Sunderland visit the King Power Stadium to play Leicester City in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland lost to Stoke and Leicester beat Swansea. Sunderland welcomed back Pierre Ekwah and Niall Huggins after recovering from injury. The Black Cats started slowly against Stoke and fell behind to a goal that had more than a hint of hand ball. Jack Clarke equalised but Stoke won 2-1 after scoring from a corner early in the second half. Tony Mowbray could make a few changes with Dan Neil serving his 1 match suspension and he has plenty of attacking options now available for selection. Leicester City have made the best ever start to a Championship season after 12 games since the rebrand in 2004, winning 33 out of a possible 36 points. The Foxes became the first side in the history of the English second tier to win their first six away league games of a season as they came from behind to beat Swansea City. Swansea threatened to upset the Championship leaders as they took a first-half lead thanks to Matt Grimes' measured volley. But Leicester deservedly levelled when Jannik Vestergaard bundled home his first goal for the club. After the break teenager Abdul Fatawu found time and space to sweep in his first Foxes goal, with Ihaneacho adding a third to seal the game. Turkish winger Yunus Akgun limped off with a leg injury against the Swans but should recover. Tony Mowbray: "The main [frustration] is with our team. We have to start better in both halves. "I've spent a lot of time trying to get them to realise the intensity of football matches, [telling them] 'Teams are going to come for you, you're a young group of players who have to be ready for that physicality that starts games.' "I scratch my head because the last message we always give them is about that. There is a good balance between confidence, wanting to be a good football team and playing, and having to deal with that intensity, to deal with a team that is asking you physical questions. "Generally this year we have done all right in those aspects, but as I told them at half-time we fell a little bit below it in the first half today, and then they go and score within two minutes of the start of the second half. "You could argue it's an individual error. A man lost his man at the back post and they scored, so not a lack of intensity from the team." Enzo Maresca: "[We are] very happy because even at 1-0 down, the team continued the same way. No panic. "This for us is the most important thing. First half we were in control. We conceded some transitions, but even with that we felt like we were in control. "We deserved [to get to] 1-1. Second half we continued to play the same way. "When we were 1-0 down, I can see for the players inside the pitch it doesn't matter - continue, continue, continue. They can see that continuing that way, something is going to happen." Match Appointments: Referee: KEITH STROUD Assistant Referees: Sam Lewis & Greg Read Fourth Official: Sam Barrott Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Huggins, Ballard, O’Nien, Hume, Ekwah, Neil, Clarke, Aouchiche, Ba, Rusyn. Subs: Bishop, Seelt, Rigg, Roberts, Pritchard, Jobe, Hemir, Dack, Bennette. Injured: Evans, Alese, Matete, Mayenda, Cirkin, Pembele. Leicester (4-3-3) Hermansen, Ricardo Pereira, Faes, Vestergaard, Justin, Ndidi, Winks, Dewsbury-Hall, Fatawu, Vardy, Mavididi. Subs: Coady, Casadei, Albrighton, Iheanacho, Souttar, Choudhury, Daka, Akgün, Stolarczyk Injured: McAteer, Doyle, Cannon, Praet Betting Odds: Sunderland 5/1 Leicester 2/1 Draw 100/3 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: This is going to be a tough game against a very strong Leicester side full of confidence at the top of the league with the best start ever. Hopefully we can bounce back from Saturday’s disappointment and put on a good show for the live TV cameras. As it’s Keith Stroud in charge, I’d usually write off any chance of a positive result so I’m being optimistic and going for a 2-2 draw. Live Stream: This game is live on Sky Sports Football Also on safc live https://safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Ha’way the Lads
Would be us all over to win this one after Saturdays performance, would snap your hands off for a point
Brilliant post as always RTB but calm down you have a striker on the pitch and that will get everyone kicked off….tough game but another 3 - 1 to us. Clarke Mr Unstoppable at the moment Roberts and Ekwah. HTL!!!
Great stuff as always. Delighted to have Neil back in with Ekwah. Going to be the toughest game of the season so far this one but our lads can beat anyone when we are at it. I've gone 2-2. Come on lads.
I’d play Burstow ahead of Rusyn and I suspect he won’t risk Ekwah for a second full game game so close post injury (he mentioned him icing his thigh) but other than that I’d pick the same side. Aouchiche is.due a start.
We've had tough tests before and come out on top. Win this one and the confidence boost will be massive, we've nowt to lose so a bit of a free hit. HTL
Maybe we'll score a penalty and Stroud spots one of our players encroaching and disallows it - you couldn't make it up Search that on google "keith stroud mistakes youtube"
Don’t fancy us at all. Leicester are the best side in the league and we haven’t been great recently. Really need the likes of Clarke and Roberts to step up and show their quality.
I remember, last season, when we lost to Stoke and were expected to go Norwich to take a beating ... ... then go to Burnley and be hammered again. Two clean sheets, won at Norwich, drew at Burnley and had a goal chalked off near the end. Haway the Lads!!!
I fear for the young lads , but @Teessidemackem doesn't like me having opinions. We haven't played well for a while, and I think the confidence is quickly draining away from the youngsters. I think another possible heavy defeat with a possible home animosity starting on Saturday against Norwich. I like Tony but I don't think he'll be here by December, not with Swansea and Birmingham straight afterwards. I hear what Tony said re no attackers starting on Saturday, but that dosen't sit right. If I was Hemir I'd be wanting out. I'm hoping our loan contract with Chelsea dosen't include a guaranteed appearance percentage. He's been given more than enough chances but hasn't looked brilliant, surely Hemir should have had more of a chance. Rant over, MY OPINION ONLY.
cheers again RTB... i don't usually post on the match threads until during the game but after the last two results, why worry. like your team, adil has looked the part and deserves to start and we have pritchard/dack to replace later on if needed, nice to have neil back as well, i know i can bleat on about how much a CDM can affect the game and how it is probably the hardest position to learn/adjust to but once that position has to go to a 'newcomer' you can see how much we lose, especially with the young squad...saw the ref and figured we could play out of our skins and still lose with that feckwit in charge so haway lads, prove me the feck wrong.
I've been hoping to see him play, with Rusyn ahead of him ... ... I think they'd cause teams a lot of problems and we have a great bench on 60 minutes when they tire.
We haven't lost a game by more than one goal, with ten men on the pitch ... ... we've hammered a few teams though, to be fair.
Yeah, don't fancy us. I didn't at Stoke, especially when the line up came out. There seems to be something off, we looked tired before the break so thought that would have sorted it, it didn't. Lets see if they can surprise me. Happened many times before so hopefully this is one of them.
