Two sides heading seemingly in completely opposite directions as of late come face-to-face in the solitary (not-so) Super Sunday encounter at Carrow Road. Norwich have built up a seven-match unbeaten run in a highly assured manner and made their home ground somewhat of a fortress, losing just once all season and conceding the joint-second fewest amount of home goals out of all twenty Premiership teams.
The likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Stoke have all drawn blanks in Norfolk and the Canaries rearguard, now marshalled by supremely disciplined defenders in Michael Turner and Sebastien Bassong, can be reasonably confident of shutting out a Sunderland side - one win in eight, the win in question against ten men of Fulham - for whom its simply not happening in front of goal this season.
A paltry return of 12 goals in 13 games means only QPR have scored less this season, and the Wearsiders never looked remotely likely of bagging against the Hoops on Tuesday.
Tip - Norwich Clean Sheet 7/4 Ladbrokes
The Monday Night fare for Gary Neville and Ed Chamberlain to pore over, with their ipads and special electronic pens to hand, comes from the Stadium Formerly Known As Sports Direct Arena as Alan Pardew leads his Newcastle outfit into battle against Wigan in the knowledge that he has probably never craved a victory during his tenure at Tyneside than as much as he does now.
Four defeats in a row, two wins in ten, a lengthy injury list, and reports of player contractual unrest are all major contributing to a season in danger of being majorly underwhelming in comparison to the Geordies notable efforts of 2011/12. They were chasing 4th place all last season. They are currently 14th.
Wigan, one place below, are enjoying their football as of late and will be delighted with the extra days to recover from their honourable effort in defeat against Man City on Wednesday. The beauty of Wigan is that home or away they give sides a real go, and there is no reason as to why they cannot include St. James’ Park alongside Anfield, Emirates and White Hart Lane on their list of scalp venues this calendar year.
Backing Wigan not to lose at just short of odds-against is the value bet at this moment in time.
Tip - Wigan +0.5 Asian Handicap PinnacleBet 9/10
Written by Emelie Okeke
Follow him on Twitter @Emelie_Okeke
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