Nick Barnes, Roy Kelly and James Hunter preview Saturday’s Stadium of Light showdown against Stoke City.
The trio share their thoughts on the game providing insight, analysis and opinion as the Black Cats aim pick up their first win of 2017.
Nick Barnes (@Tweed_Barnesy) – BBC Radio Newcastle
The Stadium of Light is slowly becoming a difficult place to come for visiting teams and for Stoke City whose record on Wearside is woeful that’s not good news. From Sunderland’s perspective it’s very good news as their home form could very well be the key to staying up this season. With luck David Moyes will have Victor Anichebe available again this weekend but if he’s not available the front three of Borini, Defoe and Januzaj should provide Stoke with a few headaches at the back. Jason Denayer proved himself more than capable alongside Papy Djilibodji and with three matches in seven days for Moyes to juggle he may decide to rest O’Shea and keep faith with Denayer, though he may decide to push the Belgian back into midfield and if Billy Jones is unfit Donald Love could return to right back. Love has played well in recent weeks and with his form and the players returning from injury are giving David Moyes a few more options, which is critical this week. Stoke City at home though is a big opportunity for Sunderland to earn three points and is arguably the biggest match of the three this week and Moyes will be mindful of that. Hopefully Stoke’s historical reticence to perform in the league at Sunderland continues.
Roy Kelly (@RoyKellySport) – Sunderland Echo
Forget home is where the heart is. For Sunderland, home is where the hope is. The Black Cats have not looked back at the Stadium of Light since Arsenal's late salvo at the end of October. There has been only the one defeat in the last six and that could so easily have been a draw but for Thibaut Courtois' top-drawer injury time save from Patrick van Aanholt. While the 'patient' is clearly on the mend, there can be no relapses against Stoke City. Mark Hughes's side are just where Sunderland would love to be - bang in the middle of the Premier League table. They have won just three more times than the Black Cats but the key stat is they have lost eight, compared to 13 of David Moyes's team. Sunderland need to extend that figure to nine but it ain't going to be easy against the Potters. Their away form, on paper, looks unimpressive until you see that their last three fixtures on the road have been at Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea and they have been in all three games until being overwhelmed. Sunderland's draw with Burnley last week taught us little except, but it kept the home run going and they must do the same against Stoke.
James Hunter (@JHunterChron) – The Chronicle
Sunderland's fightback against Liverpool in the last league game kept them on the coat-tails of fourth-bottom Crystal Palace. And if they could build on that with a win against Stoke City, it could lift the Black Cats out of the relegation zone for the first time since September. Sunderland showed spirit aplenty to twice come from behind to earn a point against Liverpool, but their performance in the goalless draw against Burnley last weekend in the FA Cup lacked creativity. The Wearsiders have lost just once at home – against leaders Chelsea in the league – in their last six outings in all competitions, proving they are hard to beat on home soil. But they will need to add a spark in front of goal to the workrate they put in against the Reds in order to beat a Stoke side that is now in midtable after recovering from a very poor start to the campaign.
The views expressed within this article are the views of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of Sunderland AFC.
