Match Preview: Sunderland v Bournemouth — Will The Lads Get Back To Winning Ways?!

Tickets & Match Coverage

Tickets: Tickets are sold out.

TV/Stream: Full live match coverage is unavailable in the UK.

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…

Last Saturday was a timely reminder of what the Premier League is all about. We’ve had plenty of times over the years when we have experienced first hand how tough this league can be – especially when you accumulate less than a point every other game – but on this occasion it came at a time when we might have thought we’d cracked it.

Seven weeks had passed since our previous defeat at Old Trafford at the beginning of October, and we bounced back with two back-to-back victories at home to Wolves and at Stamford Bridge, and the wake-up call that was the first half against Everton was used to fuel an incredible performance against league leaders Arsenal.

We spent the third international break sitting in a Champions League spot ahead of a trip to Fulham who appeared to be struggling – and we were brought back down to Earth with a bump. The performance has been pulled apart, but there is one thing that we can be sure of when it comes to this Sunderland manager and his side, and that is we will learn from it.

The reaction to the defeat at Old Trafford was outlined above, but at the beginning of the season we had to react to a flat performance at Turf Moor when Burnley ran out 2-0 winners, and we did that by beating Brentford in the next game and we lost just one of the next nine.

We’re now in a position where we are looking for our first win in three, and of those three games our best performance came in the game that had the lowest expectations, where the two we felt we had a good chance of winning the performance was maybe not quite what we were expecting.

The debate has been had in the days that followed last week whether this was down to the way we set up, how we applied ourselves, or both – so all eyes will be on the starting XI to see how the manager reacts.

With our Sunderland supporting hat on, we’d like to think of ourselves as the story of the season in the Premier League – and for this piece let’s just know that this is true – but not far behind is AFC Bournemouth and their season so far.

It’s probably my crap memory, but I’d actually completely forgotten that they had been relegated from the Premier League fairly recently. In my head, they’d had a long continuous stint in the top flight, but they were relegated after five years rubbing shoulders with the elite in 2019-20.

A lot of people might have thought that would be the last we would see of the Cherries at that level for some time given they weren’t expected to stay around for so long, but it took just two years for them to bounce back under Scott Parker. The first year back in the Premier League saw Parker leave and Gary O’Neill would steady the ship and guide them to a 15th place finish – but they then went in a different direction.

The summer of 2023 saw the highly-rated Rayo Vallecano head coach Andoni Iraola take charge at Dean Court, and after a solid 12th place finish in his first season, they equaled their highest ever league finish – matching 2016-17 – by ending up 9th, as well as reaching the FA Cup quarter-final.

It’s at this point that a club’s ambition can come into question and fans find out if the powers that be have aspirations of aiming higher, and even though they have recouped around £200m in player sales, they have spent around £150m of that on new recruits.

This led to a eight game unbeaten run following defeat on the opening day of the season at Anfield, but they have come unstuck in the previous three games with defeats against Manchester City and Aston Villa and a draw against West Ham last time out. Only the bottom four have conceded more and they have won only once on the road so far – it’s sounding a lot like the conversation we had before the Fulham game, but let’s hope this time we get it right.

The betting…

The bookies have the Lads at 2/1 to win the game, while Bournemouth are priced at 11/8, and the draw is 9/4.

Head to head… on Wearside

(All competitions)

• Sunderland wins: 1

• Draws: 3

• Bournemouth wins: 1

• Sunderland goals: 6

• Bournemouth goals: 6

Last time we met… at the Stadium of Light

[King 88’]

Sunderland: Pickford, Love, Kone, O’Shea, Manquillo, Ndong, Pienaar (Honeyman), Khazri, Borini, Defoe, Anichebe Substitutes not used: Mannone, Djilobodji, Lescott, Embleton, Gooch, Januzaj

AFC Bournemouth: Boruc, A. Smith, Daniels, L. Cook, Francis, S. Cook, Pugh (Mousset), Arter, Afobe (Stanislas), Fraser (Gradel), King Substitutes not used: Allsop, B. Smith, Mings, Ibe

Attendance: 38,394

Played for both…

There’s a quiz question in here somewhere so I’ll give it a punt – Jermain Defoe played for seven clubs during his career, which clubs did he have two spells at at which ones did he not return to after a first stint?

I’ll leave you with that one.

Because he played for AFC Bournemouth and Sunderland of course, but because I asked the question I’m not going to say any more.

Prediction…

Sunderland 2-0 AFC Bournemouth

I had us down for a draw at Fulham and I would have taken that before the game, but I reckon the Lads will use the frustration of our performance in the capital to get back to winning ways today.