Two newly-promoted teams who experienced contrasting results on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season square off at Turf Moor on Saturday, as Burnley play host to Sunderland.
The Clarets and the Black Cats meet in the top flight for the first time since March 2017 when they played out a goalless stalemate at the Stadium of Light.
Match preview
Burnley manager Scott Parker pictured on August 2, 2025
Scott Parker was presented with a difficult opening fixture away against Tottenham - the club he once represented for two seasons as a player - and it proved to be a disappointing return to the Premier League for him and fellow ex-Spurs man Kyle Walker, as Burnley were outclassed by Thomas Frank’s team last weekend.
The Clarets kept a joint-record 30 clean sheets, conceded just 16 goals and did not ship more than a single goal across any of their 46 Championship matches en route to securing automatic promotion with 100 points last season, before beginning life back in the top flight with a **3-0 defeat**in North London - already conceding 19% of the league goals they shipped in the entirety of last season.
Having alternated between relegation and promotion across the last four seasons, Burnley now have aspirations of establishing themselves as a Premier League club, and while Parker is aware that his “young squad” are “still learning things”, he was able to take "lots of positives" from their performance in the defeat at Spurs.
For all of Burnley's rearguard excellence in the Championship, the Clarets have now conceded in each of their last 21 Premier League matches, and they head into Saturday’s contest having lost their first home fixture in seven of their previous nine seasons in the top flight, with the other two seeing them beat Manchester United in 2009-10 and Southampton in 2019-20.
Burnley will back themselves to pick up a positive result against Sunderland, though, as they are unbeaten in their three Premier League home meetings with the Black Cats (W2 D1), while they also collected four points from their two Championship encounters last season (W1 D1).
Dan Ballard of Sunderland celebrates scoring his team's second goal on August 16, 2025
After eight years away from the Premier League, Sunderland could not have kick-started life back in the big time any better, as they marked their triumphant top-flight return with a superb 3-0 victory over West Ham United in front of a jubilant capacity crowd at the Stadium of Light.
Regis Le Bris has overseen a significant summer of change at Sunderland, with seven of their 11 signings handed starts against the Hammers, but the three players who got their names on the scoresheet in the second half - Eliezer Mayenda, Daniel Ballard and Wilson Isidor - were all stars who inspired the Black Cats to promotion via the Championship playoffs last season.
Sitting second in the Premier League table, albeit after only one match, Sunderland will endeavour to win their opening two games in a top-flight campaign for the first time since 1980-81 when they face Burnley this weekend, while they have not started with back-to-back clean sheets since the 1976-77 season.
However, Sunderland tend to struggle on the road at the beginning of a new top-flight season, as they have not won any of their last 24 Premier League away matches in either August or September (D12 L12) since securing a 1-0 victory against Bolton Wanderers back in August 2009.
The Black Cats also suffered a heavy 4-1 defeat to Burnley in their most recent Premier League visit to Turf Moor in December 2016, but since then, they have played out 0-0 draws in their last two trips to the Clarets, while they also claimed a 3-1 away win in the second round of the EFL Cup in August 2019, so there is reason for Le Bris and co to be optimistic of securing a positive result on Saturday.
Burnley Premier League form:
L
Sunderland Premier League form:
W
Team News
Kyle Walker of Burnley on August 16, 2025
Burnley trio Zeki Amdouni (ACL), Manuel Benson (Achilles) and Jordan Beyer (knee) all remain sidelined with injuries, and Connor Roberts (knock) is still a doubt, while Armando Broja is closer to “possibly being involved” along with Axel Tuanzebe and Bashir Humphreys, who have taken part in training this week.
After starting with a back five against Spurs, Parker will consider reverting to a four-man defence which could see Walker move over to right-back and Oliver Sonne make way, while Maxime Esteve, Hjalmar Ekdal and Quilindschy Hartman could all continue in the backline.
No Premier League player created more chances on matchday one than Burnley’s Josh Cullen (five) - his most ever in a league game for the club - and he is set to link arms with either Josh Laurent or Lesley Ugochukwu in midfield, while attacking trio Marcus Edwards, Loum Tchaouna and Jacob Bruun Larsen will all be hoping to force their way into the first XI.
As for Sunderland, Aji Alese, Luke O'Nien (both shoulder), Romaine Mundle (thigh), Leo Hjelde (Achilles) and Dennis Cirkin (wrist) all remain sidelined with injuries.
Jenson Seelt is fit to play this weekend after he was forced off injured in the win against West Ham, but Le Bris may opt to hand new signing Omar Alderete his full Premier League debut at centre-back alongside Ballard, who led all of his teammates for shots (four), shots on target (two), duels won (10), aerial duels won (six), fouls won (four) and clearances (nine) on matchday one.
Nordi Mukiele, who was unveiled as Sunderland’s latest signing earlier this week, has trained partly with his new teammates along with Arthur Masuaku and a late call will be made on whether either defender will feature in the matchday squad, while the rest of Le Bris’s lineup could remain intact.
Burnley possible starting lineup:
Dubravka; Walker, Esteve, Ekdal, Hartman; Cullen, Laurent; Tchaouna, Edwards, Anthony; Foster
Sunderland possible starting lineup:
Roefs; Hume, Alderete, Balland, Reinaldo; Sadiki, Xhaka, Diarra; Talbi, Mayenda, Adingra
SM words green background
We say: Burnley 0-2 Sunderland
Just one goal has been scored across the last three meetings between Burnley and Sunderland, and another closely-contested battle could be in store this weekend.
Both teams will view this fixture as a strong opportunity to claim all three points and although the Clarets boast home advantage, we are backing the Black Cats to follow up their brilliant opening-day win with another triumph at Turf Moor.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
ID:579779:1false2false3false: from db desktop :LenBod:collect12484:
No Data Analysis info
Previews by email
Click here to get Sports Mole's daily email of previews and predictions for every major game!