So this weekend Sunderland will host Wigan Athletic at the Stadium of Light, and it will be the 27th meeting between the two clubs since Wigan joined the Football League in 1978. Both clubs got promoted from League One last year, with the Latics finishing as champions on 92 points and the Black Cats winning the Play-Offs.
WIGAN ATHLETIC
Since winning the League One title, Leam Richardson has added 5 new players to his ranks. This includes ex-Sunderland strikers Nathan Broadhead and Ashley Fletcher. The Latics currently sit 9th in the Championship table, picking up 19 points from 13 games, which is a very solid tally for a newly promoted team.
Wigan often rotate between 4-2-3-1, 3-4-2-1 and 3-4-1-2 and play very direct football. Will Keane is the club's current top scorer, with last season’s League One golden boot winner bagging five goals in 13 games. He often plays in that number 10 role behind the striker. Richardson’s team are fairly average when it comes to maintaining possession, with their possession stat being an average 49.3%.
As a whole I’d say Wigan are a very hardworking team with great togetherness and team spirit, which has been the main driving force in their success over the last few years.
SUNDERLAND
So when it comes to Sunderland, Tony Mowbray is expecting Dennis Cirkin to return to the side after picking up a hamstring injury last month. Mowbray has identified Wigan’s physicality as a threat and believes Cirkin would help nullify that.
I personally wouldn’t be surprised if Mowbray decides to play his favoured 4-3-3 this weekend, especially after hinting that Jack Clarke could potentially be played as a number nine.
There is no denying that Sunderland’s form has died down a bit lately, with multiple 0-0 draws and a defeat to Swansea last Saturday. In my opinion this is to be expected since we are a newly promoted team currently playing without a striker, however some fans are definitely starting to raise concern over recent results.
We currently sit 13th in the table and a win could take the lads up to 8th if results go their way.
MY PREDICTION
Personally I’m going for a nice 3-1 Sunderland win. Wigan play a very similar style of football to teams like Rotherham and Reading and I think that plays into Sunderland’s hands. I think if we show up, maintain possession and go for the throat I think we will be fine. Corry Evans’ suspension is unfortunate, but on the bright side we will hopefully see more of Abdoullah Ba and Edouard Michut, so I guess every cloud has a silver lining.
Wigan will likely attempt to follow the blueprint of Preston and Blackpool by putting everyone behind the ball and hoping to at least get a point. They’ll probably use Broadhead’s rapid pace to try and catch us on the counter. We should target their left flank because McClean isn’t a natural defender and Curtis Tilt had a shocker against us last season, giving away a penalty. That said, Wigan's away form is far greater than their home form, so they could prove to be a tough test.
MY PREDICTED SUNDERLAND 11 (FORMATION 4-3-3)
1 ANTHONY PATTERSON
6 DANNY BATTH
13 LUKE O’NIEN
42 AJI ALESE
11 LYNDEN GOOCH
24 DAN NIEL
17 ABDOULLAH BA
21 ALEX PRITCHARD
10 PATRICK ROBERTS
20 JACK CLARKE
19 JEWISON BENNETTE
SUBS: 8 ELLIOT EMBLETON, 3 DENNIS CIRKIN, 26 BAILEY WRIGHT, 16 AMAD DIALLO, 12 ALEX BASS, 27 JAY MATETE, 25 EDOUARD MICHUT
MY PREDICTED WIGAN 11 (FORMATION 3-4-1-2)
12 BEN AMOS
5 JACK WHATMOUGH
15 JASON KERR
16 CURTIS TILT
27 TENDAYI DARIKWA
18 GRAEME SHINNIE
8 MAX POWER
11 JAMES MCCLEAN
10 WILL KEANE
20 NATHAN BROADHEAD
9 CHARLIE WYKE
SUBS: 23 ASHLEY FLETCHER, 40 SAM TICKLE, 21 JOE BENNETT, 4 TOM NAYLOR, 28 JOSH MAGENNIS, 30 THELO AASGARD, 14 ANTHONY SCULLY
