Sunderland were the template for survival last season with a net spend of £135 million in the summer window of 2025 enhancing their squad, not just enough to compete, but enough to see them qualify for Europe this season.

So far this summer though it's largely been outgoings with Eliezer Mayenda heading to Rennes and Anthony Patterson moving to Wrexham with Thomas Meunier, who has been picked up on a free, the only addition at the time of writing.

Their main strength this season is consistency at the helm with Frenchman Regis Le Bris now into the second year of the three-year contract that he signed when Sunderland got promoted to the Premier League.

The Black Cats have had a solid pre-season with victories over York, Wrexham and Rennes with defeats against Liverpool and Leeds on their pre-season tour of the US.

As you can see from the above graphic, last year's Sunderland side were very focused on the off the ball side of the game with the fourth-lowest possession in the Premier League but above average numbers of blocks tackles and interceptions. There have been signs this pre-season that they’re looking to become more progressive.

An area of improvement for them that was needed was their xG generation.

They were the ‘luckiest’ team in the Premier League last season, picking up plenty more points per game than their expected goal difference (the second worst in the league) would have had them down to get.

Goalkeepers

A newly promoted side signing a goalkeeper who had success in the Dutch league. Remind you of anyone? Robin Roefs joined the Black Cats last summer with only one senior season of football to his name in the Eredivisie for NEC Nijmegen.

Last season he started 35 out of 38 league games, keeping 10 clean sheets. He made a bright start to the season with excellent performances against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest but was also susceptible to the odd howler here and there, which left his goals prevented numbers at –1.77 at the end of the season.

Swede Melker Elborg, 23, joined in February to provide him competition and has started a lot of pre-season games as Roefs has been out with a minor injury. However, the Dutchman was back between the sticks for their last pre-season game against Rennes. Third choice is 36-year-old Simon Moore.

Defenders

There are a few injury doubts in the Sunderland backline coming into the opener.

New signing Meunier missed out their final game of pre-season due to back pain whilst Omar Alderete, who was Sunderland's first-choice left-sided centre-back last season and Nordi Mukiele, who despite the graphic above was largely their first-choice right-back, could feature but likely not from the start.

Alderete started four out of five games for Paraguay at the World Cup, whilst Mukiele has also been managing a back problem.

That would leave Trai Hume to play in his favoured right-back position, having been utilised on the right side of midfield and at left-back under Le Bris last season.

The Northern Irishman is one of the best defensive full-backs in the league with only Adrien Truffert, Neco Williams and Pedro Porro making more tackles and interceptions than him across all full-backs in the league last season.

If Alderete is missing, then the centre-back pairing could be two of the remaining men who took Sunderland up into the top flight. Towering defender Dan Ballard was one of the few to keep his place last season, making 24 starts last season with Luke O'Nien staying around as a squad option, starting five matches and making 12 appearances in total.

Reinildo is most likely to start at left-back having been picked up on a free transfer from Atletico Madrid in 2025 but when Meunier is fit he can also provide cover in that area.

Midfield

The most obvious person to start this section with is Granit Xhaka, who was lauded as the signing of the summer. The experienced Swiss international arrived with a ton of top level experience having got close to 300 games with Arsenal and having been part of a title winning Bayer Leverkusen side. At the top level that experience is invaluable.

He formed the base of a midfield three and was able to add defensive solidity alongside progressive passing. His 280 progressive passes put him in the top 10 in the Premier League last season.

The one thing that Xhaka is missing is the pace to get across the pitch which is exactly why Le Bris chose to largely pair him with Noah Sadiki. The 21-year-old, who played in all four games for DR Congo at the World Cup, is a fantastic athlete who will handle a lot of the off the ball work in that midfield.

Ahead of them is Enzo Le Fee. The Frenchman joined on loan from Roma in January 2025 and became a huge hit on Wearside as a creative playmaker.

He was one of Sunderland's first signings on a permanent deal as they made the step up to the Premier League and ended the season on five goals and six assists. His 13 big chances created and 57 key passes were considerably higher than any other player in the Sunderland team, and he'll once again be an important player this season.

Senegal international Habib Diarra and burgeoning talent Chris Rigg provide the depth in that area.

Forwards

The wide positions are the area of the team most up in the air coming into the start of this season for Sunderland. Chemsdine Talbi looks to be a nailed on starter having featured a lot last season and after a successful World Cup with Morocco.

The 21-year-old made five appearances at the World Cup but just one start. He started on the right against Rennes with Nilson Angulo on the left. The Ecuadorian was signed at the end of last season January transfer window from RSC Anderlecht.

Romain Mundle is another option having impressed in pre-season following an injury hit 2025/26 whilst Jocelin Ta Bi could also be vying for more football having also had the back end of last season cut short by injury following his transfer from Maccabi Nettanya in the January window. The 21-year-old scored four times over the summer for the Ivory Coast U23s in the yearly Toulon tournament.

That leaves Simon Adingra, who was linked to Town early in the window, as one of few senior options in that position, but one who is seemingly surplus to requirements and likely to move on in this window.

The key to Sunderland's success last season was that they successfully recruited a Premier League-class spine. We've covered Roefs and Xhaka but the piece de resistance was the late addition of Brian Brobbey from Ajax.

The young Dutchman found the back of the net seven times but it was his physical presence and ability to hold and protect the ball as well as his excellent intelligence that made this a real coup. He went from strength to strength with the Dutch national team during the World Cup with his three goals showcasing exactly why he is a top-level number nine.

Another who has been linked to Town is Wilson Isidor but Le Bris is insisting that the Haitian is set to stay at the Stadium of Light to compete with Brobbey. He scored six goals in 32 appearances last season, despite only 11 of those being starts.

Prediction

A new season, a new manager, new excitement. Sunderland, Fulham and Newcastle are the teams that I’ve seen thrown up as the targets that Town should be hunting down to stay in this division and I can see why Sunderland are in that list. They’ve had a very, very poor summer transfer window so far and look light in depth, will have the demands of European football to come and according to the data, vastly overperformed last season.

If you were to pick a nice opening fixture for your return to the Premier League, this would be it. Town faced the Black Cats on their return to the Championship, winning 2-1 thanks to goals from George Hirst and Nathan Broadhead. I’m going for the same result here.

hyperbrit added 01:22 - Aug 22 to be thrust into European football too soon is very familiar to Town and played a big part in their relegation story .
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