Tyne-Wear Derby: Newcastle to host Sunderland | OneFootball

Fans will get to enjoy the second installment of this season’s Tyne-Wear derby this Sunday, as Newcastle United play host to Sunderland at St James’ Park. Both sides will be keen to go into the international break on a good note and steady themselves ahead of the run-in.

The pressure is on for Eddie Howe’s side to bounce back from their bruising Champions League defeat at the hands of Barcelona. Sunderland will be hoping to inflict more damage on their local rivals and claim a ninth league derby double.

“We have got to play like our lives depend on it”

Howe did not mince his words after his team were dumped out of the Champions League in midweek, 8-3 on aggregate. While his side kept themselves in the tie until the final 45 minutes of the second leg, Howe recognised how costly individual errors were in the defeat:

“I know we lost 7-2, but for the first half we were more than a match for Barcelona, it was a very even game,” he said.

“Our bravery in and out of possession was excellent, but we need to learn from the second half. The individual errors we made can’t happen again.”

Time to Look Local

Now the focus has to turn to their domestic campaign, as the possibility of European football is still on the table for next season. Important league wins over Chelsea and Manchester United in March have just kept Newcastle in the race for top five and going into the derby they sit seven points behind Liverpool in fifth. 

With the final seven league games coming after the international break, every point will be crucial if Newcastle hope to have any chance of featuring in Europe next season. That span includes tricky matches against: Arsenal, Brighton and two relegation-threatened sides in West Ham and Nottingham Forest.

In addition to European qualification, revenge will also be on everyone’s minds in Newcastle after the narrow but damaging 1-0 loss in the reverse fixture. It was Nick Woltemade’s own goal that gave Sunderland the edge back in December at the Stadium of Light, and the German is not the only one who will be using the defeat as motivation to get a better result this time around. 

“The players will be in no doubt of the size of the game, and I think reinforced by what happened earlier in the season,” Howe said when asked about the importance of Sunday’s clash. “For any new player that wasn’t fully aware of how big the game is, they will now certainly be aware.”

Sunderland need to find their edge again

It would be fair to say that December’s derby, while lively as expected, was not necessarily a game of the best quality. The 11 shots in that game (five Sunderland, six Newcastle) were the lowest of any Premier League match since the start of the 2023-24 season.

Since then Sunderland have struggled for goals. In the 15 games they’ve played across all competitions in 2026, they’ve scored 13 times, been shut out 6 times and netting more than once twice. This has been a drop-off of the blistering form that they displayed at the start of the season, where they scored 19 goals in their opening 15 games. 

That struggle has hit them in the table. Back in December, Sunderland sat four places above their rivals in ninth place, but have since dropped down to 13th. More troubling, they have only won one game of their last five across all competitions. Regis Le Bris’ side will have to find their aggression in front of goal once again if they hope to make Howe the first Newcastle manager to lose both of his first two league games against Sunderland.

Following the international break they will come up against Aston Villa and Manchester United before facing Chelsea on the final day of the season. Le Bris is giving the remaining matches of the season serious consideration as he manages his squad’s long injury list.

Black Cats are beat up

While defender Reinildo will return to the squad for this fixture, Jocelin Ta Bi, Nilson Angulo, Bertrand Traoré and Romaine Mundle remain out of action. 

Dan Ballard, Enzo Le Fée, Nordi Mukiele and Robin Roefs will all be subject to late decisions ahead of the game due to their injury concerns, with the manager acknowledging: “They are working hard behind the scenes to get ready for this fixture, it’s really important for us.

“But it might be a pure medical decision. We won’t take unnecessary risks because we still have seven games after this one and the international break to manage the last part of their rehab if necessary.”

The clash is expected to be as fiery as ever, with Newcastle City Council and Northumbria Police issuing statements earlier in the week anticipating the “widespread excitement” in the North East. Every point matters for these two teams but neither side, nor their fans, will want to settle for anything less than a win.