Preview: Coventry City vs Bristol City - prediction, team news, lineups

Continuing their charge towards the Premier League, Coventry City welcome Bristol City to The Coventry Building Society Arena for a Championship battle on Saturday afternoon.

The Sky Blues were forced to settle for a point on the road last time out, and the same can be said of the Robins in the East Midlands.

Match preview

After a couple of failed playoff attempts over the past three years under Mark Robins, Coventry City are hunting down automatic promotion to the Premier League this time around, however their charge has taken a tiny detour.

The Sky Blues have collected just the single point from their last two matches in the second tier, losing heavily at the base of promotion favourites Ipswich Town, before sharing the spoils with Preston North End earlier in the week.

Looking to record their 14th second-tier success of the campaign at the third attempt in December, Frank Lampard's side are sitting pretty at the very summit of the Championship standings, five points ahead of Middlesbrough in second.

The form of the Sky Blues at their CBS Arena base has been simply stunning so far, with Saturday afternoon's hosts winning seven and drawing two of their nine contests at the venue, netting 25 goals in the process.

With some notable attacking players on the sidelines for Coventry at the moment, goals are coming from all across the team, including American marksman Haji Wright, who bagged eight strikes to date this season.

Due to the nature of the playoff race this season, there is the opportunity for a team to rise through the crowd and cement themselves in the top six, however Bristol City are currently one of the teams passing up that chance.

The Robins have now tasted victory in just one of their last four second-tier contests after a pulsating clash with former Premier League champions Leicester City on Wednesday, when Mark Sykes and Emil Riis Jakobsen found the net at Ashton Gate.

Collecting just the single point from their opening two matches of the December schedule, Bristol City are languishing down in 10th place in the Championship table, one point off the playoffs and nine behind second-placed Boro.

Gerhard Sturber's troops have fared relatively well on the road so far this season, with the West Country outfit losing just two of their nine away matches, and they rank fifth in the away form table, behind the likes of Coventry and Millwall.

Scoring the only goal during Bristol City's most recent away success at Fratton Park against Portsmouth on November 29, Anis Mehmeti is the star of the show in attack for the visitors, scoring six in the Championship so far.

Coventry City Championship form: W W W W L D

Bristol City Championship form: D W L W L D

Team News

Leading his side's Golden Boot race with 10 league goals, Coventry star Brandon Thomas-Asante is currently sidelined with a hamstring issue.

The Sky Blues are also light on options in their goalkeeping ranks, with Oliver Dovin recovering from a serious knee problem.

There are doubts over Milan van Ewijk's availability ahead of this weekend, with the right-back picking up an illness.

Bristol City's medical room remains relatively full heading into the busy festive period, with Rob Atkinson (hamstring) out of action.

There are a number of attacking players pushing for Robins starts, including Sinclair Armstrong and Yu Hirakawa.

Coventry City possible starting lineup:

Rushworth; Kesler-Hayden, Thomas, Kitching, Dasilva; Eccles, Grimes, Sakamoto, Rudoni, Mason-Clark; Wright

Bristol City possible starting lineup:

Vitek; Tanner, Dickie, Borges; McCrorie, Sykes, Randell, Mehmeti, Pring; Armstrong, Jakobsen

We say: Coventry City 2-0 Bristol City

Despite both sides keeping a league-high seven clean sheets so far, we are not expecting a goalless affair between Coventry and Bristol City this weekend.

After a pair of challenging away matches, the Sky Blues will be hellbent on flexing their title-winning credentials at the CBS Arena.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.