Sunderland vs. Coventry City Betting Tips: Best bets from the Stadium of Light

One Championship game takes place on Sunday with newly promoted Sunderland hosting Coventry City at the Stadium of Light. The game kicks off at 12 noon and we’ve got @AnthonyEadson on hand to preview the action and provide us with his best bets. 

After gaining promotion via the play-offs, Sunderland are now back in the second tier of English football and the Black Cats have made a statement of intent with plenty of new signings. Jack Clarke has arrived from Spurs on a permanent basis and Aji Alise and Daniel Ballard look strong defensive recruits. 

Alex Neil worked wonders with this squad last season and had they started the campaign with him in charge they would have finished higher than 5th in the table. Their end of season numbers were really strong and Neil instilled a mentality where Sunderland became really horrible to play against. 

Coventry are the opposition for Sunderland on Sunday and they finished 11 points outside the play-offs last season after a solid campaign. Callum Doyle, Jonathan Panzo and Kasey Palmer have all arrived this summer, but crucially Coventry have managed to hang on to Viktor Gyokeres, Callum O’Hare and Gustavo Hamer. Inconsistency was a common factor for Coventry last season and if they can iron out some of those issues, they could well improve on their 12th placed finish. 

Sunderland have no injury concerns for their opening fixture, while Mark Robins has Liam Kelly sidelined, with Martyn Waghorn also doubtful for the visitors.

Only seven players in the Championship scored more goals than Coventry’s Viktor Gyokeres in 2021/2022. The Swedish striker netted on 17 occasions last term, but it’s the shots on target market where I’ve backed him for the trip to Sunderland. 

70.5% of Gyokeres’ goals were scored at home last season with just five coming on the road and I think he looks a better proposition to have 2+ shots on target at the Stadium of Light. 7/4 is available with Skybet and 6/4 with bet365 at the time of writing but it will be worth checking other firms closer to kick-off to see if that price can be beaten. 

Aleksandar Mitrovic was the only player in the Championship to register more shots on target than Gyokeres last season, with the Coventry man having an average of 1.6 per 90 minutes across the course of the campaign. This selection landed in four of the 24-year-olds last five matches last season and I fancy Coventry to put in a strong showing here, with Gyokeres hopefully leading the charge. 

The second selection I’m touting on Sunday is for Sunderland’s Luke O’Nien to be carded. 4/1 is available at the time of writing with Unibet, which looks a little generous in my book, with other firms going around the 5/2 mark. 

The 27-year-old was shown a yellow card in six of his 27 starts in League One last season and was also booked in two of his three appearances in the Carabao Cup. In the campaign prior, O’Nien received nine yellows and one red card and with Alex Neil’s style of play I fancy him to pick up plenty this term.

Darren Bond will be the man with this whistle in the North East on Sunday. The official averaged 3.60 yellow cards shown per game across the ten Championship games he took control of last season, however, a good omen here could be that the last time Bond was in charge of a Sunderland game, he booked O’Nien. This came back in April when the Black Cats beat Shrewsbury 3-2, and with a lively atmosphere for their return to the Championship I fancy a repeat in the opening weekend of the season.

Best of luck to anyone tailing the selections. As always, please gamble responsibly.