Derby County – Stoke City, Championship Prediction

Derby lost even to Luton last week, the last in the league. Sure, the Rams are suffering from a lack of important players plus Lampard’s great coaching skills from last season and we expect to see some changes in the summer that may eventually make Derby progress, but this season they will be difficult to complete even in the first half of the table. The Rams rely mostly on their home games, where they have two losses at home all season so far.

Stoke City have made serious progress in their last matches and are now 5 points above the danger zone and have picked up 3 wins and 1 draw in their last 4 games. Even more impressive is the character and ideas that the potters demonstrate against not any team but against Swansea and West Brom, for example, who have been defeated by Stoke in the last 2 games.

 Expert view : We expect the guests’ ascension to continue. Since Derby are obviously very difficult to beat when they host, we expect the match to be the same. We would bet on draw, but the safer bet in this case is Under 2.5 goals at 1.66. The reasons are that Stoke is closing well and it is difficult to score goals against them during this period, even more so than an insecure team like Derby. Rams, on the other hand, almost always allow 0 or 1 goals in their home games so far.

11 of Derby’s 15 home games have finished under 2.5 league goals this season

5 of Stoke’s last 6 games have ended with under 2.5 goals