Sunderland Secures First Win of the Season Against Fulham
Álvaro Arbeloa stood still at full time, staring into the middle distance, replaying it all in his head. On the opposite touchline, Régis Le Bris simply exhaled. Relief, more than joy, washed over the Sunderland manager after a game shaped less by ambition than by the fear of losing – until two of his substitutes finally broke it open.
Habib Diarra and Wilson Isidor stepped off the bench and changed everything. One provided the pass, the other the finish, and with that single, sharp movement Sunderland claimed their first win of the season and left Arbeloa’s Fulham without a point. The goal also snapped a 17-year run without a Premier League victory over Fulham, a statistic that has hung over Wearside like a stubborn cloud.
For a long time, though, it looked like another afternoon of frustration.
Sadiki controls a nervous first half
The opening 45 minutes carried the air of a stalemate from the start. Both sides were wary, the tempo cautious, the passing safe. Sunderland saw plenty of the ball but rarely threatened to cut through, their attacks blunted before they could properly form. Bernd Leno might as well have brought a deckchair.
In the middle of it all, Noah Sadiki quietly took charge. The Sunderland midfielder produced the standout performance of the half, patrolling central areas with authority and timing. Every time Fulham tried to spark a counter, the Democratic Republic of the Congo international seemed to appear in the right lane, the right pocket, the right moment, snuffing out danger.
Fulham created just one real opening before the interval. Alex Iwobi carved out a clever, tightly angled chance for Josh King, only for King to misjudge it completely, his effort skewed by the geometry of the situation as much as by his technique. Robin Roefs, in the Sunderland goal, barely had to dirty his gloves.
Still, the home side’s dominance of possession brought little cutting edge. Sunderland moved the ball, probed, recycled, and then repeated the pattern. The crowd grew restless, and the pattern grew predictable. Le Bris’s need for a specialist right‑winger and another striker – a demand already lodged with owner Kyril-Louis Dreyfus – was being underlined in real time.
Mukiele’s tackle keeps Sunderland alive
If the first half belonged to Sadiki’s control, the second half began with a reminder of Nordi Mukiele’s value. Restored to central defence after injury, the former Paris Saint-Germain defender produced the game’s first truly decisive act.
Sander Berge threaded a superb through ball that sliced Sunderland open and sent Gonzalo García clear. García, who had scored in each of his first two competitive games since joining from Real Madrid, looked set to continue his streak. Then Mukiele arrived, launching into a perfectly timed sliding challenge that erased what seemed a near-certain goal.
That intervention mattered. Fulham, with García probing and Berge starting to dictate from deeper areas, were beginning to find pockets in Sunderland’s shape. Arbeloa’s side were not exactly rampant, but they were growing into the contest, asking more questions of a defence that had been largely untroubled.
Le Bris read the shift and refused to wait. The Sunderland manager rolled his dice with a double substitution, withdrawing the ineffective Nilson Angulo and Brian Brobbey and sending on Diarra and Isidor.
The impact was almost immediate.
Isidor’s miss, then redemption
Enzo Le Fée, who had flitted in and out of the game, suddenly produced a moment of real quality. He swept a glorious first-time ball across the face of goal, the kind of delivery that begs to be finished. Isidor arrived right on cue. It looked easier to score than to miss.
He hit the post.
The ball cannoned off the base of Leno’s upright and away, and Le Bris sank to his knees in disbelief. Isidor’s face told its own story: horror, embarrassment, the weight of a squandered chance pressing down on his shoulders.
But the game was no longer static. Sunderland had found a new gear, and Fulham’s high defensive line was starting to creak.
Diarra, bristling with energy, drove at space and pushed Fulham back. Moments after the miss, he whipped another superb ball across the box. Isidor attacked it, this time with no hesitation, no doubt. His shot ripped through the air, high and true, and flew past Leno.
From mortified to redeemed in a matter of minutes. One clean, ruthless strike, and Sunderland finally had the lead their pressure now deserved.
Substitutes seal it, even from the sidelines
Diarra and Isidor had transformed the match. Their movement, aggression and willingness to run behind exposed Fulham’s high line in a way Sunderland had failed to do for an hour. The stadium, tense and subdued for so long, suddenly crackled.
Diarra’s influence, though, was cut short. An injury forced him off, replaced by Chris Rigg before he could build on his cameo. It hardly mattered by then. The damage to Fulham was done, the pattern of the game irrevocably altered.
Arbeloa’s team pushed, but never convincingly. García, so sharp in his early outings, found Sunderland’s rearguard increasingly impenetrable. Mukiele and Sadiki continued to close doors, and Roefs remained largely untested as the minutes drained away.
When the whistle finally blew, Le Bris had his first league win of the season and a long, unwanted streak against Fulham had been buried. Sunderland’s manager will still want that right‑winger and that striker before the window closes. On this evidence, though, he may also feel he has two game-changers already in his ranks – and a platform to build something more dangerous than mere relief.
