Coventry v Sunderland: Back Sky Blues star to strike at CBS Arena

• Viktor Gyokeres has 8 goals in 14 home games

• Swedish striker leads the league in on-target attempts

• Sunderland yet to silence a top side when playing away

Coventry keep top-six hopes alive

Goals from Jamie Allen and Viktor Gyokeres gave Coventry maximum points at Rotherham last weekend to keep the Sky Blues in the hunt for a top-six finish.

Victory at the New York Stadium - City's second successive Championship triumph - leaves Mark Robins' men just five points off the play-off positions as enter the final third of the campaign.

Allen's goal - two minutes into the second half - was his sixth of the season, while 15-goal top scorer Gyokeres' strike in injury time secured the success for Coventry, only their fourth on their travels this term.

However, most impressive was the Sky Blues recording a 15^th clean sheet of the season - a league-best return - and facing a solitary shot on-target.

Speaking post-match, Robins revealed a good old fashioned team talk at the break sparked his City side to a "controlled" victory. He said, "We spoke about upping the work-rate 10% and how that would win us the game. The breakaway for the first goal was brilliant and we managed the game pretty well - to a man we stood up, because they're a physical team."

Robins has real options at his disposal following the return from injury of some of his key players in recent weeks.

Although the Sky Blues will continue to be without influential holding midfielder Ben Sheaf and attacking midfielder Callum O'Hare, defenders Jonathan Panzo and Fankaty Dabo will be back in the squad this weekend. Fabio Tavares is out.

Mowbray takes blame for Sunderland loss

Sunderland chief Tony Mowbray said he felt that his change of approach played its part in the Black Cats' lacklustre opening after they fell to a disappointing midweek defeat against Rotherham.

The Wearsiders' boss made three changes to guard against fatigue, but also shifted to a 4-4-2 system with Alex Pritchard out wide and Jack Clarke through the middle.

Mowbray felt Sunderland were vulnerable to Rotherham's high-pressing approach and didn't want to give the home side any encouragement, but in the end his side lacked their usual fluency and improved in a more familiar system later in the game.

Joe Gelhardt almost set up a grandstand finish by scoring his first Sunderland goal, but the Black Cats fell short.

Mowbray said, "It was a big learning curve for us. It took us until we went 2-0 down to begin to look like the team that we are. I changed the shape to try to play slightly differently against their pressure, but I think ultimately, we're better at doing what we normally do. For this team to function we need everybody to be at their maximum and we weren't."

Lynden Gooch remains a doubt for Sunderland on Saturday, while Ross Stewart, Corry Evans and Elliot Embleton have been sidelined with long-term setbacks. Patrick Roberts is expected to be recalled to the starting XI after his half-hour cameo from the bench in Tuesday night's defeat.

Sky Blues fair favourites

Coventry have had the upper-hand in recent meetings with Sunderland. The Sky Blues boast a W5-D5-L2 return in league tussles dating back to the start of the century, with City coming into this clash unbeaten in five head-to-head encounters against the Black Cats (W2-D3-L0).

Meanwhile, Coventry have W6-D4-L0 in home match-ups with Sunderland since 1985.

Coventry 2.285/4 have proven obdurate opposition in the Championship this season.

The Sky Blues have lost four times at their CBS Arena base (W8-D5-L4) and tabled five triumphs in eight home games with top-10 opponents (W5-D1-L2).

Mark Robins' men have kept a league-high 15 clean sheets, five of which arrived here against top-10 opposition.

Only four clubs have earned more points on their travels than Sunderland 3.259/4 with the Black Cats posting W7-D5-L5.

Tony Mowbray's troops have W8-D5-L4 since mid-October to move within striking distance of the top-six, although the Wearsiders' have W3-D6-L8 when taking on teams in 14^th or above, suggesting the visitors fall short against the leading lights.

Contrasting goal trends

Contests involving Coventry have been relatively low-scoring affairs with just three Championship teams seeing a lower goals per-game average than the 2.13 when the Sky Blues are involved.

A chunky 23/32 (72%) of City's overall league matches have featured Under 2.5 Goals 1.664/6 with 13 of their 17 CBS Arena dates following suit.

Sunderland's away days have been more fruitful for goals-based backers - 9/17 (53%) have covered the Over 2.5 Goals 2.226/5 line, whilst 11 (65%) paid out for Both Teams To Score 1.981/1 hunters.

Meanwhile, the Black Cats have failed to keep their sheets clean at top-half teams, conceding multiple goals in four of those seven away trips.

With Sunderland not accustomed to keeping elite opposition out, Coventry hot-shot Viktor Gyokeres stands out at 2.506/4 in the Anytime Goalscorer market.

The Swedish striker has 14 goals already this term - eight of which have arrived at the CBS Arena - and the Sky Blues star has fired in more on-target attempts than any other Championship player this season.