Brentford vs Sunderland

This early-season Premier League clash pits two teams on very different trajectories. Brentford sit second after a statement opening weekend, while Sunderland are down in 14th following a narrow defeat — an early chance for one side to build momentum and the other to arrest a slide. The Bees were ruthless in a 3-0 demolition of Tottenham, with Keane Lewis-Potter, Vitaly Janelt and Michael Kayode all finding the net. Club-record signing Mamadou Sangare ran the midfield, while Igor Thiago, last season's second-top Premier League scorer, will want to make amends after missing a penalty. Sunderland, for their part, fell 2-1 at newly-promoted Ipswich Town despite Angulo's brilliant free-kick, undone by a stoppage-time winner from Jack Clarke. The two clubs split last season's meetings — Sunderland winning 2-1 away in August, Brentford responding with a 3-0 home rout in January — despite Sunderland's 10-7 edge in the wider head-to-head. Our prediction: 2-1