Sunday 18th October 2026
Bournemouth v Sunderland – Premier League
Vitality Stadium – Kick-Off: 14:00
Match Coverage
TV/Stream: Full live match coverage is available via Sky Sports.
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…
Midweek produced a moment that will possibly never be forgotten when it comes to the history of our club.
Our first away trip in over half a century, and we
scored a fantastic last-minute goal to make it two wins in two in the Europa League. Sadiki’s moment will forever be brilliant.
But in the here and now, there will be a decent amount of analysis and potential soul-searching around the performance until we make changes.
We could just take into account that we made seven changes from the weekend, the pitch had been ploughed ahead of kick-off, and they’d pulled a local fella that had no interest in football to referee the game, and conclude that we did well to come away with the victory.
But on the other hand, it could be looked at as a follow-on from the disappointing showing against Brighton and conclude that we haven’t stepped it up. Unfortunately, the only evidence we might have of which way we look at that is how today’s result goes.
We’ve been an odd side in the Premier League so far. Arguably our best two performances came against Brentford and Manchester City on the road, and two of the worst have come at home – one of which we claimed our only league win to date.
Today is big. Not must-win, but big. Another defeat and the pressure continues to build for a win, and we slip into the bottom three. We need some momentum going the other way – beginning today.
If it’s big for us, then it must be big for a side that also played in the Europa League in midweek and is one place below us in the table, which occupies the final relegation place.
They finished one place above us in the table last season, and despite finishing the season on a run that saw them go eighteen league games unbeaten, there was slight frustration that it could have been more. A run of six draws on the bounce, that included the fixture against us in February, means they can ask themselves “what if?”.
This incredible run was also done against the backdrop of going eleven games without a win before that and losing their best player (and former Sunderland loanee) Antoine Semenyo to Citeh in January – and if that’s not all, their manager announced he would be leaving at the end of the season as they were getting to the business end.
Marco Rose was the man who they picked to take over a daunting task, and the fact they kept on to Alex Scott in the summer provided optimism they could keep improving as their league finishes of 15th, 12th, 9th and 6th have done in their previous four years in the top-flight.
But it hasn’t gone right in terms of results so far: three draws and three defeats on the board so far and a hammering at Chelsea last time out. This is where the impact of midweek comes into play, as mentioned earlier in our case. They put in a good performance to convincingly beat Sturm Graz at the Vitality, and will now be looking to pick up their first league win ahead of the visit of AC Milan to the Vitality on Thursday.
The betting…
The bookies have the Lads at 12/5 to win the game, while Bournemouth are evens for the victory, and the draw is 5/2.
Head-to-head… at Bournemouth
(All competitive competitions)
- Sunderland wins: 4
- Draws: 1
- Bournemouth wins: 1
- Sunderland goals: 6
- Bournemouth goals: 4
Last time we met… at the Vitality Stadium
Saturday 28th February 2026
Premier League
Bournemouth 1-1 Sunderland
[Evanilson 63’ – Mayenda 18’]
Sunderland: Roefs, Geertruida, Ballard, Alderete, Hume, Xhaka (Angulo), Sadiki, Diarra, Talbi (Traore), Mayenda (Isidor) Substitutes not used: Ellborg, Jen. Jones, O’Nien, Har. Jones, Rigg, Aleksic,
Bournemouth: Petrovic, Jimenez, Truffert, Adams (Christie), Hill, Senesi, Rayan, Scott, Kroupi (Unal), Tavernier (Adli), Brooks (Evanilson) Substitutes not used: Mandas, Smith, Diakite, Milosavijevic
Attendance: 11,240
Prediction…
I’d quite happily take the 1-1 draw we came away with last season – although if we can produce some of that style we saw at Brentford and Citeh, we could come home with more.
