Against All Odds: Sunderland and Stoke to surprise with goals

6May 2013

England - Premier League

Sunderland and Stoke face each other in the Monday night football match live on Sky Sports One at 20:00 and Paul Robinson thinks that we could be in for a feast of goals.

Paulo Di Canio's Sunderland suffered a set-back in their battle for survival last week as they were hammered 6-1 by Aston Villa. Following Wigan's victory at West Brom they are now just two points clear of safety and are in huge danger of going down.

Stephane Sessegnon saw red at Villa Park and his absence will be a huge blow to The Black Cats as he scored in the recent victories against Newcastle and Everton. Nevertheless, under Di Canio, Sunderland have been getting more men into the box and they look much more of a threat than they did under Martin O'Neill.

Stoke had slid down the table after going in a disastrous run in 2013 but back to back wins has seen them hit the magic 40 point mark and they are now pretty much safe.

Tony Pullis' men really knuckled down under pressure and they produced decent displays in beating both QPR and Norwich. Peter Crouch and Charlie Adam netted in those matches and after a barren campaign by their standards, they could possibly finish with a flourish given their recent confidence boosts.

On paper you'd argue that this would most likely be a low scoring affair and while that may be true, under 2.5 goals just seems a touch too short at around the 1.62 mark and that's why, at the prices, I have to make it my lay of the day.