English Premier
2025-08-23 - Burnley vs Sunderland
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 23rd August 2025 - Kick Off 3pm
Burnley
The board are not expected to make any snap decisions about a manager that guided them up from the Premier League with 100 points, but Burnley fans have to be questioning whether Scott Parker is the right person to keep them in the Premier League. In 53 Premier League matches overseen by Parker, his team have lost 31 and the points per game are at 0.75 compared with a 1.95 mark in the Championship.
He did not give it much of an effort after bringing Bournemouth back into the Premier League and resigned after a 9-0 thumping at Liverpool and Burnley's 3-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur last Saturday will have been a little concerning. Some important players have departed and Burnley impressed the least out of the three promoted clubs on the opening weekend, which has put some pressure on them this Saturday.
Burnley had been unbeaten in 34 League games before losing in North London last Saturday, but everyone associated with the club will accept that there is a big gap to bridge from the Championship to the Premier League. The side were unbeaten at Turf Moor in the second tier last season, but Burnley won 1 of their last 9 in the Premier League as they were relegated fifteen months ago.
Axel Tuanzebe, Connor Roberts and Armando Broja could be available for the selection this weekend.
Sunderland
Those arriving at the Stadium of Light for the return of Sunderland to the Premier League would have done so with some confidence, although also wondering how an overhauled squad would gel together. Regis Le Bris is not the most experienced manager, but there are players in the squad that can help those around them and the crushing win over West Ham United is about as perfect a start as this newly promoted club could have hoped for.
A marker has been laid down and Sunderland will have played Burnley and Brentford before the September international break so this feels like an opportunity to really make a strong start to the campaign. The Black Cats only had a 9-6-8 record away from home when playing in the Championship last season so it is clear that the results at the Stadium of Light are going to be most important this season.
Sunderland may have lost 6 of their last 8 games at the end of last season, but importantly they won the Play Off Final to earn a long-awaited return to the Premier League. They had won 1 of their previous 5 away games in the League before Sunderland beat Coventry City 0-1 in the Play Off Semi Final First Leg.
Arthur Masuaku and Jenson Seelt are both hoping to be able to travel with the squad on Saturday. Luke O'Nien is a doubt.
Head to Head
Sunderland took four points from Burnley last season and the majority were earned from a 1-0 home win.
The fixture at Turf Moor ended goalless in January.
Burnley are unbeaten in 6 home League games against Sunderland, but 3 of the last 4 at Turf Moor have ended 0-0.
Prediction
The last two Premier League seasons have ended with the three newly promoted clubs being relegated immediately and some suggestion has been made that the gap between the top flight and the second tier has become too big.
After Burnley were beaten 3-0 at Tottenham Hotspur, some may have felt it could be more of the same this season, but Leeds United won on Monday and Sunderland also made a winning return to the Premier League.
Scott Parker's record at this level has to be a concern.
And that also means there is pressure on the manager and the players to try and bounce back and earn any kind of positive result here. Losing some key players in the transfer market has hurt Burnley, especially as a team that put their promotion bid together behind strong defensive performances and perhaps something missing in the final attacking third.
They were a middle of the team around in the Championship as far as expected goals were concerned and Burnley only managed 69 goals in the 46 League games played, which is not going to cut it at the Premier League level.
At least this weekend they are facing one of their fellow promoted clubs, even if Sunderland look very different from the team that visited Turf Moor back in January. Huge investment has already been made and more players could yet be signed by Sunderland, while the win over West Ham United has to give the players a spring in the step.
Of course it should be noted that Sunderland were aided by a really poor West Ham United performance and this is likely to be a tougher test.
Bringing in a lot of new faces can take some time to gel together and Burnley are expected to be pretty organised under Scott Parker.
That should be more evident in a game like this one and there was a lack of a cutting edge in both League games involving these two clubs last season.
Even last weekend, Sunderland did not overwhelm West Ham United with the quality of chances and this game may follow the trend from the League meetings between the clubs last season.
In 6 of the last 8 League games between Burnley and Sunderland, one or both teams have failed to score, including in both matches last season. The results may have been very different for the clubs last weekend, but this feels like a considerable test for both again and it may be a situation where neither wants to give too much away.
With that in mind, it feels like backing at least one team to fail to find the back of the net is the best play in what looks a competitive fixture.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Burnley 0-0 Sunderland
