Sunderland vs Aston Villa: Match preview, predicted XIs and injury news

Sunderland will hope to pick up where they left off when they take on a struggling Aston Villa outfit in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon. Can last year’s Championship playoff winners spring another surprise?

Villa have shown profligacy in front of goal this season – they have yet to find the back of the net in the Premier League in 2025/26. Sunderland, meanwhile, have five Premier League goals to their name thus far.

Sunderland, on the other hand, have exceeded expectations thus far. Many had them to finish rock bottom of the table, but the Black Cats are seventh in the table after four games.

Sunderland predicted XI

GK: Robin Roefs

RB: Trai Hume

CB: Nordi Mukiele

CB: Omar Alderete

LB: Reinildo Mandava

CM: Granit Xhaka

CM: Habib Diarra

CM: Noah Sadiki

RW: Brian Brobbey

LW: Chemsdine Talbi

ST: Wilson Isidor

Aston Villa predicted XI

GK: Emi Martinez

RB: Matty Cash

CB: Ezri Konsa

CB: Tyrone Mings

LB: Lucas Digne

CM: Lamare Bogarde

CM: John McGinn

RW: Morgan Rogers

AM: Harvey Elliott

LW: Jadon Sancho

ST: Ollie Watkins

Sunderland injury news

Sunderland may enter this game as the smart favourites, but they have a few injury issues to contend with. Three players – Leo Fuhr Hjelde, Romaine Mundle and Dennis Cirkin – have all been confirmed to miss out.

Meanwhile, four more are considered doubtful. The most notable of these is Dan Ballard, who scored for the Black Cats on the first day of the season – he, along with Luke O’Nien, could be fit to play against Villa. Enzo Le Fee and Aji Alese could also be available, despite coming off their own injury issues.

Aston Villa injury news

Two players have been ruled out for Villa on Sunday – Youri Tielemans and Ross Barkley are both confirmed absentees.

Meanwhile, Boubacar Kamara, Victor Lindelof, Andres Garcia and Amadou Onana are all considered doubtful. Lindelof could be fit to play, but it remains to be seen if Emery will pick him over Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings or Pau Torres.

Match prediction

We fancy Villa to finally break their scoring duck in this one – but Sunderland are no slouches going forward. The likes of Simon Adingra and Brian Brobbey will give Villa’s backline no end of trouble.

As such, expect both teams to score in this one. Neither team should have enough to see off the other comprehensively – due to this, a score draw appears to be the most likely outcome.

Final prediction: Sunderland 1-1 Aston Villa