English Premier
2011-04-23 - Sunderland vs Wigan
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Premier League
Saturday 23 April 2011 - Kickoff 3pm
Sunderland
The Saturday morning papers have once again raised question marks surrounding the future of Steve Bruce at Sunderland as the side cannot seem to arrest their slide towards the bottom of the table. There is a real danger the team could go down this season, although the ineptitude of other teams may be their biggest asset in their fight for survival.
The Black Cats are 14th in the Premier League, but remain only 5 points better off than Blackpool in the final relegation spot. Their bad run of form coincided with the departure of Darren Bent, a player who has fired Aston Villa up the table, but Sunderland's best chance to stop this slide is at the Stadium of Light. They are 6-5-5 at home this season, scoring 20 goals and conceding 19.
The 2-0 defeat to fellow strugglers Birmingham last Saturday means Sunderland have now failed to win any of their last 9 League games, losing 8 of those including the last 4 on the spin. Goals have been a big problem for the side and they have failed to score in 5 of their last 6 games. They have lost 4 in a row at the Stadium of Light and have only won 1 of their last 8 in all competitions there.
Kieran Richardson and Sulley Muntari look like the latest players who will be missing out on Saturday. Danny Welbeck is another who is injured and only Asamoah Gyan is standing in a forward position. Anton Ferdinand could be joining John Mensah and Titus Bramble on the sidelines.
Wigan
Wigan were ruled out as one of the teams that will be plying their trade in the Championship this season, but Roberto Martinez remained confident that they would survive and his players are now beginning to show they have belief in what their manager is saying.
The Latics moved out of the bottom 3 last week with a huge win at Blackpool and now are 1 point clear of their defeated opponents. Martinez is aware that his side have such a bad goal difference that they need to stay at least a point ahead, but they have been tough to beat away from home and this could be the key to survival. Wigan are 3-6-7 away from home, scoring just 14 goals but only conceding 22. It says a lot about the team that have conceded less goals than Manchester United and Tottenham away from home this season, while only conceding 1 more than Arsenal.
The win at Blackpool means Wigan have picked up 7 valuable points in their last 4 Premier League games with the only pointless trip coming at Chelsea. They have lost 2 of their last 5 away League games, but 1-0 defeats at Manchester City and Chelsea are acceptable. Wigan have picked up draws with West Brom and Liverpool and beaten Blackpool in the other games.
Roberto Martinez is set to name an unchanged team after the win at Bloomfield Road. Maynor Figueroa completes his suspension.
Head to Head
The two teams have met 13 times in recent seasons, both in the Championship and the Premier League, and many of the games have been hard fought.
Wigan have 5 wins in those 13 games while Sunderland only have 2.
Sunderland have only won 1 of their last 7 home games with Wigan in all competitions, while Steve Bruce has not beaten his old side either at home or away.
The game earlier this season at the DW Stadium and the game here last season both finished 1-1.
Prediction
Just by taking a quick glance at the form and then seeing the prices at the bookmakers should automatically rule Sunderland out from the picture. They are struggling for goals, have plenty of defensive worries and look to be going in one direction so how they are quoted as low as 2.1 to win this game is beyond my comprehension.
Wigan have shown their toughness and resilience in away games all season and have now begun to add goals to those performances which makes them that much harder to play.
Defensively they have struggled a little at times with silly mistakes, but for the most part they have been solid as shown by the number of goals they have conceded.
Add to the fact that they have lost just 1 of their last 7 trips to this part of the North East of England and a 1.83 quote of them avoiding defeat against a side short of confidence looks too good to ignore.
Sunderland would probably take a draw now just so they can stop the momentum that is dragging them to the bottom of the table, and a lack of goals in the side makes it easier to back against them... That's what I will be doing here.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Sunderland 1-1 Wigan
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll back Wigan + 0.5 Asian Handicap @ 1.83 (2 UNITS)Follow me on Twitter- the direct link is below
