Unbeaten at Home Sunderland Host the Toffees

Everton travel to face newly-promoted Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, and if the Black Cats' home record is anything to go by so far this season, the Blues need to brace for impact.

Sunderland are unbeaten at home in the four games played there so far this season. Not only will the home form be an issue that David Moyes will need to cope with, but the team performances, including a huge 2-1 away win at Stamford Bridge last gameweek, have been simply remarkable. Despite the form, however, which would therefore inevitably direct credit to manager Regis Le Bris, the French international has spoken about how “as a coach you do not want to be the main man. That is not my purpose. I want to give knowledge, power and responsibility to the squad,” also adding that Sunderland have “players on the pitch to manage micro situations. We are improving our level and are now able to be more proactive, flexible and adaptive to solve and fix problems and to size up opportunities as well.”

In Sunderland’s 2-1 win over Chelsea, all of the stats pointed towards a more than likely victory for the home side, but the mayhem that was to come in the 3rd minute of additional time after the 90 minutes were up would send the travelling fans into pandemonium, but not before a rollercoaster of emotions prior. Garnacho opened the scoring within the first 5 minutes, which for sure would have sent a sombre tone within the Black Cats, as Enzo Marseca’s side are known to have spent a ridiculous amount of money on talented youngsters since Todd Boehly’s acquisition of Chelsea for £4.25bn in May 2022. Consistently challenging at the upper end of the table, the clear expectation was that Chelsea would go on and put the game to bed; however, the complete opposite occurred!

Following a long throw-in, for Sunderland there was a scramble in the box, but eventually it fell to striker Wilson Isidor, who tucked it home, equalising for the Black Cats, setting the French international off to a magnificent start to life in the Premier League, as the 25-year-old has scored 4 goals so far this season. As the game continued to progress, Chelsea were having the most chances; arguably, they should have converted at least one of them. These missed chances were soon capitalised upon, as some world-class hold-up play by Brian Brobbey followed a long ball, with the Dutch striker patiently keeping possession whilst up against Tosin Adarabioyo, who came off the bench for Chelsea earlier on. During the hold-up play was occurring, Chemsdine Talbi was burying forward, and with a simple layofffrom Brobbey to the Moroccan international, Talbi curled the ball into the bottom right corner past Sanchez in net, giving Sunderland all three points!

For the Toffees, the recent form has been decent. Since Jack Grealish’s 93rd-minute winner versus Palace, the Blues have been humbly defeated by Man City and Spurs. At the Etihad, Erling Haaland scored a quick-fire double in 5 minutes to kill off any chance of Everton coming away with a positive point, and at Hill Dickinson Stadium, Spurs battered the Blues, winning 3-0.

In David Moyes’ pre-match press conference, the Scottish manager revealed that there have been no new injuries to report on at Finch Farm, adding that Scottish fullback Nathan Patterson, who is yet to feature for the Toffees this season, has had a small procedure on his groin and will not be available. Furthermore, in the press conference, Moyes was asked about the striker scenario, as both Beto and Barry are underperforming this season. Beto has only one goal so far, and Barry is yet to score, with the Everton manager explaining that “if I'm not getting what I want, then I will look to see what else there is. But it gives you less focal points and changes how you have to play. We won't bury our head in the sand and will certainly think about it."

In Le Bris's press conference, the French manager spoke about the competition and adaptation to the league, stating that “it's the best league in the world. I enjoy every game. I enjoy the managers. I enjoy the stadiums; I enjoy everything. We know the dynamic is really positive. Consistency is probably the main word. You can be competitive over a short period, but over the full league it is totally different. So this will be our next challenge,” also adding that Sunderland’s situation in the league at the moment is extremely positive, saying, “It's important to be on 17 points. We have this target in our mind. If we can get to that stage early, it is much better, but we don't know the future at the minute. I don't think any opponent so far thought it was easy to win against a Premier League team. If you are in this part of the table, the opponent starts to think they should be really aware and alert that it will be tough. So we will see."

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Thank you for reading my pre-match article!