Sunderland vs Fulham: Premier League preview, team news, stats & head-to-head

Sunderland haven’t won any of their last six Premier League home games against Fulham (D3 L3) since a 1-0 win in January 2009.

Fulham have won their last three league games against Sunderland, beating them in the Championship in 2018 and completing the double over them last season. They’ve never won four in a row against the Black Cats.

Sunderland lost 2-1 on MD1 to Ipswich Town. They’ve lost their opening two games in three previous Premier League seasons, going on to be relegated in 20th place in two of those (2005-06 and 2016-17) and finishing 17th in the other (2015-16).

Fulham were beaten 3-2 by Chelsea on the opening matchday of the season, but haven’t lost their opening two Premier League fixtures since 2020-21 as a newly promoted side; they haven’t lost their first two matches of a top-flight campaign as a non-newly promoted team since 1967-68, when relegated under Viv Buckingham/Sir Bobby Robson.

Sunderland had 62% possession on MD1 against Ipswich, their highest figure in the league since their return to the Premier League last season – in that period, the Black Cats have lost 50% of games when having more than 50% possession (7/14) compared to 24% when having less than half of the ball (6/25).

Fulham have won the fewest away points of any ever-present team in the Premier League in 2026 (7 – W1 D4 L5), while they have won their opening away match in just two of their last nine league campaigns (D3 L4): vs Huddersfield in the Championship in 2021-22 and vs Everton in 2023-24.

Sunderland manager Régis Le Bris has won only one of his eight Premier League games against Spanish managers (D4 L3), beating Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth in November 2025. That is the only example of a French manager beating a Spanish manager in the competition since the 2022-23 campaign (P12 D4 L7).

Fulham covered the most distance (121km) of any team on MD1 of the 2026-27 Premier League, while only opponents for this game Sunderland (40), Bournemouth (40) and Arsenal (38) made more runs ahead of the ball than the Cottagers (36) on the opening weekend.

Nilson Angulo scored Sunderland’s goal on MD1 against Ipswich Town – three Sunderland players have scored on MD1 and MD2 in a Premier League season: Niall Quinn in 2000-01, Michael Chopra in 2007-08 and Darren Bent in 2009-10.

Gonzalo García scored on his Premier League debut against Chelsea on MD1 and could become the first player to net on both of their first two appearances in the competition for Fulham since Pavel Pogrebnyak in February 2012. The Spaniard has scored seven goals across just 10 top-flight starts.