland’s points tally of seven from four games is an excellent return for a newly promoted side and fans will be pleased as they’re near the magic 11 point mark already, which is important because promoted teams who have picked up 11 points or more from their first 10 have all stayed up.
They’ve had one of the easier starts they could’ve had on paper and when the fixtures were released in June, fans would have counted this as their first ‘tough’ fixture, but that might not be the case.
Unai Emery’s side went through a summer of turmoil, with the Emiliano Martinez transfer saga, the sale of academy graduate Jacob Ramsey and financial problems tarnishing the transfer window after a remarkable few years at Villa Park.
Now that turmoil has transferred on to the pitch, with the Villans failing to score in each of their opening four Premier League games and their misery was compounded with an early Carabao Cup exit at Brentford in midweek.
Can Emery’s men turn a corner or will the Black Cats’ excellent start continue? You can follow the game on our live score centre.
Sunderland team news
Dennis Cirkin, Romaine Mundle and Leo Fuhr Hjelde are all ruled out for Le Bris’ team this week and are expected to be out until after the October international break.
Centre-half Dan Ballard is expected to be fit after missing the Crystal Palace game with a groin injury.
There are also doubts over the fitness of Enzo La Fee, Luke O’Nien and Ajibola Afolarin Alese.
Sunderland expected line-up
Aston Villa team news
The influential Youri Tielemans is ruled out with a calf injury and Ross Barkley has taken time away from the game due to personal issues, so Emery will have to shuffle his pack in midfield.
There are also doubts over Victor Lindelof, Amadou Onana, Boubacar Kamara and Andres Garcia.
Ollie Watkins will likely start up front and Emiliano Martinez will likely continue in goal after returning to the fold.
Aston Villa expected line-up
Sunderland vs Aston Villa: How to watch and listen
The game is one of two 14.00 kick-offs this Sunday. It will be live on Sky Sports Main Event from 13.00, while radio commentary will be on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Sunderland vs Aston Villa stats
This will be their first meeting in over seven years, when Villa beat Sunderland 0-3 at the Stadium of Light in a Championship fixture, Lewis Grabban and James Chester were among the goals for Villa that day.
Villa have lost just one of their last 10 clashes (6 W, 3 D) with the Black Cats, a 3-1 defeat on Wearside in 2016.
In the overall history of the fixture, there have been 83 Villa wins, 55 Sunderland wins and 46 draws.
Sam Barrott is the referee for this one, he has issued 12 yellow cards in his two Premier League games this season.
Sunderland vs Aston Villa prediction
Sunderland have already made the Stadium of Light a fortress this season, seeing off West Ham and Brentford. Can they make it a hat-trick?
We think they can, Villa have been a shadow of themselves this season, failing to find the net in their first four games and they’re second bottom in the table, while Sunderland find themselves in seventh.
The odds for a Sunderland win are good, but with Barrott’s record of issuing plenty of yellow cards in games, we think that market is a good one to explore.
The Sunderland faithful will undoubtedly be fired up for this one and we think over 5.5 yellow cards is worth a bet.
