Sunderland's 2022-23 Championship odds as Black Cats backed to make strong return

It took Sunderland far longer than they ever expected to make a return to the Championship after they were relegated to League One in 2017/18 but promotion was finally secured last weekend as the Black Cats defeated Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 at Wembley. They have now been backed by bookmakers to make a strong return to the second tier.

Oddschecker shows that Alex Neil's side will go into the start of the season with odds of around 20/1 to finish as league winners, seventh favourites in the division, while fellow promoted sides, Wigan Athletic and Rotherham United are expected to find things a lot more difficult as they are predicted to finish 17th and 24th respectively.

Of course, Sunderland fans will be hoping that their side will be pushing for a promotion back to the Premier League as soon as possible but after four seasons in the third tier, they would surely be delighted with a comfortable season securing their status back in the Championship. If they were to push for a play-off place and eventually finish seventh as the bookmakers suggest, that would constitute a very successful return to the league.

In Alex Neil, they have a manager who has pedigree in the division, as he won promotion from the Championship with Norwich City in 2015. With some more additions to the squad, they will hope that the bookmakers will be correct and that there will be no threat of relegation from the second tier.

Meanwhile, Watford and Norwich are expected to be in the automatic promotion spots. Reading and Birmingham join Rotherham in the bottom three, according to the bookmakers. The loser of Sunday's play-off final still need to be factored into rhe equation, of course, with either Nottingham Forest or Huddersfield providing tough