Sunderland vs Newcastle: Black Cats are rightful favourites
Published:The first massive game of the new Premier League season comes from the North East with Saturday’s midday derby between Sunderland and Newcastle United.
Sunderland kicked off their Premier League campaign with a host of new signings and a rather impressive draw away to Liverpool.
Newcastle started with the same old faces and a draw against Arsenal that owed more to the Gunners’ poor football than anything good the Magpies did.
The only thing of note to happen in the entire 90 minutes was the sending-off of Arsenal debutant Gervinho who was sufficiently riled by Joey Barton to slap him in the face.
Despite it being a home game, Newcastle showed very little going forward against Arsenal and were only able to muster one shot on target in the game.
Compare that with Sunderland who had 15 attempts at Liverpool, with six on target, and it’s easy to see why Steve Bruce’s side head into this game as pretty big 6/5 favourites.
Despite their 5-1 win against Sunderland at St James’s Park last term, Newcastle haven’t won at the Stadium of Light in their previous three meetings.
Backing Sunderland to come away with all three points looks the bet here.
There hasn’t been a goalless draw between these sides since an old second division play-off clash in 1990.
Since then they’ve met 23 times with at least one goal being scored on each occasion, while the previous eight clashes has seen the ball in the net at least twice.
Back over 1.5 goals at 4/11 or, if you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, over 2.5 goals at 11/10.
