Sunderland remained in the bottom three as they were beaten at home by Chelsea, but a victory over relegation rivals Reading would be a perfect tonic for team’s dismal run of results.

The Royals are six points adrift of safety after losing to Southampton, meaning this is a must-win game for them as well.

Nobody believed Sunderland would be involved in the relegation race before the season started, but the reality is the Black Cats have done nothing to show they should not be fighting for their lives.

The situation is still not alarming as Martin O’Neill’s side are just two points adrift of safety, but fail to beat Reading at home and Sunderland will be in problems.

Team’s home form has been very patchy of late, with Sunderland losing four of last five games, while sharing spoils with bottom-placed QPR, but odds of 2.00 (1/1) offered on home win at Coral suggest the Black Cats might just edge this one.

Steven Fletcher should return to the starting line-up, but Lee Cattermole and Wes Brown remain long-term casualties.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-1-1): Mignolet – Bardsley, Cuellar, O’Shea, Rose – Johnson, Larsson, Gardner, McClean – Sessegnon – Fletcher.

In spite of the promising start to the league campaign, Reading have slipped into the relegation zone and they don’t look capable of leaving the bottom three any time soon.

Their four-match losing run wouldn’t be so disappointing if the Royals had shown some promise in the relegation derby against Southampton, but they utterly failed to do so, having been completely outclassed by the Saints.

Everybody can now see that Brian McDermott’s side lack the quality as well as experience to play at this level and I just don’t see how they are going to survive this campaign.

After failing to score in their last two away games, Reading are 2.70 (17/10) with Sportingbet to continue the dismal run.

Defender Chris Gunter misses out with a hamstring problem, while Pavel Pogrebnyak, Jem Karacan, Alex McCarthy, Sean Morrison and Jimmy Kebe are also sidelined.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Federici – Cummings, Mariappa, Pearce, Shorey – Robson-Kanu, Leigertwood, Tabb, McAnuff – Le Fondre, Roberts.