🏏 Sun, 18 Oct 2026 14:00 BST
AFC Bournemouth
vs
Sunderland AFC
4-2-3-1 vs 4-2-3-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- A genuine six-pointer at the bottom: Bournemouth sit 19th on three points, Sunderland 18th on four, and both carry an identical goal difference of -6. Manchester City are already clear at the top on 21 points from seven games, while Bournemouth are still without a win after six (three draws, three defeats) and are level on points with bottom-placed Tottenham. Three points here would reshape the lower half.
- Bournemouth stacked up three consecutive draws — 1-1 at home to Everton on matchday 2, 2-2 away at Newcastle, 2-2 at home to Brentford — before losing 0-1 to Liverpool and then 1-5 at Chelsea. Thirteen goals conceded in six matches underlines where the problem lies, and with no victory yet on the board, Andoni Iraola's side need a different tone on home soil.
- Sunderland's only win came on matchday 2, a 1-0 clean sheet against Fulham. Since a 1-1 draw at Brentford they have lost three in a row: 0-2 at home to Arsenal, 3-5 at Manchester City and 0-2 at home to Brighton. Half of their six league goals arrived in that shootout at the Etihad, so the attacking tools exist even if two home games have ended without a goal.
- Both sides line up in a 4-2-3-1, which makes the double pivots decisive. Bournemouth pair United States captain Tyler Adams, 27, a ball-winning CDM whose Leipzig years included a goal that sent them to a Champions League semi-final, with 31-year-old Scotland international Ryan Christie, a four-time Scottish champion at Celtic. Sunderland counter with Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka, 34, a title winner at both Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen, alongside 21-year-old DR Congo midfielder Noah Sadiki.
- Evanilson leads the line for the hosts. The 27-year-old Brazilian striker arrived from FC Porto for a club-record fee of around £40.2m after 154 games and 60 goals in Portugal, and he is two-footed with genuine quality in the hold-up game. Waiting for him is a physical centre-back pairing: 190cm Austria international Kevin Danso, 28, formerly of Lens, and left-footed Paraguay international Omar Alderete, 188cm, who spent four seasons at Getafe.
- Watch the right flank, where 20-year-old Raian starts for Bournemouth. Signed from Vasco da Gama for roughly £24.7m after 34 games and 14 goals in Brazil, the left-footed winger marked his home debut with a solo goal. He will be running at Reinildo Mandava, 32, who made 99 appearances for Atletico Madrid under Diego Simeone and became the first Mozambican to play in the Premier League.
- Sunderland's advanced midfield features academy graduate Chris Rigg, still only 19 and already a former EFL Championship Apprentice of the Year, operating alongside Enzo Le Fee. The 26-year-old Frenchman turned his Roma loan into a permanent move worth about £19.3m and thrives in tight spaces. Screening that zone for Bournemouth is Lewis Cook, 29, a Leeds academy product and Under-20 World Cup winner who sets the home side's tempo.
- The goalkeeping duel pits experience against youth. Bournemouth's Djordje Petrovic, a 194cm Serbia international aged 27, joined from Chelsea and was voted season MVP during a loan at Strasbourg on the strength of his close-range reflexes. Sunderland's Robin Roefs is 23, 193cm and left-footed, a product of NEC Nijmegen whose distribution helped him claim the No. 1 shirt in his first Premier League campaign.
- Both benches carry match-changers. Bournemouth can call on Amine Adli, a Morocco international who was part of Leverkusen's unbeaten title season and totalled 23 goals and 25 assists in 143 games there, plus Netherlands forward Justin Kluivert and Lille centre-back Bafode Diakite. Sunderland have Habib Diarra, a club-record £30m Senegal midfielder who won the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, and Morocco winger Chemsdine Talbi, signed from Club Brugge.