Sunderland take on Cardiff City at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon, kickstarting a run of tricky fixtures for the Black Cats.
The next several weeks present Sunderland with some winnable, and some not-so-winnable fixtures in the Championship, starting with a visit from Cardiff City on Saturday afternoon.
On the opening day of the season, Sunderland beat Cardiff City 2-0 in Wales which prompted the Black Cats’ strong early run udner Regis Le Bris, whose side currently reside in 4th place of the Championship table.
Cardiff meanwhile are down in 21st. The Bluebirds have lost their last two in all competitions but have only lost one of their last four in the league, having beaten Hull City and drawn with Plymouth and Bristol City.
Sunderland team and injury news vs Cardiff City
The latest bit of injury news coming out of the Stadium of Light is that Ian Poveda faces another spell on the sidelines with yet another injury: the Colombian has played just six times in the Championship following his move to Sunderland last summer.
Meanwhile, Tommy Watson is expected to be on the bench against Cardiff after almost three months out. But the likes of Enzo Le Fee and Dan Ballard remain sidelined for up to seven more weeks each.
They join deadline day signing Jayden Danns, Aji Alese, Niall Huggins, and Ahmed Abdullahi on the sidelines.
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Sunderland predicted lineup vs Cardiff City
For the 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday last time out, Le Bris made five changes to his starting XI, resting some key players like Wilson Isidor and Dennis Cirkin, so expect another flurry of changes against Cardiff City.
But given the fact that Sunderland have struggled against some of the league’s weaker teams at home this season, Le Bris will likely return to full strength on Saturday, give or take one or two rotational changes.
Up front will be his biggest headache with Isidor fresh and raring to go, but Eliezer Mayenda having shone against Sheffield Wednesday; expect just one to start and expect it to be top scorer Isidor, with Mayenda a very capable option to bring off the bench.
Chris Rigg could be in line to return whilst Cirkin could too after Sunderland fans were unimpressed with Leo Hjelde‘s performance against Wednesday last time out.
Here’s how we think Sunderland will line up against Cardiff City on Saturday…
Patterson (GK)
Cirkin
O’Nien
Mepham
Hume
Jobe
Neil
Mundle
Rigg
Roberts
Isidor