- Sunderland winless vs. Liverpool since 2012
- Reds hold 76W-36D-52L all-time advantage
- Black Cats 7 points back of safety
Sunderland looks to the Stadium of Light in a bid to snap a four-game losing skid when Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool visits the Northeast on Wednesday (Watch live, 2:45 p.m. ET on NBCSN and online via Live Extra).
Sam Allardyce’s Black Cats have fallen back into hard times after a brief run of form early in his tenure as Sunderland boss. The Englishman has faced a murderer’s row of opponents in the club’s four-game run, with Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Watford all beating Sunderland.
Meanwhile, Klopp looks to see consistency restored to his side. Liverpool lost two of three before beating Leicester City on Boxing Day, and the Reds can rise to within a point of fifth with all three points today.
It’s the Jordan Henderson-Fabio Borini Derby, and it’s Wednesday in the Premier League.
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What they’re saying
Sunderland disrupter Lee Cattermole on the club’s problems: “At the minute teams are thinking it’s a bit too easy against us so we need to show a willingness to defend our own goal and do the hard part of it. When we don’t have the ball we need to get focused, look at our position, our shape and whether we are pressing it or dropping off.”
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson on facing Sunderland: “We will have to be clever again at Sunderland because it will be a difficult game for us so we need to make sure we do the same as we did against Leicester. We need to find different solutions in games and make sure we win the battle. Fighting throughout is just a given, really. We should be doing that every week and we need to make sure we do it again on Wednesday.”
Prediction
The venue will keep this one tight, as the Black Cats have taken down Stoke and Newcastle at the Stadium of Light, and held Spurs, Watford and Southampton to 1-0 margins in losses. But Liverpool’s depth is far better than Sunderland’s given the time between games, and the difference in class overall is gulf-sized. We’ve got it 2-1 for the Reds.