Bournemouth v Sunderland: Preview, predicted line-ups & team news

Somebody has to stop the rot on Sunday, and neither side looks especially well equipped to do it.

Bournemouth are still waiting for their first league win of the season, six games in, with three draws and three defeats on the board.

Sunderland arrive having lost their last three, a run that has taken some of the shine off a start which included a 1-0 home win over Fulham.

The Vitality Stadium therefore hosts a meeting between two sides who would settle for a point and badly want three.

One of them is going to leave with a spring in its step. The other will be left with a long look at the table.

Bournemouth's problem is easy to spot, and it sits at the back.

The Cherries have shipped 13 goals in six games, an average of 2.2 a match, and nine of those have come in three away trips (a rate of 3.0 per game, helped along by the 5-1 defeat at Chelsea last Saturday).

Home comfort is a little greater, with 1.3 conceded per game at the Vitality Stadium, where they have drawn twice and lost once.

They have also scored only seven times, so the games have been tight on the scoreboard even when the defence has wobbled.

The last two outings, a 1-0 loss to Liverpool and the heavy defeat at Chelsea, have taken the edge off a run of three straight draws.

Sunderland have been better away than at home, which is an unusual problem to have.

They average 1.7 goals per game on the road but only 0.3 at the Stadium of Light, where they have scored once in three games and failed to score twice.

Beaten 2-0 by Brighton last Saturday, they have lost to Arsenal and Manchester City as well during their current run, and the 5-3 defeat at the Etihad showed that they will have a go on their travels.

They have conceded 12 in six, so there is not much cover when it goes wrong.

A trip to the south coast, where they have yet to lose a league game away from home by more than... well, they have not exactly been solid, but they have scored in every away game.

Bournemouth's last six read no wins, three draws and three defeats, while Sunderland's read one win, one draw and four defeats.

On raw results the Cherries are the steadier side, since three of their six games ended level and they scored in five of them.

Sunderland's underlying numbers are slightly better than their results suggest, with an expected goals figure of 1.75 per game for them against 1.35 for Bournemouth.

So the surface form says Bournemouth are the more resilient side, but the chances created suggest Sunderland have been a little unlucky.

Bournemouth have three points from six games and Sunderland have four from the same number, so the two sides are separated by a single point.

The top seven are already pulling clear, with Manchester City on 18 points and Leeds in seventh on nine, so a gap of five or six points to the pack above is already forming for both teams.

It is early for talk of relegation, but a win for either side would lift them up the table, while a defeat would leave them looking over their shoulder.

For the Cherries, a first win of the season would change the tone of the whole autumn. For Sunderland, a fourth straight defeat would start to feel like a trend.

The two sides have met six times in the Premier League, with Bournemouth winning two, Sunderland winning two and two draws.

There have been 2.5 goals a game on average, both teams have scored in four of the six meetings (a rate of 67%) and only two games went over 2.5 goals (33%).

The most recent meeting was a 1-1 draw at the Vitality Stadium on 28 February 2026, and before that Sunderland won 3-2 at home on 29 November 2025.

The pattern is a fairly even rivalry with goals at both ends, but not so many that the over 2.5 market is a gift.

The gap between meetings (April 2017 to November 2025) means the history is thin, and recent form says more than the record does.

That said, both teams scored in each of the last two meetings, which is a good sign for BTTS, while the goals line is a closer call.

The biggest gap between the sides is in chance creation, where Sunderland's expected goals average of 1.75 per game is well ahead of Bournemouth's 1.35.

The flip side is that Sunderland's expected goals against is 1.68, compared with 1.34 for the Cherries, so the visitors are also the more open side.

Possession is close, at 50.7% for Sunderland and 48% for Bournemouth, and corners are level at around 4.5 a game for each.

The one clean sheet of the season belongs to Sunderland, while Bournemouth have none, which tells you where the defensive worry sits.

In short, this looks like a game that will be settled by who takes their chances, rather than who has more of the ball.

Kick-off at the Vitality Stadium is at 2pm BST on Sunday 18 October 2026.

The game is shown on Sky Sports where selected, with the Premier League's UK rights held by Sky Sports and TNT Sports this season.

It is a Sunday kick-off, so the Saturday 3pm blackout does not apply. We will update this page if the exact channel is confirmed closer to the game.

The value in this game sits in the goals market rather than the result.

Neither side has kept the door shut this season, and between them they have conceded 25 goals in 12 games, so both teams to score is the angle we like best.

The result itself is harder to call, with Bournemouth winless and Sunderland on a poor run, so we have leaned towards the home side by the narrowest of margins.