Sunderland mark their return to Championship action with a home fixture against Coventry City on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Sky Blues make the long trip to the Stadium of Light looking to improve on their solid campaign under Mark Robins during 2021-22.

When Sunderland made the decision to replace Lee Johnson with Alex Neil at the start of the year, they were naturally taking a considerable risk in a bid to earn a long-awaited return to the Championship.

However, Black Cats fans need not have worried, the Scot delivering 10 wins and seven draws from 18 games to earn promotion through the League One playoffs.

Two-and-a-half months on from that success and Sunderland fans will have high hopes that their club can cement themselves back in the second tier, a consequence of some smart business being conducted by Neil and the powers-that-be.

The acquisition of Arsenal defender Daniel Ballard stands out thus far, Neil requiring foundations to be laid at the back before they can contemplate a bid for the playoffs.

Results-wise, Sunderland have endured a tough pre-season, a schedule which was concluded with failure to defeat any of Bradford City, Accrington Stanley or Hartlepool United.

Such was the level of Coventry's improvement last season that many of their fans would have been disappointed with the eventual 12th-placed finish.

Nevertheless, Robins will take that as a compliment, and there is expectation that the Sky Blues can put together a more sustained push this time around.

As well as a 100% record being posted in their friendlies, Robins will be delighted to sign the likes of former Chelsea youngsters Jonathan Panzo and Kasey Palmer.

More incomings will inevitably follow but for now at least, everything is pointing to Coventry being ideally prepared to make a fast start to the new campaign.

In this game I see a big imbalance in the Handicap line due to the bad results of Sunderland in the pre-season, I believe that the market weighs too much against Sunderland in a game that has everything to be very balanced, so we will be in favor of Sunderland AH +0.50 in that match.

Probable scores here are 0-0 1-0

Marco Antonio,

GL!

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

桑德兰主场迎战考文垂城，标志着他们重返英冠赛场。

与此同时，天空蓝军长途跋涉来到光明球场，希望在2021-22赛季，在马克·罗宾斯的带领下提高他们的稳定表现。

当桑德兰在今年年初决定用亚历克斯·尼尔取代李·约翰逊时，他们自然是在冒着相当大的风险来争取期待已久的英冠回归。

然而，黑猫队的球迷们并不需要担心，苏格兰人在18场比赛中取得了10胜7平的成绩，从而在英甲季后赛中晋级。

在取得成功两个半月后，桑德兰球迷将对他们的俱乐部重新回到二线抱有很高的希望，这是尼尔和掌权人精明经商的结果。

阿森纳后卫丹尼尔·巴拉德的转会迄今为止非常引人注目，尼尔要求在他们考虑进军季后赛之前在后防线上打好基础。

从结果来看，桑德兰经历了一场艰难的季前赛，在这个赛程中，桑德兰没有击败任何一支球队，包括布拉德福德城，阿克灵顿斯坦利和哈特尔普尔联队。

考文垂上赛季的进步如此之大，以至于他们的许多球迷会对最终排名第12感到失望。

尽管如此，罗宾斯将把这视为一种赞美，并期待天空蓝调这次可以一起进行更持久的推动。

除了在友谊赛中取得100%的战绩外，罗宾斯还会很高兴签下前切尔西小将乔纳森·潘佐和凯西·帕尔默。

更多的收入将不可避免地随之而来，但至少就目前而言，一切都表明考文垂已经做好了快速开始新运动的理想准备。

在这场比赛中，由于桑德兰在季前赛的糟糕成绩，我看到了残障线的巨大不平衡，我相信在一场一切都非常平衡的比赛中，市场对桑德兰的权重太大了，所以我们将在那场比赛中支持桑德兰。

预测比分0:0或1:0。