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Sunderland v Norwich predictions: Canaries growing into new season

Alex Neil exit rumours could aid visitors' cause

Norwich boss Dean Smith is eyeing a second Championship title
Norwich boss Dean Smith is eyeing a second Championship titleCredit: Mark Scates - SNS Group

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Sunderland v Norwich in the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday

Where to watch

Sky Sports Football, 12.30pm Saturday

Best bet

Norwich
1pt 13-10 general

Team news

Sunderland
Carl Winchester, Leon Dajaku and Daniel Ballard are sidelined.

Norwich
Canaries boss Dean Smith changed his entire starting 11 against Bournemouth in the EFL Cup on Tuesday. Sam Byram, Jacob Sorensen, Sam McCallum, Isaac Hayden and Dimitris Giannoulis are injured.

Match preview

Sunderland have made a promising start to the new Championship season so an approach for manager Alex Neil from Stoke is an unwelcome distraction ahead of Saturday's visit of Norwich.

The Black Cats say they are “contractually obliged” to allow Neil to talk to the Potters after the Scot signed a rolling 12-month contract, but it is sure to have an unsettling effect around the Stadium of Light.

Ironically it was Stoke who Sunderland beat last time out and they will move into the top two of the Championship – albeit possibly only for a couple of hours – with victory over the Canaries.

Pre-season title favourites Norwich have made a sluggish start to the new campaign, taking only one point from their opening two matches.

Those results probably didn’t tell the whole story as they won the shot count and had far more possession in all of those games, and they have made that dominance pay in their last two league outings when beating Millwall and Huddersfield.

Sunderland are unbeaten in 11 league outings at the Stadium of Light but they arguably haven’t hosted a side of Norwich’s quality in that run and the Canaries look decent value to claim a third win on the spin having started to turn their dominance into wins.

Key stat

Sunderland are unbeaten in their last 11 league matches at the Stadium of Light.


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