Sunderland travel to Oxford United today in what could be a big game in both the promotion race and relegation scrap. 

Jack Ross’ Sunderland side enter the game in fourth spot in the table and have their eyes on the automatic promotion spots, with two games in hand. 

With all due respect to Oxford, The Black Cats will be expecting to win this tie and they should expect no less if they are to win promotion this season. 

Last time out, Sunderland managed a 1-0 victory over another relegation contender, Wimbledon, with the only goal in that game coming from man of the match, Aiden McGeady.

As for Oxford, Karl Robinson’s side managed a goalless draw at Burton last time out, and enter this game in the bottom four on goal difference. 

They are certainly in for a fight and any sort of result against Sunderland would give them a huge boost. 

Here, we look at THREE things we expect to see in the big match later today…

Will Grigg debut

In what was a fairly uneventful transfer window in the country as a whole, one of the late sagas was Will Grigg’s move to Sunderland, which flickered on and off more than a light switch. 

We’d expect Grigg to make his debut today, whether that be from the start or off the bench. 

A start for O’Nien

Luke O’Nien has impressed for Sunderland in his limited game time, and was a menace in the Checkatrade tie against Manchester City U21s last week. 

We think that Jack Ross may have been won over by O’Nien, and that he will give the youngster a start. 

Oxford to leak goals 

Oxford have one of the worst defences in the whole of the Football League, and against a strong attack with a plethora of talent like Sunderland, we think they may leak goals.

They will start with men behind the ball, but if Sunderland score early, the floodgates could open and we would expect Ross’ men to score a few.