Sunderland return to the Premier League for the first time since the 2016/17 season with their first assignment being at the Stadium of Light against Graham Potter’s West Ham side. 

🔴 Sunderland Need To Improve

Regis Le Bris will have expected more from his side in pre-season as they shape up for the near impossible task of avoiding relegation, something which no promoted side has managed in each of the last two seasons. Sunderland only won two of their eight friendly matches (v South Shields and Augsburg), losing five of the other eight games. What will cause some concern amongst Sunderland fans is the lack of goal threat that Sunderland posed in these games - the Black Cats failed to score in four of their friendly matches and only scored more than once in their first friendly against South Shields. 

This tellS us a little of the problems we can expect Sunderland to experience this season. Pre-season isn’t always an indicator of how a side will perform but Sunderland may find it a little difficult to create and convert chances this year, especially in their away games where they’ll have very little of the ball. However, Regis Le Bris wasn’t afraid to go with a counter attacking style in the playoffs and may opt for an iteration of that this year to ensure that Sunderland stay competitive and don’t get cut adrift too early.

🟣 West Ham Lack Structure

Potter is being held back by a boardroom above him which is really messy. West Ham have tried to get some structure above the manager since David Moyes departed but this has been largely unsuccessful, leaving the Hammers with no director of football this summer which brings into question the quality and direction of the recruitment this summer. 

Callum Wilson is an example of a player that doesn’t really line up with Potter’s wish to construct a young and energetic side that he can grow with - though the signings of Mads Hermansen, Malick Diouf and Kyle Walker-Peters are more in line with how Potter wants to play. These acquisitions also tell us that West Ham will almost certainly line up with wingbacks this season, arguably the most important position in a Potter system.

I’m really excited to see how Mads Hermansen develops in goal for West Ham. We didn’t really get to see the best of him last year as he was offered no protection by the Leicester backline but he still managed to average 3.89 saves per 90 and a save percentage of 64% which is incredibly impressive when considering the number of shots he had to face as Leicester keeper.

📊 Sunderland v West Ham H2H

The most recent head to head meetings between these sides was back in 2017 and ended 2-2.

Football Predictions at Andy's Bet Club

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