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Jigsaws, crosswords & sudoko are all different kinds of puzzles and this clash of Blackburn & Sunderland looks like another one which is definitely not easy for football punters to solve with confidence.
The facts are both Blackburn Rovers & Sunderland are struggling for their best form & certainly to win games with both not having won since the middle of November & clearly that only adds to the difficulty of solving which way, if any this game might go.

Blackburn Rovers have been relatively strong at home this season & indeed if it was not for their home form then they would already be condemned as all but relegated given how poor they have been away from Ewood Park.

Blackburn have secured 15 of their 20 league points at home this season from 4 wins & 3 draws in their first 9 home league matches and that clearly highlights how important this home match is to them.

Sam Allardyce knows Blackburn face a tough struggle until the end of the season because while they currently sit 12th in the Premier League, they are only 3 points above 2nd bottom & relegation is a very serious possibility for them.

Blackburn’s strength at home this season has been their ability to keep defensively tight & solid with only 9 goals conceded in 9 games and clearly their best chance of a positive result & indeed a win lies in maintaining that defensive solidity here & that is how we expect Blackburn to approach this fixture.

Sam Allardyce will of course want to win this match but goalscoring has been a major problem for Blackburn so far this season & that does put extra pressure on the team which makes it harder to achieve wins so this could be another struggle for Blackburn.

Steve Bruce is desperate to get Sunderland winning matches again & most certainly to improve Sunderland’s terrible away form which has seen them achieve only 4 points from a possible 27 on their travels this season.

Steve Bruce has ambitions of achieving at least european football with Sunderland & clearly to do that they have to start winning matches again & we expect Sunderland to be positive here & go for the win because they definitely have the attacking talent to do that.

Sunderland’s big weakness away from home has not been scoring enough goals with only 8 in their previous 9 away matches but 3 of those came in their incredible 4-3 defeat away at Manchester City and that at least proved they have the ability to score away from home.

This is a massively important match for both Blackburn & Sunderland and certainly one that both teams will feel pressure to win which will make it very competitive & intense so any result is possible & indeed a scoring draw is very tempting but we are going to take a chance on Sunderland having the extra attacking quality on the day with Darren Bent a value bet to lead by example.

Betting Recommendations:

Outright Match Betting: Sunderland to win

Correct Score options: Sunderland to win 2-0/2-1

First goalscorer each way/Player to score anytime: Bent/Jones/Malbranque

Scorecast options: Bent/Jones/Malbranque score 1st & Sunderland win 2-0/2-1

Double Result: Sunderland Half Time & Full Time