This is Sunderland’s first home league game against Nottingham Forest since a 1-0 defeat in September 2017, and first in the Premier League since a 1-1 draw in March 1997.
Nottingham Forest have lost five of their last six league games against Sunderland, with the exception being a 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light in September 2017.
Nottingham Forest were beaten 1-0 by Sunderland earlier this season – the only newly promoted teams to do a Premier League double over them are Blackburn and Ipswich in 1992-93 and Fulham in 2022-23.
Sunderland have never won a Premier League game on a Friday (P3 D2 L1), the only day of the week they’re yet to win on. They could be the 21st team to win on all seven days in the competition.
Nottingham Forest have won two of their last three Premier League games (D1), as many as in their previous 14 combined (D5 L7). Forest are looking for consecutive wins for the first time since November when they beat Leeds and Liverpool.
Only Crystal Palace’s Premier League games (71) have seen fewer goals this season than Sunderland’s (76), with their 4-3 defeat to Aston Villa last time out making up 9% of the goals scored in games involving the Black Cats in 2025-26.
Nottingham Forest are unbeaten in their last five Premier League matches (W2 D3), their best run of the season. They last had a longer run across December and January last season (eight games).
Vítor Pereira has won eight of his 13 Premier League matches across March and April with Wolves and Nottingham Forest (D4 L1), averaging 2.15 points per game. In all other months, he has won just four out of 26 games (D4 L18), averaging 0.62 points per game.
Chris Rigg became Sunderland’s third-youngest Premier League scorer in their 4-3 defeat to Aston Villa (18y 305d), behind Michael Bridges (18y 117d) and Connor Wickham (18y 212d). Only Jordan Henderson (23), Julio Arca (15) and Sean Thornton (11) have more starts as a teenager than Rigg (10).
Morgan Gibbs-White has six goals in his last six Premier League appearances, as many as he scored in his previous 28 games combined. He’s averaging a goal every 101 minutes under Vítor Pereira, the best ratio by any Nottingham Forest player with 2+ goals under a manager in the Premier League.
