Retour
This was a result that had been coming for AFC Bournemouth. Whilst the Cherries had gone six league games without a victory. The performances had merited much more. A narrow defeat to Manchester City, having earlier led preceded two draws with Everton and Newcastle United. If games of football were 80 minutes instead of 90, the Cherries would have been three wins from three.
Another draw with Brentford followed, again, having led earlier in the game. Before back-to-back defeats to Liverpool and Chelsea.
In Europe, the Cherries had shown their potential with victories over Real Sociedad and Sturm Graz, but now it was time to prove it domestically.
AFC Bournemouth dominated Sunderland from the first whistle, whilst the constant pressure from the high press forced Sunderland in to mistake after mistake.
The 2-0 scoreline didn’t reflect the dominant performance.
"Today it's up to us"
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 18, 2026
Marco Rose is hoping for Bournemouth's first league win of the season 🍒 pic.twitter.com/VoNR9VfCOd
After the match, AFC Bournemouth head coach Marco Rose told Sky Sports…
“If I’m honest, I feel relief, but not just me. That’s what I feel, everyone here in the club, because everyone feels that the work we do is good, that the way we stick together is good.
“Everyone, everything is in the right place, but if you don’t get the results, then you have to answer questions. That’s the point.
“Today we have our first win, but we need more and want more. That’s very important, because we are still in a tough situation.”
The Marco Rose era is finally up and running at #AFCB after they picked up their first Premier League win of the season 🍒
— BBC Radio Solent Sport (@solentsport) October 18, 2026
Evanilson scored one and set up the other in a starring role against Sunderland
Rose spoke to @jordanclarkcouk 🔊⬇️https://t.co/tjyFrX3rON pic.twitter.com/Ex5GpZgKHe
BillyTheKid
Job done today in the first 17 minutes with an early goal and a Sunderland dismissal.
After 6 minutes, Evanilson looked like he was going to shoot as he was heading towards the Sunderland goal, but did a good cross to his left where Tavernier was and he headed the ball into the net for our first goal.
Then, a few minutes later, to add to Sunderland’s problems, their player brought Evanilson down on the edge of the box; he was immediately shown a red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity.
From then on, the Cherries dominated the game and should have had a number of goals, but it wasn’t until 3 minutes after half-time that we added to our tally, when Evanilson, one-on-one with their keeper, rounded him and scored a well-deserved goal, his third in three games, two in the Premier League.
The stats showed AFCB with 29 shots, 6 on target. Sunderland: 3 shots, 0 on target.
The result lifted our club out of a relegation spot up into 16th place.
The majority of the 12,004 crowd went home with a smile on their faces.
Vlad_The_Impaler
We perhaps could’ve gone for more goals, but it was a very controlled performance, and we saw it through with ease. Hopefully this is the catalyst for Rose; now he’s got the first win in the PL.
Evanilson was magnificent; he works his socks off.
James Hill says it's a relief to finally get up and running in the Premier League 🍒#AFCB have come close in recent weeks, but finally opened this season's account with a 2-0 victory over Sunderland
— BBC Radio Solent Sport (@solentsport) October 18, 2026
Hill spoke to @jordanclarkcouk 🔊⬇️https://t.co/fJ0QiiX9IY pic.twitter.com/M7sAwep9jd
Adam Smith is now 5th on the all-time top appearance makers list for #afcb 👏
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) October 18, 2026
And Hilly couldn't have put it better ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/HWQrsJVXqV
Blandford Cherry
Brilliant performance, in particular the first half. We literally ran the show.
Tav, Eva, Cook, in particular, I thought, were brilliant.
The only downside is that the scoreline should have been a fair few more.
Not sure you can credit the win to a poor Sunderland side; we were straight out of the blocks, and the first 30-40 mins were brilliant football. Could quite easily have been 3/4/5 goals.
Ted’s Shed
Flew out of the blocks and a very comfortable win. Sunderland were poor, but you can only beat what is in front of you.
Eva was fantastic. Is this the best we have seen from him?
I also thought Cook and Christie had good games.
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