Fulham – Sunderland

Sunderland’s style of play is not bad, but the results are yet to come, as in Sunday`s match against Fulham, Martin O’Neil’s players will seek for the first of the season win as a guest. The attack quality of Sunderland is beneath criticism, as the team strikers Louis Saha, Coner Wickham and Ji Dong-Won have not scored a single goal yet. Still the players tend to join the matches as substitutes so far, and 5 out of the 6 goals for Sunderland are scored by Steven Fletcher who is now taking the position of a forward despite the fact that he is very effective attacking midfielder.

At the other end is the offensive might of Fulham. With players like Berbatov, Petric, Duff, Rodallega and Ruiz the London team has one of the strongest attacks in the league. The amazing offensive selection of Martin Jol is demonstrated by the goals scored so far. The leader of the team is undoubtedly Dimitar Berbatov with his 5 goals, 3 assists and 81,6 % success rate of passes. For his short stay in Fulham, Dimiter Berbatov has already been chosen for Man of the Match for three times. A key moment of the upcoming match would be keeping the leader away by Sunderland’s defense. If they do not manage to handle this task, an away win here will be merely impossible. .

There are some more difficulties, which the ‘Black Cats’ are facing before the game against Fulham. The main defensive player of Sunderland – Kreig Gardner will miss the match because of accumulated yellow cards. Martin O’Neil sets consistent first eleven so far, which makes the team very predictable. It is expected once again that Sunderland will start with the 4-4-1-1 formation with Steven Fletcher leading the attack. On the other hand Martin Jol could use multiple variations of football formations, but we are expecting the classic 4-4-2. We will feel the absence of Mahamadou Diarra because of injury and Kris Beard – his penalty expires on 18.11.2012. .

This match will definitely offer lots of emotions to the football fans as two entirely different styles of play will confront. The Black Cats usually attacks down the wings, while Fulham mainly relies on attacking through the middle and taking a lot of shots. .

Forebet’s algorithm has calculated probability of 41% for Fulham to win, 52% for a draw and the modest 7 % for Sunderland’s win. The last three games for Fulham ended in draws and the ambition for a home win will be in presence, likewise the ambition for the team to get in top 6 of the table. At the moment West Ham are sixth in the rankings with only two points ahead of Fulham. Surprises in the Premiership are common, but a loss of Cottagers on Sunday’s match against Sunderland will definitely be a surprise.