“I still don’t see them…” – BBC pundit delivers confident Sunderland v Leeds United prediction
Leeds United are back on the road this weekend when they travel up to the Stadium of Light to take on Sunderland.
Our game on Sunday is similar to the Manchester United clash from last week. Most would argue we are playing our opponents at a good time.
After a spectacular first season back in the Premier League, Sunderland are finding the second season much harder. They have just four points from their first seven games and currently sit rock bottom in the Premier League.
This has led a BBC Sport pundit to make a prediction he is seemingly very confident in.
Chris Sutton believes Leeds will get something against Sunderland
Of course, it’s not just the Premier League that Regis Le Bris’ men have to contend with this season. The Black Cats also have a Europa League campaign to juggle.
In their European fixture in midweek, Sunderland picked up a point away from home against Polish outfit Lech Poznan.
But after losing their last four Premier League games in a row, Chris Sutton is adamant that Sunderland won’t get back to winning ways when they face Leeds.
“After last weekend’s loss at Bournemouth, Sunderland defender Nordi Mukiele suggested the Black Cats may have become “arrogant”. I don’t see that outburst being as damaging as the ones by Manchester United players recently,” Sutton said in his Premier League predictions column for BBC Sport.
“Maybe we will see a reaction from Sunderland here, but I still don’t see them winning this because Leeds are battle-hardened and are a good team too.
“They weren’t at their best against Manchester United but still picked up a point. They won’t be leaving the Stadium of Light empty-handed.”
Sutton then went on to predict United will play out a 1-1 for the second consecutive week. Coincidentally, this is what the score was last season when we went to the Stadium of Light.
There will be plenty of expectation of Leeds United this weekend
Given Sunderland seem very vulnerable at the minute, I think the vast majority of our supporters will be expecting a win on Sunday.
However, if you offered me a point right now, I’d probably take it. Very rarely is a point away from home in the Premier League a bad one, especially if it’s only your second season in the division.
Personally, I don’t think Sunderland were as good as what their league position suggested last season. Equally, I don’t think they’re as bad as it suggests this season. They lie somewhere in the middle.
They’re definitely a team we are capable of turning over, but we didn’t manage to last season.
When Sunderland beat us 1-0 at Elland Road back in March, that was one of the most frustrating games of football I’ve watched in a long time.
So whilst it would be nice to finally get one over on the Black Cats, we shouldn’t be chasing a win with reckless abandon.
A point at the end of the day would still be a solid result, and I think we should bear this in mind going into the weekend. Especially when considering the injury troubles we have to contend with.
If we were a team expecting to qualify for Europe, these are the games we’d be aiming to go and win, but I don’t think we’re at this point quite yet.
