Martin Wanless predicts…
Score prediction: Sunderland 2 Fulham 0
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Habib Diarra
This is a bit of a test for us as we look to bounce back from a disappointing couple of results in the league.
Fulham are a good, steady side, but we need to take something from this game — and hopefully we’ll be able to.
We think Granit Xhaka may be missing once more, and it’s going to be interesting to see what Régis Le Bris does lineup-wise – do we go with Trai Hume in that hybrid role again, or get another attacker
into the team?
That remains to be seen but I think we’ll get over the line, with Diarra getting the first in a 2-0 win.
‘The Champion’ Malc Dugdale predicts…
Score prediction: Sunderland 2 Fulham 0
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Enzo Le Fée
Today is about resuming previous normal service at home with the minimum being “don’t lose”, and the ideal scenario being a victory.
Fulham have been poor of late, losing four of their last five compared to our own three losses across the same period, and other than Stoke City in the FA Cup, they haven’t won away since the day after Boxing Day last year.
While our away form isn’t even that good, this is at home so we have to make the most of that.
Granit Xhaka may be approaching full fitness and even if we see him on the bench and give him twenty minutes to see out a game we’re leading, he’d would be a great addition to our side. He’s been a big miss but the Lads have done OK in coping without him.
Le Fée has been one of our best players during Xhaka’s injury spell, and I’m backing him to get our first in a comfy 2-0 win “a-la Burnley”.
With other results going our way, this could see us back in the top eight and one point from the magic forty-point line, which, pre-season, we wouldn’t have dreamed about hitting around mid-February.
Jack Howe-Gingell predicts…
Score prediction: Sunderland 2 Fulham 0
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Enzo Le Fee
It’s been a tough run of fixtures for us, with only one win in four games (over a pretty poor Burnley side), although games against Arsenal and Liverpool were always going to be tough.
Fulham represents a more suitable challenge for us; although as we always seem to be saying, there are no easy games at this level.
I think we’ve shown signs of working out how to manage without Granit Xhaka, and I’d expect us to try and get on the front foot with the energy of Noah Sadiki and Habib Diarra pivotal.
It’d be nice to go out and get another ‘routine’ win — like the Burnley game — where everything comes together swimmingly and we score a couple of goals in the process.
We rested a few lads in our FA Cup progression, so they should be full of beans to get into this one. I personally wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a rested Brian Brobbey, so I’d expect him to be back to his battering best after his hardest challenge of the season with Ibrahima Konate and Virgil Van Dijk.
Will Jones predicts…
Score prediction: Sunderland 2 Fulham 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Habib Diarra
Fulham are absolutely miles off it at the minute, and the Stadium of Light has become a place teams really don’t fancy coming to as even when we’re not at our best, we still seem to find a way at home.
This feels like the sort of game where Diarra just bursts through and sticks one in early. He seems to know where the net is, and it’s something we’ve missed from our midfielders this season.
Keep us in the top half and the push for Europe!
Matty Foster predicts…
Score prediction: Sunderland 1 Fulham 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Brian Brobbey
It was pleasing to see us comfortably avoid a cup upset (much to the disappointment of the commentators), but it’s back to league action once again.
The Lads will undoubtedly be looking to put our first home defeat behind us and to turn the Stadium of Light back into a fortress.
Today’s visitors Fulham are hard to work out right now, and they’ve gone from suffering only one defeat between December and January to losing four of their last five in the league.
As is the case with all Premier League sides, it’ll be a tough game and I’m leaning towards a draw, with Brobbey opening the scoring.
Anthony Gair predicts…
Score prediction: Sunderland 3 Fulham 0
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Brian Brobbey
Sunderland will come out all guns blazing after a confidence-building walk in the park against Oxford — with the only real criticism being that of not being able to put the ball in the net more than we did!
We’ll do this in spades this afternoon, and we’ll all leave the stadium with cold smiles on our faces, returning to the European spots and dreaming about how great the world is.
Gary Winter predicts…
Score prediction: Sunderland 2 Fulham 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Brian Brobbey
Oxford away was the tough scrap I expected, and I was pleased with the resilience we showed to get through in bad conditions.
Now we can hopefully start stringing some wins together in the league — where we’ve won just two in the last ten.
Fulham’s recent league record isn’t much better, winning one of their last five, so this game presents a good chance for one team to start putting things right.
There was little between the sides in the reverse fixture and both teams are floating around in no-man’s land, but a good run of form could elevate one into European contention.
This one potentially has “draw” written all over it, but I’m going to back the Lads to get back on track at home and scrape it, with Brobbey returning to scoring ways.
Brett Lyons-Davis predicts…
Score prediction: Sunderland 2 Fulham 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Enzo Le Fée
Look out for cheeseboard and port on the train pictures as the posh kids rough it up north for the weekend.
We were poor when we played them at their place earlier in the season (surprise, surprise) but as always, the Stadium of Light is a different place.
This one won’t be easy as we play the team one place below us, but with players rested at Oxford, I think we’ll have too much for them, with Le Fée getting our first in a 2-1 victory.
Last time out…
The Lads secured a spot in the next round of the FA Cup and although it was disappointing not to score more than one (and that was from the penalty spot rather than from open play), we rested a lot of players and avoided a banana skin — which many others in that round did not.
Today, we take on Fulham and could really do with a confident performance and ideally three points to get our mojo back at the Stadium of Light following the narrow loss to Liverpool.
This is the sort of game we could do with winning for many reasons, and I’m sure Régis Le Bris and the squad will be going all out to give the fans in the stands something to warm them up.
Last game predictions…
All the lads went for a win, but none of them were a pessimistic as a narrow 0-1 away victory, so three-point hauls for correct score were not the case.
Habib Diarra took the penalty that won it, which also meant no points for the lads for first scorer, with most going for the second string attackers we expected to see a good performance from.
Predictions table and standings
Again, minor movements in the table with a single point being won by all.
Will is still top, and Gair is still bottom and hoping to accelerate up the league soon.
How the points are awarded
Just a quick reminder of how we allocate points to our match-by-match predictions:
- Correct score = Three points
- Correct outcome (but not correct score) = One point
- Correct first Sunderland goalscorer = One point (no goalscorer is a valid call)
- Possible deductions for being lazy and not submitting on time = a two-point deduction.
