Saturday 10th October 2026
Sunderland v Brighton – Premier League
Stadium Of Light – Kick-Off: 15:00
Match Coverage
TV/Stream: Full live match coverage is unavailable.
Radio: Full live match commentary available via BBC Radio Newcastle (not online)
Don’t forget to follow the blow-by-blow account of the game on the Roker Report Twitter feed (@RokerReport) and check out the player ratings after the full-time whistle at www.RokerReport.sbnation.com!
The build-up…
I’m just going to come out and say it: I’ve enjoyed the international break – there, I’ve done it and admitted this to myself.
By the way, when I mean enjoyed it, I haven’t
watched one England game… or any other international fixture. It just feels like the calm before the storm: nine games in thirty days and it all starts today. Knowing that, it was easy to not want the next fixture to come too quickly because it’s going to be relentless.
By the way, on this, I’d love to be a young’un with no responsibilities. I thought it was fun travelling the length of the country watching Reidy’s side, but if you’re at the right age with nothing to worry about and disposable cash, the next couple of months are going to be great.
What it also means, however, is that we could do with setting the tone for the run ahead. I’m sure the mantra of taking one game at a time will be a thing, but it would be very useful to kick off this run with a result today, and that’s not going to be an easy task.
We’ll come onto Brighton in a moment, but as international breaks go, it hasn’t been our most productive on the face of it. I write this ahead of Le Bris’ press conference, and everyone will be eager to hear what the official line is on Dan Ballard and Brian Brobbey from the mouth of our manager, as well as rumours that Noah Sadiki and Wilson Isidor picked up knocks.
Last season we had a very clear target of collecting forty points as quickly as possible, and a minimum requirement is to stay on a ratio of no worse than roughly one point per game. Should we lose today, we’ll be slipping behind and building pressure to get that back on track.
Now on to high-flying Brighton, who have carried on the momentum of qualifying for a European competition for a second time in four years, despite losing their last two games of the season.
It was a fantastic achievement, which came at the end of Fabian Hürzeler’s second season as manager, at the ripe old age of 33. Brighton once again pulled an appointment out of their data-driven hat to pull off another coup.
This is especially true considering that former manager Roberto De Zerbi is languishing at the foot of the table with Spurs, while Brighton sit third, the usual suspects in the top two.
On paper they roughly spent the amount they recouped with outgoing transfers, and got off to a cracking start by thumping Aston Villa 4-0 on the opening day. An unfortunate 4-3 defeat at Stamford Bridge and a disappointing draw at home to Leeds followed, but they then went to Coventry and won 5-0 and backed it up with the result of the season when they beat Arsenal 3-0 on home soil.
They are shaping up for another impressive season down on the south coast, but time will tell if the result against Coventry was as good as it looks, and their other result on the road ended in defeat. Combine that with our performances before the break and knowing how good we can be at home, and we should still be confident.
The betting…
The bookies have the Lads at 15/8 to win the game, while Brighton are 7/5 for the victory, and the draw is 23/10.
Head-to-head… in Sunderland
(All competitive competitions)
- Sunderland wins: 11
- Draws: 4
- Brighton wins: 3
- Sunderland goals: 30
- Brighton goals: 14
Last time we met… at the Stadium of Light
Saturday 14th March 2026
Premier League
Sunderland 0-1 Brighton
[Minteh 58’]
Sunderland: Roefs, Geertruida, Ballard (O’Nien), Alderete, Hume, Xhaka, Sadiki, Rigg, Diarra, Talbi (Cirkin), Brobbey (Mayenda) Substitutes not used: Moore, Jen. Jones, Whittaker, Jay. Jones, Har. Jones, Isidor
Brighton: DVerbruggen, Wieffer, Kadioglu, Milner, Van Hecke, Dunk, Gomez (Veltman), Gross, Welbeck (O’Riley), Hinshelwood (Ayari), Minteh (De Cuyper) Substitutes not used: Steele, Boscagli, Howell, March, Rutter
Attendance: 47,197
