Premier League preview: Wolverhampton v Sunderland

Sunderland will look to consolidate their early charge up the Premier League table when they travel to Wolverhampton on Saturday.

The Black Cats are a surprise seventh on the table, two points behind Bolton in fifth and eight points off league leaders Chelsea, who Sunderland famously thumped 3-0 at Stamford Bridge two match days ago.

Steve Bruce’s men then came from behind to secure a 2-2 draw with Everton last time out for a total of 20 points from 14 matches.

Monday’s match with the Toffees ended a rather impressive run for Sunderland this term.

In 14 matches, the Black Cats played every member of last season’s top 10 and lost to none of them.

Most notably, Sunderland took the points over Manchester City, Aston Villa and Chelsea, and shared them with Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham.

Now, Sunderland head into a run of winnable matches against relegation battlers Wolverhampton, West Ham United and Fulham, and will be expecting nine points from the next three weeks.

Wolves have plummeted to 19th on the table with nine points, ahead of West Ham by goal difference, with nine losses in their past 11 league games.

All Mick McCarthy’s men have achieved lately is a 1-1 draw with West Ham and a surprise 2-1 defeat of Manchester City that was more City’s loss than Wolves’ win.

Wolverhampton went down 2-1 at Blackpool last time out, putting McCarthy under considerable pressure ahead of the match against his former club.

Worse still, they lost Karl Henry to a medial ligament injury in the loss to the Tangerines, and the inspirational captain is not expected to return for two months.

The situation has become so dire that Wolves midfielder David Jones admitted mid-week the club would be gunning for a point, no matter the cost, when Sunderland visit the Molineux.

“I think our focus now has switched to just getting a result, especially after the weekend we’ve just had,” Jones said.

“We really thought we could get a win at Blackpool so now we’ve got to get a result whatever it takes.”

Wolves are yet to keep a clean sheet once this season and are unlikely to do so against Sunderland, who have a number of attacking options at their disposal.

Darren Bent completed his return from a hamstring injury with a run against Everton on Monday, and will be keen to add to his tally of six goals.

Then there is young Manchester United loan forward Danny Welbeck, who netted both goals against the Toffees and will be keen to get on the scoresheet again at the Molineux.

On the injury front, Sunderland have lost defender Titus Bramble (knee) and striker Asamoah Gyan (thigh) after the pair missed the Everton match.

They join John Mensah, David Meyler and Frazer Campbell on the sidelines.

In addition to Henry, McCarthy will be unable to call on the services of Dave Edwards, Jody Craddock, Ronald Zubar and Adlene Guedioura.