Sunderland the one Premier League anomaly as supercomputer predicts 2025-26 season
Sunderland’s 2025/26 Premier League campaign is now right around the corner after a summer packed with transfers.
The Mackems are recruiting Marc Guiu as their latest addition up front, in a major summer of change for Regis Le Bris’ side.
The Black Cats’ forward line and midfield look close to being Premier League-ready, but their backline still needs some work, having lost Chris Mepham at the end of last season.
Despite such a positive summer, the latest 2025/26 prediction makes things look bleak for Sunderland going into next season.
Sunderland predicted to finish last by supercomputer
Sunderland are hoping to make their first stay in the top flight in eight years a long one.
After signing a new contract on Wearside, Le Bris and Sunderland are clearly committed to supporting each other long term.
After only happening once in Premier League history beforehand, and not since 1997-98, the last two seasons have both seen all three promoted teams go straight back down.
Now, Opta Analyst’s supercomputer has predicted a repeat of last season, with Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland all relegated to the Championship.
The Mackems were also an anomaly among the 10,000 simulations conducted, as they were the only side not to finish top on a single occasion.
| League position | Points |
| 18th: Burnley | 36.9 |
| 19th: Leeds | 36.3 |
| 20th: Sunderland | 31.5 |
The model considers the strength of opponents by using match outcome probabilities and simulates the remaining fixtures in the competition thousands of times.
By analysing the outcome of each of these simulations, the model can see how often teams finished in each league position to create our final predictions.
Given the Mackems’ promotion via the play-offs, the computer has backed their fellow promoted sides to have more of a chance of success, with Le Bris’ side relegated in 66.4 per cent of simulations.
Sunderland still need improvements this summer
The Mackems are still in need of more defenders and attackers this summer.
Given Luke O’Nien’s injury woes, Le Bris can’t rely on him at the back and therefore must ensure that more reinforcements are brought in.
Equally, all the pressure can’t be placed on Guiu and Wilson Isidor to supply all the goals in attack next campaign, and the supercomputer only reaffirms that.
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