25th Oct 2015 | Premier League
The Big Sam Plan
Sunderland are set to keep their remarkable run going in the derby but this time they'll do it the Allardyce way.
The key man in this Wear-Tyne derby is Sam Allardyce who becomes the first man to have managed both clubs in this fixture.
Big Sam’s footballing philosophy is to get the defence right first and he went some way to achieving that in his first match when West Brom only scored once when perhaps it should have been disallowed.
He knows that if the defence do their job then chances will inevitably come against opponents who have allowed 55 shots on target against themselves in just nine league outings.
Newcastle’s resounding 6-2 victory over Norwich last weekend is the classic statistical anomaly. The Magpies only had six shots on target. Before that game they had only found the net six times in total for the rest of their league campaign and only once on the road.
Allardyce will seize on this fact and we should expect him to send out his side to keep it tight and then exploit the opportunities which will inevitably come along later. I therefore like the look of ‘half-time: draw - full-time: Sunderland’ at best odds of 11/2 with BetVictor.
Odds correct at time of publishing: 09:58 25th Oct, 2015 but subject to change
