Key events
3 min: Lutsharel Geertruida takes another throw-in, this one near the halfway line. Sunderland get the ball upfield and Noah Sadiki has a shot deflected. Despite being wrongfooted, Petrovic gets down to make the save.
2 min: Roefs’ Bournemouth counterpart Djordje Petrovic gets the ball to feet and follows suit with a long ball upfield. Sunderland win an early throw-in which their left-back Trai Hume takes.
Bournemouth v Sunderland is go …
1 min: Sunderland get the ball rolling, their players wearing blue shirts, white shorts and blue socks. Robin Roefs gets and early touch and wellies the ball upfield.
Not long now: The teams are in the tunnel at the Vitality Stadium on a sunny afternoon in Bournemouth – a pleasant change from the horizontal rain in which the hosts seem to have played most of their home matches in recent months. With Metallica blaring over the tannoy, the players march out led by Jarred Gillett and his team of match officials. Kick-off is just a few minutes away.
Eliezer Mayenda: The 20-year-old from Zaragoza starts up fron for Sunderland in place of the injured Brian Brobbey this afternoon. Mayenda scored Sunderland’s first goal upon their return to the Premier League in a 3-0 win over West Ham on the opening day of the season but has not found the net in 16 appearances in all competitions since.
Andoni Iraola: “It’s a team that has played really well this season,” he said of today’s visitors. “Starting from the goalkeeper – he has been very, very good for them. He has a really long kick so it puts you under pressure really early. Every free-kick and every set-piece situation, they put a lot of pressure on you, they manage the situations very well.”
Regis Le Bris: “We are in a tough league – a young team with injuries, suspensions and different events,” said Sunderland’s head coach, upon being asked about his side’s run of three league defeats. “We expected that a bit earlier [in the season]. It is not the best period from a results perspective. We are learning a lot, and it is often in these tough phases that you are learning more.”
Speaking about the racist abuse to which winger Romaine Mundle was subjected on social media following Sunderland’s defeat against Fulham, Le Bris said the club “stand with” their player, adding: “There is no room for racism or abuse in football. That is clear for us. We stand for respect and inclusion. Diversity is the values of football and the values of the club.”
Fun fact: The Bournemouth striker Eli Jr Kroupi began his professional career as a 16-year-old playing for Lorient under the current Sunderland gaffer Regis Le Bris. In an interview with Le Telgramme this week, the comparatively elderly 19-year-old said he was looking forward to being reunited with the coach who gave him his first senior start.
“I never would have imagined this, it’s wonderful,” he said. “We’re not on the same side this time. I was like a child entering a dream; it was truly wonderful for me, and for my parents too. Football is my life. If I didn’t have it, I don’t know where I’d be today.”
Today’s match officials
Referee: Jarred Gillett
Assistants: Neil Davies and Steve Meredith
Fourth official: Matt Donohue
VAR: James Bell
Assistant VAR: Craig Taylor
The Vitality Stadium: Bournemouth got in touch with up to 600 season ticket holders in recent days, informing them via email that they will have to move from their current seats to make way for extra hospitality seating that is included in the Vitality Stadium extension plan.
Many of the fans who are being affected are unhappy with the situation, presumably on the grounds that those being forced to make way for the Prawn Sandwich Brigade already have the best seats in the house. The subject of their displeasure was raised at Andoni Iraola’s press conference yesterday.
“I’ve been asking also about these things,” he said. “About how we’re going to save the situation, what’s going to be built, what’s it going to be in two years, how it’s going to be provisionally and I think that it’s a moment where the club has to make important decisions. It’s important to get it right first time. The club has to hear what the supporters want and we have to, all together, get it right because we need to create the best atmosphere we can in our stadium.”
With his contract due to expire at the end of this season, there’s a very good chance the in-demand Iraola will not be around to enjoy the Vitality Stadium glow-up but it’s nice to see him taking unpopular decisions made by the club hierarchy seriously.
Those teams: Andoni Iraola makes two changes to the Bournemouth side that drew with West Ham last time out. Marcus Tavernier and David Brooks come into the side, with Amine Adli and Evanilson dropping to the bench.
There are four changes to the Sunderland side that started against Fulham last weekend, with three of them enforced. Mackems everywhere will be delighted to see club captain Granit Xhaka come back into the side to make his first start in six weeks, while Lutsharel Geertruida, Eliezer Mayenda and Chemsdine Talbi also come in. January signing Nilson Angulo makes way and is among the substitutes, while Jocelin Ta Bi, Nordi Mukiele and Brian Brobbey are injured.
Bournemouth v Sunderland line-ups
Bournemouth: Petrovic, Jimenez, Hill, Senesi, Truffert, Scott, Adams, Brooks, Rayan, Kroupi, Tavernier.
Subs: Mandas, Evanilson, Christie, Smith, Diakite, Adli, Enes Unal, Toth, Milosavljevic.
Sunderland: Roefs, Geertruida, Ballard, Alderete, Hume, Sadiki, Xhaka, Le Fee, Diarra, Mayenda, Talbi.
Subs: Ellborg, O’Nien, Rigg, H. Jones, Jen. Jones, Aleksic, Angulo, Traore, Isidor.
Early team news
At his pre-match press conference, Andoni Iraola revealed that Lewis Cook’s hamstring injury is worse than first feared and is likely to keep him out until after the March international break. Ben Gannon-Doak is also hoping to be back at around the same time. Justin Kluivert and Julio Soler are also unavailable.
Following his captain’s return from injury as a substitute against Fulham last weekend, Regis Le Bris said Granit Xhaka “might” start this afternoon. Romaine Mundle and Jocelin Ta Bi will be sidelined for “a few weeks or months” on the back of injuries they sustained against Fulham, while Nordi Mukiele and Brian Brobbey will be assessed. This game has come too soon for Dennis Cirkin, who is expected to be back in 10 days, while Bertrand Traore is back in full training.
Premier League: Bournemouth v Sunderland
Today’s early kick-off hasn’t deterred travelling Sunderland fans, some of whom were pictured on social media at midnight, boarding their coaches ahead of a 1,098-kilometre (682 miles) round trip to Bournemouth. They’ll have arrived at around 8am and now fortified by hearty breakfasts, some bracing southern sea air (that obviously isn’t as bracing as their northern sea air) and liquid refreshments, will be hoping to see their team end a run of three consecutive league defeats against one of the top flight’s most in-form sides.
Unbeaten in seven matches, four of which they’ve won, Bournemouth are very much in the mix for European qualification and will still be entertaining faint hopes of sneaking into the fifth place position that will almost certainly guarantee Champions League football next season. A win today will move them to within four points of Chelsea and Liverpool in fifth and sixth, and a seventh placed finish ought to be enough to secure European football of some kind next season. Back in 12th, a win for Sunderland would move them to within one of the magic 40-point mark. Kick-off at the Vitality Stadium is at 12.30pm (GMT) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
