COVENTRY PREVIEW

With Sunderland and Coventry being in the bottom two places of the Premier League, this weekend's game is sure to be a battle as they struggle to get out of the relegation zone. But who wants it more? 

Despite being one of the original teams in the Premier League, Coventry City were absent from the league for 25 years and it was only last season that they returned. It has not been an easy start for Coventry so far: although their game against Newcastle resulted in a win with a remarkable four goals, this was one of only two games that Coventry have won. Head coach Frank Lampard seems to be staying positive ahead of this week's game and says the team “want to fight” and are working towards success. Saturday is their chance to “create more opportunities”. 

However, Regis Le Bris is also remaining positive despite Sunderland's poor league position. In today's press conference he recognised Coventry’s competitiveness but said each game is an opportunity to “evolve” and be more “creative”. With 3 competitions to take part in this season and so many key team members out of play, Sunderland have definitely felt the need to be creative recently.

Although we have only won one match in the Premier League, our creativity has paid off in other competitions, namely in the cup game against Brentford that saw several changes to the normal team, including an unfamiliar captain. With many of our players being so young, the short time in between this week's matches should be no problem recovery-wise and hopefully we can use last night's win to start gaining momentum in the league. 

The last time Sunderland and Coventry faced each other, the stakes were very high as it was the Championship play-off semi-finals. Sunderland battled well and after Dan Ballard's very memorable header, won the game on aggregate. Depending on the results of other matches this weekend, a win has the potential to lift Sunderland out of the relegation zone so if our last clash with Coventry at home helped us get into the Premier League, hopefully the next will help us stay.