Norwich vs Sunderland Prediction: Black Cats to stay in automatic hunt

Sunderland still have a slim hope of earning automatic promotion from the Championship and they will be hoping to boost their chances when they head to play-off chasing Norwich on Tuesday evening (19:45, live on Sky Sports +)

The Black Cats sit fourth in the standings, eight points behind second-placed Sheffield United, while the Canaries are eight points adrift of the top six in 11th position. Read on for my Norwich vs Sunderland predictions.

Football Odds

Team News

Norwich are without the defensive duo of Benjamin Chrisene and Gabriel Forsyth, while winger Lewis Dobbin is also unavailable for this contest.

Sunderland have a lengthy injury list to contend with, especially in defence, where they are missing the services of Ajibola Alese, Daniel Ballard, Dennis Cirkin, Jenson Seelt and Niall Huggins.

Midfielder Salis Abdul Samed is also sidelined, along with attackers Ian Poveda, Jayden Danns and Romaine Mundle.

Norwich vs Sunderland Odds

Norwich are the marginal 7/5 favourites to pick up the win at Carrow Road, with the draw priced at 5/2 and Sunderland available at 9/5 to head back to Wearside with all three points.

Sunderland to win and both teams to score @ 4/1

Norwich's play-off bid has faltered over recent weeks with just one win from their last six matches and the 2-1 loss to rock-bottom Plymouth was another dagger in the Canaries' hearts.

An eight-point gap with five teams to overhaul seems like a lot of work for an out-of-sorts Norwich to do, and they may struggle to get back to winning ways when Sunderland visit.

The Black Cats are not quite out of the automatic promotion picture just yet and they have built up some momentum with successive 1-0 victories over Millwall and West Brom.

Defensive injuries are a concern for Regis Le Bris, though, and his side will find it hard to keep out a City side who have scored in their last eight matches in a row.

But the Canaries have been poor at the back, keeping just one clean sheet in 10 games and conceding seven goals in their past four, and that fragile defence can be exposed by Sunderland.

The Wearsiders won the reverse fixture 2-1 in December and they have triumphed in five of the last eight meetings.

Josh Sargent anytime goalscorer @ 15/8

Norwich are fancied to get on the scoresheet on Tuesday and one player who has been banging in the goals is Josh Sargent, who has 14 in the league to sit third in the Golden Boot race.

The 25-year-old USA international has netted in his last two appearances, against West Brom and Plymouth, while he has also struck seven times across his last seven outings at Carrow Road.

Sargent also has two goals in three appearances against Sunderland and he looks capable of continuing his impressive form against the Black Cats.

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