Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Everton FC - Monday 3rd November 2025 - KO 20:00

Sunderland welcome Everton to the Stadium of Light in the Premier League
Last time out Sunderland beat Chelsea away and Everton lost at home to Tottenham.
The Black Cats maintained their excellent form with a 2-1 win over Chelsea.
Chelsea took an early lead through Garnacho but a goal in each half moved the Wearsiders up to 2nd place. Wilson Isidor scored his 4th goal of the season with a simple tap-in inside the six yard box.
Chemsdine Talbi picked up his first goal of the season after Brobbey held off two defenders before finding the winger in space on the edge of the box and he cooly placed it into the far corner.
Alderete should be available but may find it difficult to reclaim his starting position.

Before the Spurs game, Everton were the only team yet to concede from a set-piece in the Premier League this season (excluding penalties) – the Toffees then proceeded to concede from a corner twice and Everton lost 3-0 at home to Spurs.
With Pickford and Moyes returning to the Stadium of Light it will be interesting to see what kind of reception they receive.

Regis le Bris:
“Our main attributes were what we built last season and during pre-season.
“The togetherness and our ability to defend and suffer together. If you give Chelsea space and time then they will punish you and it was the case after the first few minutes.
“We struggled to find the right balance but in possession I thought we were good. We found spaces in the middle and we pressed high when possible.
“I wanted us to just play the game and try to win, We did well and I am really proud of the staff and the squad - the starters and finishers.
“We worked hard and played good football - it wasn’t obvious to win here but we showed good character and good quality and we found a small opportunity to win the game.
“We are really proud of our fans. We need the extra drive to be competitive in this league. Today was a massive shared experience - their extra high energy is really important.”
Presser on Friday 12:30pm?
tbc

David Moyes:
"It wasn't a 3-0, but it ended up 3-0 because we didn't defend our set pieces well enough. I thought we did a lot of positive things, but it wasn't a positive result, which is what we were after."
"Give Spurs credit, they are good at them, they got on the end of things that they tried, we had more corners than them but couldn't get one of those moments to go for us. That happens, today was a bit of a kick in the you-know-whats."
"Since I have seen it, I agree it was offside, if it had been the other way around I would be claiming it was an offside goal so I think they got it right.
"Their keeper was probably their best player, dealt with corners incredibly well. We played some good stuff but could not get the goal we needed."

Form:


Match Appointments:
Referee: THOMAS BRAMALL
Assistant Referee: Richard West
Assistant Referee: Constantine Hatzidakis
Fourth Official: Tony Harrington
Video Assistant Referee: Michael Salisbury
Additional Video Assistant Referee: Timothy Wood

Team Lineups:
Sunderland AFC: Roefs, Reinildo, Ballard, Mukiele, Hume Xhaka, Sadiki, Le Fee, Traore, Isidor, Talbi.

Subs: Patterson, Alderete, O’Nien, Geertruida, Neil, Rigg, Adingra, Brobbey, Mayenda.
Injured: Alese, Cirkin, Hjelde, Mundle, Diarra.

Everton FC: Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Keane, Myolenko, Gueye, Garner, Ndiaye, Dewsbury-Hall, Grealish, Beto.
Substitutes: Travers, Alcaraz, Barry, Coleman, Dibling, Iroegbunam, McNeil, Rohl.
Injured: Branthwaite, Patterson.



Betting Odds:
Sunderland 9/5 Everton 2/1 Draw 8/5

My two pence:
Everton are 14th with 11 points as David Moyes returns to the SoL. The former Sunderland manager is likely to receive a hostile reception (from me at least) after the way he took us down and the absolute ****e that he brought into our club.
Everton, and especially Pickford, looked very poor defending corners against Spurs so hopefully we can exploit that with our long throws and set pieces.

I can’t wait for this one, train tickets and hotel already booked.
I’m going for a 2-0 home win
Live Stream:
TBC


Ha’way the Lads

 

Nice one mate, you've been doing overtime

This is the most confident I've been all season ...

... no reason we can't beat Everton, they're exactly the type of team we can beat in my opinion.

They have a 'target man' who our defence should cope with and a predictable style of play.

I think they'll come for a draw, given their poor form, so we'll need to take the few chances we get.

I'm going for a Ballard header and a Xhaka free kick, in the top corner, past Pickford.

 

Fancy us to win like, hope the crowd dont focus too much on moyes for me that always ends up backfiring.

 

Cracking MDT as always @RTB, thanks.

I despise Moyes for what he did during his tenure here, absolutely surrendered two games into the season after Allardyce had us flying at the end of the previous season and then compounded it by signing Piennar, Lescott, Gibson and N'Dong and also running Kirchoff into the ground whilst not signing M'Vila.

All that said, its done now, Moyes is thankfully nowhere near this club any more. I'm delighted with the way we are operating on and off the pitch and am more inclined to just back the lads and the club to the absolute hilt.

If we approach this in our usual committed, professional manner with controlled aggression all over the pitch then we will win this.

2-1​

 

Great thread as always!

Let's get these lot out the way nice and easy so we can focus on the title 6 pointer against Arsenal the following week...

Joking (or am I?)

 

Schoolboy error in the 3rd sentence, but apart from that another cracking MDT @RTB

 

Feeling good about this one but sticking with my stance of not predicting if we W, L or D and just hope we once again give a good account of ourselves. 3 points though would be fantastic and another massive confidence boost ahead of a top of the table clash with Arsenal. Now in the past I would have thought that it would be typical of Sunderland to let this type of opportunity pass us by but not anymore. We’re a different beast these days, the whole set up at the club from top to bottom absolutely drips of professionalism and it’s getting to the point where I don’t fear anybody we play. @Smug in Boots and @RTB hopefully see you guys at the museum pre match

 

I'm continuing to vote negatively in the poll as it's working so far
Could go either way for me. They won't be pretty but they are strong and physical. Love a win then can relax a little and will be back home for the Arsenal.

 

Maybe seems harsh but im expecting to see one of Ballard or Hume on the bench this time, thankfully Regis has shown its not a necessary negative as everyone will be given a chance to come back in whether thats through a change of system or what.

I think it will be:
Le Fee - Isidor - Traore
Sadiki - Xhaka - Rigg
Reinildo - Alderete - Ballard - Mukiele
Roefs

Would like to see:
Talbi - Isidor - Mayenda
Sadiki - Xhaka - Le Fee
Reinildo - Alderete - Ballard - Mukiele
Roefs

Hume has done a great job at both right back and left back but essentially the only threat of everton comes from Ndiaye and Grealish, so picking our 2 best 1v1 defenders in Reinildo and Mukiele to match up against them feels a natural fit.

Idrissa Gana Gueye is then probably their next most important player and thats a tough battle for Rigg or Le Fee, but I could see Sadiki given license to press IGG when he recieves the ball from the centre halves.

Despite the size of their back 4 they looked horrible from set pieces vs spurs and there were some questions asked from their fans of Moyes, so I would definitely want to get Alderete back into the side and then lean towards dropping Hume over Ballard as that gives us our two most prevalent set piece threats on the pitch for corners and Mukiele's throws. Another point on this centre half partnership is that I think they are best suited for dealing with the balls up to Beto/Barry.

They will want to get KDH on the ball between our lines, as long as xhaka and sadiki are switched on out of possession and one of the centre halves (probably ballard) can time any attempts to push forward and pin him on his touch we should be able to mitigate that.


Should be a good game and although I don't want to appear cocky as they are a good premier league side, I would be dissapointed if the result is anything less than a draw at home. I'm going for a 2-1 win.

 

At home so fancy us to win. In fact, I'll put us down to win this one and the next

And if we lose either one, I'll be disappointed but it's not the end of the world because watching this team is just pure enjoyment at the moment.

More realistically I'll take 4 points from the 2 home games

 

Cheers lass, my train into NCL is 15.54 so should be around before 5pm if anyone fancies Sheepfolds for some bait …

… I’m staying in NCL post match so can have a good drink for a change

 

I hope the dour jock gets it in spades from the crowd. Cheese toothed jock surrender monkey

 

I honestly think we’re better than that these days.

Ending the game, on almost twice their points, would be enough for me …

… I’d rather we just cheered our own team and ignored him.

 

Moyes will get the stick he deserves.

 

Gave in before he started, and gave a load of **** from Everton a payday