Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce registered 3 victories in his first 6 games in charge, and indeed for a brief moment took Sunderland out of the relegation zone. Since then they have now lost 4 Premier League games on the bounce, and are now coming off a 1-4 hammering away at Manchester City. This defeat left the Black Cats in 19th place on 12 points, and they are now 5 points off safety. Sunderland’s recent home record reads a modest looking W4, D4, L7.
When facing teams of Liverpool’s stature, Sunderland’s record reads W1, D5, L4 and they can be backed at around 5.50. If you do fancy Sunderland to do well then you can keep an element of the 1 goal loss on your side and they can be backed on the Asian handicap +0.5/1.0 goals at around 2.05.
The recent head-to-head record at the Stadium of Light favours the visitors and reads Sunderland 1 wins, 1 Draw and Liverpool 3 wins.
The draw can be backed at around 3.90 and this looks to offer some decent value and certainly should not be discounted given Sunderland’s record at home to Top half sides.
Liverpool are coming into this game in mixed form. However they did register their first win in 4 league matches when beating table toppers Leicester 1-0 at Anfield on Saturday. This victory left Jürgen Klopp’s side in 8th place on 27 points, which is now only 5 points off a Champions League spot. Liverpool’s recent away record reads W4, D5, L6.
When facing the bottom 6 sides Liverpool’s away record reads a fairly solid W7, D0, L3, and here they can be backed at around a very skinny looking 1.72.
As far as goals are concerned then we have some mixed stats. When facing top half sides at home, 8 of Sunderland’s last 10 have seen 2 or less goals. In the case of Liverpool only 3 of their last 10 away have finished with under 2.5 goals. However when looking at the general stats, 10 of Sunderland’s last 16 home, and 10 of Liverpool’s last 16 away have seen 2 or less goals. My ratings suggest value in Under 2.5 goals and this can be backed at around 1.93.
This is a vital match, particularly for Sunderland who must start picking up some points. 3 of their last 4 losses have come against Man city, Chelsea and Arsenal. So they have had a tough run. Here they are value against a Liverpool side who are erratic at best, and Sunderland look a decent shout on the +0.5/1.0 goal handicap. For my trade I am turning to the goal line where under Allardyce Sunderland have only conceded 2 goals in his opening 4 home matches. My ratings also suggest the line should be around 2.0/2.5 and there looks some decent value backing Unders. So my recommended trade is Under 2.5 goals at around 1.93.