Championship leaders Leicester City will be aiming to record an eighth straight league win when they welcome Sunderland to the King Power Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Foxes lead the division after 12 games with 33 points, while Sunderland is in sixth place with 19 points from their first 12 games of the 2023–24 season.
Match preview
Despite their unexpected relegation from the Premier League the previous season, Leicester’s history made them heavy favorites to win the Championship this year.
The Foxes have hardly missed a step this season, winning 11 of their 12 Championship games, with their only loss of the campaign coming at home to Hull City at the start of September.
Since then, Enzo Maresca‘s side have won seven league games in a row, including a 3-1 success over Swansea City in Wales on Saturday afternoon, with the visitors recovering from an early setback to score three unanswered goals.
The fact that players like Patson Daka, Harry Souttar, and Marc Albrighton could not even get off the bench on Saturday and that Kelechi Iheanacho was not a starter show the caliber of players Maresca has at his disposal.
There is still a ton of football left in the season, but if Leicester did not win the Championship, that would be shocking. They are currently in a fantastic position to advance, sitting 11 points ahead of Leeds United in third place in the standings.
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Sunderland will also have their eyes on promotion this term, with the Black Cats narrowly missing out last season, losing to Luton Town in the semi-finals of the playoffs after finishing sixth in the table.
With six wins, one tie, and five losses from their 12 league games so far this season, Tony Mowbray’s team is sitting sixth in the division with 19 points, just three points behind Leeds United in third.
Sunderland are only three points ahead of 15th-placed Blackburn Rovers, though, so a lot could change in a short space of time, especially with the Black Cats losing their last two.
In fact, Mowbray’s team has not won since defeating Watford 2-0 at home at the beginning of the month. On Saturday, they lost 4-0 at home to Middlesbrough before falling 2-1 at Stoke City.
Sunderland will be determined to bounce back on Tuesday evening, but they have only overcome Leicester once since January 2007, and they were beaten 2-0 by the Foxes in their last meeting at the King Power Stadium during the 2016-17 Premier League campaign.
